The common challenges addressed by the project are: (i) overcoming differences and uniting Mediterranean SMEs accommodation around the common objective of reshaping tourism in more sustainable ways; (ii) stimulating and supporting them in the implementation of sustainable management systems, through the development of easily applicable solutions. The overall objective is to facilitate and support Mediterranean SMEs accommodation in implementing a sustainable management system, which is currently a critical factor for the success and competitiveness in the long term. The expected change is to facilitate the transition towards sustainable tourism by such SMEs, enabling them to implement a sustainable management system and to pave the way for achieving the ISO 21401:2018 certification. To this end, the project foresees the development of two outputs: sustainability protocol and the self-assessment tool. The latter will enable these SMEs to check their current degree of sustainability; based on the results obtained, the protocol will indicate the activities needed to comply with the standard. The approach will be to conduct a study based on ISO 21401:2018 and the identification of the barriers and needs of SMEs accomodation in terms of sustainable management. Given the different socio-economic realities and stages of tourism development in the five partner countries, transnational cooperation is a crucial factor in ensuring the high-quality achievement of the objectives as well as the dissemination of the results. The project represents a novelty compared to current practices in the accommodation sector; it proposes a study aimed at defining solutions that balance the specificities of all dimensions of sustainability. To date, most tourism professionals and scholars have proposed the sustainability of accommodation facilities based almost exclusively on the environmental dimension, causing a delay in the full development of a sustainable organisational culture.

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