On 20 April, the 15th meeting of the EUSAIR Thematic Steering Group for Sustainable Tourism was held online to discuss various topics surrounding the recovery of the tourism sector in the Adriatic-Ionian region after COVID-19. The meeting was organised by the Ministries of Tourism of Croatia and Albania as the coordinators of the Thematic Steering Group.

After the operational part, the discussion panel was opened by Mr Georgios DRAKOPOULOS, DG REGIO external expert in Tourism, with a declaration for good macro-regional cooperation in rebooting the tourism economy, followed among others by an intervention of Ms Caroline BREMNER, Head of Travel Research at Euromonitor International, who gave new insight into the effects of COVID-19 on European tourism. Mr Stefano DOMINIONI, Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) and Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes provided information on the outcomes of the Routes4U Project, a joint programme between the Council of Europe and the European Union, focussing on the development of Cultural Routes in four European macro-regions and their contribution to sustainable regional development.

The EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) is one of the four EU macro-regional strategies, besides the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (2009), the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (2011) and the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (2016). EUSAIR has determined sustainable tourism as one of its central pillars, as the tourism sector plays a central role in the Adriatic and Ionian Region. In the framework of the Joint Programme Routes4U of the Council of Europe and DG Regio, several activities focusing on Cultural Routes in the Adriatic and Ionian Region were created.