A widespread task force for smart tourism: the European SOHO project kicks off
The kick-off meeting of the European SOHO project has just concluded at the Department of Energy. It was attended by lecturers and researchers from the universities participating in the project from as far afield as South East Asia (Vietnam, Bangladesh and Malaysia) as well as from neighbouring France and Romania.
The SOHO project (Smart, Optimised, High-quality, and On-demand Tourism Innovative Education for Sustainable and Green Development) aims to strengthen knowledge and competence centres for the development of smart tourism in third countries not associated with the EU-Programme.
Sustainable tourism is a topic of growing importance. While tourism offers many benefits, such as the creation of new jobs, the CO2 emissions associated with it are a concern in the face of climate change.
Smart tourism is an approach to tourism that uses smart technologies, renewable energy sources and digital technologies to create sustainable, efficient and personalised experiences for tourists by optimising various aspects of the tourism industry, such as transport, accommodation and visitor management.
In this context, SOHO will develop a series of actions to support the development of sustainable, technologically advanced and inclusive tourism destinations that can stimulate economic growth, create jobs and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
The SOHO project consortium consists of 9 higher education institutions from Europe and South-East Asia: National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest (Romania), Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 (France), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia), University of Technology and Education – The University of Danang (Vietnam), University of Danang (Vietnam), American International University-Bangladesh (Bangladesh) and Jahangirnagar University (Bangladesh).
SOHO is funded with EUR 94,223 under Financial Agreement no. 101129336
Call: ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE-STRAND-2.
Our university is participating under the coordination of Professors Sonia Leva and Emanuele Ogliari of the Energy Department of the Politecnico di Milano, together with a group of young researchers.
