Networks in numbers

From 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2025, 252 individual partners from 28 European countries have embarked on 30 Action Planning Networks (APN), under the URBACT IV programme. Within their URBACT journey, they aim to build their knowledge and skills to co-design and develop long-term Integrated Action Plans (IAP) to tackle their local challenges. These plans will define the actions to be implemented, covering timings, responsibilities, costings, funding sources, monitoring indicators and risk assessments. 

Each network is composed of a Lead Partner and another 8-10 project partners. Among the 252 partners, half are newcomers to the programme while the other half already has experience with URBACT III (2014-2020).  

Networks approved by the URBACT IV Monitoring Committee. Source: URBACT 

All the approved URBACT Action Planning Networks (2023-2025) are aligned with the EU Cohesion Policy and will contribute to its five specific Policy Objectives (POs): PO1 A more competitive and smarter Europe; PO2 A greener Europe; PO3 A more connected Europe; PO4 A more social and inclusive Europe; and PO5 A Europe closer to citizens. 

Beyond their geographic diversity, the 30 networks also stand out for their wide variety of topics. The URBACT method, which all networks follow, ensures that an integrated approach is applied; stated simply, regardless of the topic, the social, economic, environmental and territorial aspects are considered.  

To help you navigate the list, we have clustered them here by their main thematic areas: Participative governance; Urban planning; Local development; Climate action; and Social cohesion. 

Participative governance 

Networks under the participative governance thematic focus on a wide variety of topics, including citizen engagement, health, localising the Sustainable Development Goals and much more. 

Led by Genk (BE), Agents of Co-Existence fosters innovative approaches to societal challenges and strives for inclusive local policies with active community involvement by strengthening the skills and competences of civil servants and creating new organisational structures and cultures. 

Developing locally-adapted governance processes is the main objective of Cities for Sustainability Governance, with Espoo (FI) as the Lead Partner, but specifically by using UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a strategic vehicle. 

From the heart of Paris (FR), the European cities involved in CITIES@HEART work towards a balanced and inclusive city centre for all users, reversing the loss of attractiveness for cities of different sizes and backgrounds. 

The One Health 4 Cities network, guided by Lyon (FR), aims to promote the integration of the One Health approach into urban strategies and projects, developing tools that empower decision-makers and operational teams to increase the positive impact of urban projects on the well-being and health of people, animals and the environment. 

Urban planning 

Urban planning networks address a range of hot topics such as mobility, accessibility, sustainability, public spaces, spatial linkages and territorial cohesion.  

PUMA (Planning Urban Mobility Actions) helps cities such as Liepaja (LV), its Lead Partner, develop integrated mobility action plans in order to achieve climate-neutral and sustainable mobility in small and medium-sized cities. It is people-centric, prioritising the needs and well-being of individuals. 

The S.M.ALL network is all about “Sharing urban solutions towards accessible, sustainable mobility for all.” Led by Ferrara (IT), they navigate the complexity of two URBACT mobility paradigms: inclusivity and sustainability. 

Romagna Faentina (IT) is at the forefront of ECONNECTING - Greener & closer communities, a network that focuses on sustainable urban-rural mobility solutions within the 30-minute territory, designing and implementing proximity strategies for rural-urban functional areas. 

SCHOOLHOODS puts children’s health and safety on the menu of a safe, green and happy way to school. Led by Rethymno (EL), the cities belonging to this URBACT network work hand-in-hand with pupils, parents and teachers to co-create solutions allowing pupils to actively go to school on their own.  

From Balbriggan (IE) to the borders of Europe, the main goal of the EcoCore network is to accelerate the green transition especially in the work environments of the industrial areas of the partner cities, which are transitioning to low-carbon energy sources for transportation, heating and electricity. 

In a mission to connect urban-rural communities, Creacció Agència d'Emprenedoria of Vic (ES) is currently leading the Beyond the Urban network, which promotes urban-rural mobility through the testing and implementation of sustainable, accessible and integrated mobility solutions, with a focus on intermodality, multi-level governance, inclusion, gender equality, and digital tools. 

Local development 

Local economy, territorial marketing and digital transformation are a few of the topics covered by the local development networks. 

C4TALENT, whose Lead Partner is Nyíregyháza City with County Rights (HU), pursues the objective of building business & startup friendly environments in cities to lessen the effects of brain drain, attracting and retaining talented young professionals. 

After the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transformation around how work is organised, Dubrovnik Development Agency (HR) initiated Remote-IT, a network that tackles the new challenges cities are experiencing connected to the future of work by facilitating the remote and hybrid work for thriving cities. 

Another Croatian city is leading a local development action planning network. Sibenik (HR) is at the head of Residents of the future, which addresses the issue of urban depopulation within small and medium-sized cities.  

With Fundão (PT) as a Lead Partner, METACITY’s main goal is to increase competitiveness of small and medium tech-aware cities, benefiting from the opportunity to enhance service efficiency and citizen satisfaction provided by the metaverse.  

NextGen YouthWork, headed by Eindhoven (NL), is also contributing to the digital transformation, by going one step further and improving online youth work through innovative digital solutions at the city level.  

Boosting no-tech and digital local communities, facing specific challenges in terms of diversity, gender equality and inclusion, is the objective of TechDiversity, a network composed of small and medium-sized European cities and guided by Trikala (EL). 

Led by Mollet del Vallès (ES), DIGI-INCLUSION also promotes inclusion through digital tools, tackling social exclusion and boosting digital inclusion not only by granting access to technology but by enabling people to develop the necessary skills and to become sufficiently empowered to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital world. 

Life in cities continues even after dark. This is the main statement of the network Cities After Dark. Led by Braga (PT), this network promotes the 'Night Economy', through activities that are essential for a city to function 24 hours a day and play a significant role in the global economy.  

Climate action 

Climate action networks tackle several concerns; green transition, circular economy, green funding and reconversion of spaces, among other subjects. 

The COPE (Coherent Place-based Climate Action) network, driven by Copenhagen (DK), unlocks the green potentials of citizen action through a place-based approach, recognising citizens and local action groups as fundamental stakeholders working to accelerate the green transition. 

Led by Munich (DE), LET'S GO CIRCULAR! cities focus on the circular transition of cities. This network addresses all issues relevant to a holistic strategy of circular city ecosystems, fostering innovative solutions. 

The BiodiverCity partners, with the support of Dunaújváros (HU) as Lead Partner, support and enable communities to plan powerful, nature-based solutions, foster pro-environmental citizen behaviours and draft Urban Greening Plans, contributing to the achievement of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. 

In4Green is a collaborative network of industrial cities, headed by Avilés (ES), with a shared commitment: to implement the green transition in industrial areas/cities while remaining competitive and inclusive. 

Restoring “forgotten” urban areas into valuable places for and with residents is the mission of GreenPlace. This Wroclaw-led (PL) network aims to restore urban spaces and make them friendly to both the residents and the environment, by optimising the use of existing resources in the context of ecological crisis, the financial and geopolitical situation. 

Social cohesion 

A variety of topics are addressed by the social cohesion thematic networks, from urban regeneration and place-making to gender, equality, diversity and inclusion. 

Under the leadership of Clermont Auvergne Métropole (FR), the objective of FEMACT-Cities is to support the drafting of eight “Local Action Plans on Gender Equality” about the main challenges regarding women's liberty and empowerment, through protection, education, emancipation and economic autonomy. 

GenProcure also addresses gender equality, focusing on Gender-Responsive Public Procurement, and it is headed by Vila Nova de Famalicão (PT). This network promotes gender equality through working purchases, supplies and services in the public sector.  

Re-Gen is a European network of cities led by Verona (IT) that aims to support sustainable urban development and social inclusion thanks to the protagonism of secondary school students, aged between 10 and 18, from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The Cinisello Balsamo-led (IT) U.R. Impact prioritises social impact in urban regeneration, ensuring social inclusion and community development during urban renewal. They place citizens and their social, economic and environmental well-being at the centre of the processes. 

The main goal of Breaking Isolation, a network driven by Agen (FR) that fights against isolation by creating social bonds and links between young and elderly and promoting social diversity. 

In order to build more inclusive and resilient societies, WELDI empowers local authorities for a dignified integration of newly arrived migrants. In achieving this objective, cities of this network, led by Utrecht (NL), collaborate with migrants and other residents, as well as with local, national and international partners. 

ARCHETHICS network brings together European cities that share the presence of heritage linked to a complex and controversial historical past (totalitarian regimes, contentious borders, etc), such as its Lead Partner Cesena (IT). Their goal is to transform the heritage into places for locals and visitors to share knowledge and come to multi-perspective understandings of the past and new visions for the future. 

Follow the network journey

This is just a snapshot of the URBACT Action Planning Networks, but stay tuned for more insights from the Lead Experts and partner cities, themselves! You can also follow the journey of these networks on their project pages and social media, benefit from the lessons learned and try them in your own city. 

While it is now generally accepted that municipalities cannot design relevant and legitimate policy actions without a local partnership, many details of the modalities of stakeholder involvement are still unclear for public servants: how can they identify the right stakeholders needed for specific actions? How can they understand the motivations and capacities of these local partners? And how can they involve local actors in action planning and policy processes in the long term?

In URBACT networks, beneficiary cities are expected to create local multi-stakeholder groups, with people who are concerned and interested by the network’s topic and area of intervention. These URBACT Local Groups are constituted to accommodate a variety of voices in the planning process.

Leveraging on the URBACT tools

Given the paramount need to get all relevant actors around the table, the URBACT University that took place in Malmö (SE) from 28 to 30 August 2023, was conceived to explore the key dilemmas of the action-planning process. Designed for partners of the 30 recently approved Action Planning Networks through a series of workshops, the event offered tools and a learning trajectory allowing for more streamlined and inclusive work with local partners. Between identifying problems, establishing a vision, setting objectives and defining actions, one of the central elements of this learning trajectory was stakeholder mapping, which was the focus of the event’s second day.

As part of its Toolbox, URBACT offers a set of tools for stakeholder mapping and engagement. The Stakeholders Ecosystem Map is an intuitive tool that allows project coordinators on the ground to visualise the most important actors whose support and involvement is needed for specific actions. In order to have a better overview of these actors, they are often clustered, according to their profile, in public, private, civic or knowledge sectors.

Another tool offered by the URBACT Toolbox is the Stakeholders Power/Interest Matrix, conceived to help understand the importance of different actors for a specific action from another angle. The Matrix consists of a coordinate system based on the perceived power and influence of certain stakeholders on the given process, on one hand, and on the interests of specific stakeholders to be involved in the process, on the other hand. 

Both tools can be used in a workshop setting, where participants are invited to identify the most important stakeholders and place them on the Stakeholder Map canvas and then, following a logic process, rate the influence and interest of such stakeholder in the Matrix.

Who should sit around the table?

While it is important to remember that any individuals or groups who might have an interest in or an impact on a specific process can qualify as stakeholders, it’s also important that we recognise the most important ones among them. The Stakeholders Ecosystem Map tool allows for such classification by placing stakeholders closer to or farther from the stakeholder map’s centre, we can also indicate their centrality to the process, while also clustering specific actors.

The positions of actors in such a coordinate system have important consequences for stakeholder involvement strategies to start with, as well as for the organisation of stakeholder meetings. “We might need to conceive different forms of meetings for different partners”, suggests Liat Rogel, Lead Expert of the U.R.Impact, an URBACT network focusing on measuring the social impact of urban regeneration processes. “While core partners need to be informed about everything, this might overwhelm other partners”, adds Ileana Toscano, Lead Expert of the AR.C.H.E.THICS, a network addressing dissonant heritage. “They can, instead, participate in specific thematic working groups”, as Toscano goes on.

Due to its simplicity, the Stakeholders Ecosystem Map can be adopted for different purposes and be developed further to support the specific objectives of the network. For instance, from past experience, partners of the URBACT Transfer Network ACTive NGOs were inspired by the mapping methodology of the Madrid-based Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas (ES) and added a spatial element to their stakeholder maps. Dubrovnik’s stakeholder map (HR), for example, allowed public servants to have an overview of where civic initiatives operate in the city, the location of public assets, suggesting ways to develop synergies and collaborations between them.

In the context of an URBACT network, it is useful to compare the local stakeholder groups from a city to another. José Fermin Costero Bolaños, Lead Expert of  In4Green, a network undertaking the green transition of industrial areas, says “this process of comparing helped us to identify gaps in the local stakeholder groups, leading to suggestions of what other actors could be involved in each city”.

Such an external viewpoint and comparison is always helpful for municipal officers who do not necessarily have a complete overview of organisations and initiatives in their city. Other methods to extend local stakeholder groups can include tools like the “snowball” method, involving local actors themselves in identifying other key actors who might be invisible from the municipality’s point of view.

Who are your allies?

The Stakeholder Power/Interest Matrix tool helps municipal coordinators in better designing their communication, outreach and cooperation towards specific stakeholder groups. For example, actors with high influence but low interest need to be steered towards a more interested position – this group often consists of politicians or public agencies at various administrative levels. In turn, actors with high interest but low influence need to be empowered to gain weight in the process – this group often includes NGOs or formal and informal citizen groups.

Having a vision about how to proactively improve the attitudes of stakeholders towards a municipal innovation process contributes to a better planning of actions. In their Power/Interest Matrix for the URBACT Innovation Transfer pilot CO4Cities, public officers of the Gdańsk Municipality (PL) did not only indicate the current position of stakeholders according to their influence and stake, but also defined the desired future positions of these actors.

Besides their relationships with the action-planning process, stakeholders also need to be considered in their relationships with each other. Citizen groups might have an influence over politicians through their voting power, for example, while knowledge institutions can run campaigns to inform citizens about environmental challenges. “We need to anticipate the impact the planned actions can have on each of them,” suggests Raffaella Lioce, Lead Expert of the network Re-Gen, exploring ways to co-manage with youth groups abandoned or underused spaces for sports activities. “If specific actions distort the connections or power relations between different actors, it might also disrupt the whole ecosystem”.  

Therefore, besides mapping stakeholders and classifying them according to their influence on the process envisioned by a partnership, it is also important to consider them as parts of a system of interconnections or an ecosystem. Such ecosystem-based thinking can help local partnerships understand better the interactions between actors and their role in local value chains, identifying resources that can be shared and exchanged. The recognition of such value flows between different actors enables local ecosystems to work towards a more circular logic of cooperation..

Undoubtedly, mapping stakeholders is just the first in a series of steps to engage them in the action planning process. There are many traps and obstacles in this process that might discourage partners from further involvement. Therefore, it is important to remain clear about the planned results and achievements, the possibilities and limitations of the municipality as well as the different responsibilities distributed among partners.

Co-creating actions

More than a single step in a process, stakeholder engagement is at the core of the entire action-planning cycle. While identifying and engaging stakeholders is the basis of setting up common objectives and planning joint actions, local partners can also have a key role in resourcing, implementing and measuring results. They need to be on board from an early stage, as understanding the roots of a local problem and co-designing visions. In order to assure the active involvement of all parts, it's essential to regularly re-assess the state of the URBACT Local Group, examining, and if needed, rethinking the stakeholder engagement strategies in place. 

As the URBACT study on Integrated Action Plans reminds us, "URBACT Local Groups are at the core of the development of a good Integrated Action Plan", an important local output from the Action Planning Network's partners, so actions can be experimented and co-created. This was particularly the goal of the last day of the URBACT University. 

Airbnb and other Short-Term Rental (STR) platforms are the phoenixes of today’s economies: they beautifully thrive and when they are at the risk of disappearance, they are reborn and fly up again, says URBACT Thematic Expert Laura Colini. Here, she presents the outcomes of the EU Urban Agenda for Culture and Cultural Heritage work on better regulation of short-term rental platforms and sustainable tourism, which includes a study conducted with URBACT cities.

In recent years, we have seen Short-Term Rental (STR) appear on the market as a social innovation for sharing domestic spaces, turning houses, public spaces, entertainment, culture and heritage into a successful tourism machine all over the world. This produces profits for different types of stakeholders, from individuals to large enterprises, thus creating troubling issues for cities. First and foremost, STR platforms such as Airbnb thrive on a shallow mechanism that allows unlicensed properties to be listed; it encourages landlords to change long-term into short-term rentals, reducing the amount of affordable housing stock for locals; it reinforces mass- and hyper- touristisation, gentrification and Disneyfication of historical cities in Europe, and ultimately monopolising the tourism economy, overshadowing traditional and alternative ethical forms of tourism such as Fairbnb and others.

Inhabitants, social movements, and city administrations have voiced these detrimental  effects, creating measures to control the STR in their cities (for example banning illegal STR leasing in Berlin by law, capping the amount of days for STR in Amsterdam, and other cities, in France and elsewhere) while demanding better regulation of Short-Term Rental at EU level (for example the Eurocities initiative).

The COVID emergency knocked Europe’s tourist economy hard and just when Airbnb seemed to lose ground, it reinvented itself, turning investment towards digital nomads, diversifying its offers towards leisure and assuming an ethical approach for humanitarian causes. Nevertheless, as we look beyond COVID-19, tourism has come back with new soaring prices catching up for hotels and flights, with $1.5 billion realised by Airbnb in the first quarter of 2022, equal to an increase of 70% compared to the previous year, and with the same detrimental issues for cities as we knew before 2020.

URBACT cities supporting sustainable tourism

The EU recognises the crucial role of tourism in the European economies, and a range of different actions, funding and initiatives are geared towards fostering sustainable tourism. In particular, following the pressures for better regulations at EU level from cities, the EU Urban Agenda took an opportunity to dedicate an action led by URBACT to this aspect. In collaboration with cities from the URBACT networks Tourism-Friendly Cities and KAIRÓS, and in exchange with the European Commission’s Directorate-Generals for Regional and Urban Policy and Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, the action for Sustainable Tourism and better regulation of Short-Term Rental is now in the Action Plan of the EU Urban Agenda Partnership on Culture and Cultural Heritage (EU UA C&CH). The scope was to outline potential perspectives for sustainable management of tourism at city level in relation to STR, respecting the definition of sustainable tourism of the UNWTO.

The main outcomes of this EU UA C&CH are:

1. A Memorandum 2021, a legal input analysing the bottlenecks at EU level in regulation of STR by Yolanda Martinez; Marimon Avocados ES 'Regulatory enforcement difficulties in the short-term rental accommodation sector stemming from the European legal framework on digital services’
2. The 'Sustainable tourism – Regulating phenomena of sharing economy’ Study by Prof Ugo Rossi, GSSI IT, and Dr Laura Colini, URBACT with the collaboration of URBACT cities
3. Peer-learning and exchange among cities, the researchers, the coordinators of the EU UA C&CH and external input from prof Claire Colomb UCL UK
4. Collaboration with the EU UA C&CH, DG GROW, DG REGIO and URBACT for the EU COM STR initiative to strengthen links between the European Commission’s work and cities.

Sustainable tourism – regulating phenomena of sharing economy

The Study 'Sustainable tourism – regulating phenomena of sharing economy’ focuses on a range of towns and cities that differ in terms of population size, geographical location, and tourism offers across Europe: from top tourist destinations such as Berlin, Bordeaux, Dubrovnik and Krakow to popular small towns such as Druskininkai and Rovaniemi, to emerging destinations such as Braga, Caceres, Dun Laoghaire, Šibenik. These cities have been selected from members of the EU UA Culture and Cultural Heritage, as well as two URBACT Action Planning Networks (Tourism-Friendly Cities, which explores the potential for sustainable tourism in medium-sized cities, and KAIRÓS, which looks at cultural heritage as a driver for sustainable urban development and regeneration). 

As the sector saw largely unregulated growth during the second half of the 2010s and a popularisation of digital platforms in the holiday rental business, cities across the world – and especially Europe – witnessed an unprecedented acceleration in the influx of tourists and the rapid expansion of the digital platforms industry, exacerbating the housing crisis in Europe and elsewhere. This expansion poses a threat to urban societies, as fast-growing numbers of homes move from standard rentals for residents to short-term rentals for platform users. This tends to drive permanent residents and indigenous businesses out of urban districts and neighbourhoods that attract large numbers of short-term rental listings, due to a shrinking supply of affordable housing.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted cities, and particularly their service-oriented economies. Departing from the assumption that pandemics and similar threats offer opportunities for substantive change, this unprecedented slowdown posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the global economy may represent a unique opportunity to correct the distortions of the standard pattern of economic development, including the urban tourism industry.

In the Northern hemisphere, the summer of 2021 saw urban tourism getting back to pre-pandemic levels, especially in environmentally attractive destinations like coastal cities, while in other cities it is still well below those levels.

Community-led rental platforms?

The Sustainable Tourism study is based on exploratory research into how to pursue a stronger, socially supported regulation of short-term rentals, using the debate in 2021 about the need for recovery from the pandemic slump of 2020 as an opportunity to achieve more sustainable urban tourism. In particular, the study proposes combining a prescriptive approach to regulation with a proactive strategy that considers the role of risk management and community engagement in the pursuit of sustainable urban tourism. The study emphasises the role of municipalities and local communities, stressing the importance of the local context not only as a site for policy implementation, but also in a generative sense as a breeding ground for the development of deeper institutional capacity.

The study involved a qualitative survey based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with city officials of the selected cities on the regulation of short-term rentals from the perspective of sustainable urban tourism. It tested the interest and availabilities of these cities to experiment with locally managed, community-led rental platforms, following a multi-scalar approach with three main founding principles:

• Prevention is better than cure: in tourism policy, an anticipatory approach seeks to avoid the reproduction of a systemic risk of over-tourism.
• Community engagement is key to success: cultivating a sense of belonging to the local community means embracing an approach to tourism that places the needs of the local community at the centre of local policy strategies committed to economic diversification and urban sustainability.
• Local power matters: the local scale is crucial not only from the point of view of societal impact and policy implementation, but also in terms of institutional empowerment of local communities.

Departing from these principles, the policy approach put forth a '3Ps strategy’: Prepare, Preserve, Platformise. The goal of the study is to deal with the regulation of short-term rentals from a wider perspective, linking regulations to risk management and the experimentation with local alternatives to corporate-owned platforms. In particular, ‘Prepare’ means working side-by-side with local communities to prevent the risk of over-tourism; ‘Preserve’ means implementing regulations aimed at preserving urban areas and their communities particularly exposed to the risk of over-tourism; ‘Platformise’ means experimenting with community-led short-term rental platforms.

The study proposes to re-think urban tourism as a process of sustainable transition where new regulations call for a socio-ecological approach that incorporates the needs of local communities, as well as their institutional capacities and that relies on three main aspects.

First, the issue of risk awareness and preparation of communities: when not effectively regulated, tourism is no longer a resource for local communities, but becomes a threat that requires general awareness of the consequences of an unbridled tourist sector. Second, the socialisation of regulation is essential for making regulations implemented successfully to contextual constraints and demands. Third, municipal experimentation should be encouraged to further innovate on municipal-led platforms and peer learning as in the philosophy of URBACT.

In conclusion, short-term rental platforms can be re-thought to bring inhabitants, businesses, and tourists closer, re-considering platforms as a positive potential for a more sustainable tourism.

Visit the Cities engaging in the Right to Housing platform.

How can a city balance the inevitable conflicting needs of its residents and its tourists? Can tourism be a viable local economic sector, that acts as a leverage for sustainability, well-being and reduction of inequalities? Through what mechanisms can we really integrate the lesson learned from the recent pandemic? Finding collective answers to these questions, involving stakeholders from NGOs, businesses, academia and public institutions, was the core of our common work within the URBACT Tourism-friendly Cities (TFC) network during September 2019- August 2022.

The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) is the main output of cities participating in Action Planning Networks such as the Tourism-friendly Cities one, financed through the URBACT programme. IAPs define the local actions to be carried out in response to the sustainable urban development challenges addressed in the network. It is a way for cities to develop their local development strategy using the URBACT method, which is informed by principles of integration, participation and action learning. Here are 9 strategic directions the TFC cities have chosen for their IAPs on sustainable tourism:

#1: Genoa: addressing conflicting visions on growth and outlook of the tourism sector for local economy

Genoa underwent in the last decades a major transformation, strategically investing in the revitalization of its cultural heritage. Moving away from its recent history connected to steel industry and the maritime port, the city, and entrepreneurs alike, were experiencing a growth of the share that tourism has on the local economy. This growth was in return causing frictions with local residents and accelerating the process of gentrification of parts of the old city centre. Thus, Genoa’s IAP is focused on co-creating a shared vision of a balanced tourism strategy informed by both residents and the industry. To achieve this, for the next years the Genoa ULG determined an extensive set of actions and projects under three key areas of action:

(1) raising awareness among city stakeholders also on the negative effects of tourism. This would also entail encouraging residents to become ambassadors for their own city and guide visitors on how to experience the place as a local and keep disruption at a minimum. (2) improve city amenities, from housing, tourist accommodation, urban mobility to public space. Key is to always invest in assets that would not only solely benefit tourists, but also residents. On this, Genoa also builds on its good practise of the tourism city tax, where parts of the funds collected are earmarked for public works. (3) pushing the tourism industry to innovate. This would include development of new tourism packages, such as nature tourism, that would diversify to existing offers, as well as increase the use of digital tools and gamification ways for promoting sustainable behaviours from tourists.

#2: Braga: raising awareness at international level on the diversity of its tourism offer

Already named European Best Destination 2021 Braga wants to change its international perception which is still mostly connected to religious tourism. Being able to accommodate a much wider tourism offer, but also to sustain a balance between tourists and residents needs, Braga is actively working in avoiding the mistakes of the past of other cities which are now experiencing overtourism. For this, the process of developing the IAP using the URBACT method was a key step in establishing a multi-stakeholder working group and co-designing actions that can sustain the fragile balance of sustainable tourism.

Thus, most measures of Braga TFC IAP are connected to how to consolidate collaborative practices between city residents, tourists and tourism industry. An example of such action, was already tested through Braga’s small scale action on a training and immersive experience for local residents to experience the city as a tourist.

#3: Caceres: focusing on increasing length of stays of tourists

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected the entirety of Europe – but realities have differed both between countries and between cities. In this article, we explore the experiences of two smaller URBACT cities – Dubrovnik (HR) and Grosseto (IT) – which are heavily reliant on tourism.

While large cities tend to have greater economic variety to fall back on, smaller European cities that rely on tourism, such as Dubrovnik and Grosseto, have suffered serious economic impacts as that tourism has been cut off. These cities are impacted even in situations where they have escaped the worst of the health crisis itself.

However, URBACT has a long history of supporting small and medium-size cities, and despite their challenges, these two cities have also demonstrated how resiliency and innovation can emerge from the capacity-building support and knowledge exchange of URBACT networks. Both cities are now looking at how this challenging moment can be harnessed as a turning point to advance and diversify their economic strength and sustainable development.

Re-imagining tourism in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik, in southern Croatia, is an intensely popular city with tourists who come for its well-preserved medieval Old Town and beautiful Adriatic coastline. In the month of June 2019, there were 1.2 million overnight stays in the municipality, whilst the resident population is only just over 40 000. But as with any tourism-centric city, its success can also be its greatest challenge. Before the pandemic hit, Dubrovnik was struggling with overtourism and the pollution, crowds and waste it brings.

© Tonci Plazibat

But now, after pandemic-triggered global lockdowns and restricted travel, that tourism has completely disappeared, leaving the streets empty and the economy in freefall. According to the city, on 1 June 2020, tourism was 98% lower than the same time last year. With so much income and so many jobs reliant on tourism, the pandemic has hit the city hard, despite the fact that it has not suffered badly from the virus itself.

Dubrovnik, June 2020, © Grgo Jelavic

“Everyone hoped tourism would go back to normal in summer, but then the summer came and the numbers have stayed as low as about 20% of last year’s arrivals,” says Alisa Vlasic, the city’s URBACT Local Group (ULG) coordinator for the URBACT Tourism-Friendly Cities network. She explains that other parts of the country have seen tourism by road and rail bounce back more, but international tourists generally come to Dubrovnik by plane – and those planning to come have cancelled.

“Covid-19 has caused a great economic crisis within our whole country,” says Vlasic, “but so far, Dubrovnik has been impacted the most.”

Despite the grave challenges faced by Dubrovnik, however, Vlasic believes that now is a critical time to re-assess its relationship to tourism. “The mayor knows that being completely dependent on tourism brings even more challenges in times of economic crisis,” she says. “This situation is forcing the city to re-think. Up until now, it was often too difficult to make changes, but now we have to.”

Dubrovnik has been part of URBACT’s Tourism-Friendly Cities network since September 2019. “The network has been helping us to take forward our work of making tourism more balanced,” says Vlasic. “The city already started those discussions three years ago, but right now is the time to make it happen.”

The entire network is re-focusing its conversations, explains Vlasic, in response to the pandemic’s impact. Those cities that were trying to tackle overtourism are now collaborating on what sustainable tourism means in the recovery. “It’s interesting to see how every country is trying to re-think tourism,” says Vlasic. Cites like Venice – another partner city – and Dubrovnik have some of the biggest challenges.

Vlasic believes tourism will continue to be the dominant economic force in Dubrovnik in the future, but that this moment can be harnessed to work on diversification of the economy and supporting other sectors. “I don’t see a whole new economy,” she says, “but I think this gives a lot of perspective to local citizens to start thinking about other things. I envisage us shifting from 90% of people relying on tourism, to perhaps 70%.”

The Tourism-Friendly Cities network continues to be a critical part of Dubrovnik’s recovery. “The network gives us the connection and external perspective we need,” says Vlasic. “In the pandemic, it can feel like we are all isolated. But right now is the most important time to be connected. The URBACT network means that on a day-to-day basis we can exchange experiences with other cities and help each other.”

URBACT Local Group innovation in Grosseto

From the very beginning of the pandemic, the city of Grosseto in southern Tuscany – 80 000 inhabitants – was active in terms of safety and prevention measures, encouraging people to stay at home and delivering free face masks to citizens. Partly as a result of that, case numbers of Covid-19 have stayed low. Yet, as a historic and picturesque city which relies on tourism, Grosseto has been significantly economically impacted by the pandemic lockdowns.

Luckily, the timing of its engagement with the URBACT Action Planning Network iPlace – which is supporting smaller cities to find their niches for sustainable local economic development – has been a direct and practical help.

iPlace Lead Expert Wessel Badenhorst explains: “Grosseto is a new city to URBACT and establishing their ULG was challenging. They did a lot of hard work and had their first ULG meeting [at the end of 2019]. Then when lockdown hit, they were able to 'leverage' the ULG as a single communication platform with their business community.”

Indeed, the ULG structure ended up being critical. “When the pandemic hit in March, the ULG was temporarily enlarged by the administration to a ‘macro’ ULG, involving not just local associations, but wider institutions and professional bodies,” says Annalisa David, the iPlace Communication Officer for Grosseto. “It allowed us to understand local needs from a range of different stakeholders.”

Now, when the administration has something new to propose, it brings the stakeholders of the macro ULG together and asks what they think. “It’s a new way for the administration to relate to the citizens,” says David.

The macro ULG was divided into eight smaller working groups tackling different issues in response to the challenges of the pandemic – from tourism and commerce to construction and communications – and came up with innovative proposals to help Grosseto. “Already by May, we had those ideas translated into concrete projects,” says David.

The projects included a wide range of measures. The municipality decided to postpone almost all tax payments from citizens to help people recover financially from the crisis. To guarantee social distancing, the city decreed that businesses such as restaurants and cafes could have free use of public space outside their premises for the whole of 2020.

A marketing project, MAreMMA Nel Cuore (Maremma in your heart) was started to help promote local agricultural produce in Grosseto’s shops and restaurants. A new free app, the Ermes Shop was developed to help connect people to local businesses so that commercial activities could recover.

Existing civic projects were fast-tracked too. Grosseto’s municipality had already been working on implementing a network of cycling paths to connect the town centre with various key tourist sites. “The pandemic accelerated that goal,” explains David. As well as the network of cycle paths, more bike racks are being installed around the town and e-bike and electric vehicle charging stations are being implemented across the wider province. David hopes this might bring new tourists to Grosseto.

Looking to the future

Both cities are using the experiences of their URBACT networks to support their recovery from the pandemic and build sustainable local futures. This will directly impact the preparation of their Integrated Action Plans for sustainable urban development.

Even further ahead, in Grosseto, Annalisa David believes the macro ULG will continue as a way to discuss issues beyond the iPlace network, as the structure has been so helpful for the city: “The ULG showed us how to solve problems quickly by ourselves rather than waiting for external help – and demonstrated how we can best harness resources.”

In Dubrovnik, Alisa Vlasic hopes the city will ultimately re-embrace tourism without overtourism. The municipality aims to connect its Tourism-Friendly Cities Action Plan with its existing Respect the City project, which was launched by the mayor in 2018 to help make tourism more balanced and responsible.

“Once a big crisis like this happens, it can lead to two situations,” says Vlasic. “Either people scramble to recover economically and go back to normal at any cost, or they work to incrementally build back better.” Both of these cities are doing the latter and the URBACT programme will continue to support them and smaller cities like them in achieving their goals.