Terra Futura Experience is part of a wider European effort to strengthen the resilience, sustainability, and competitiveness of tourism SMEs in the Mediterranean.
Our project develops a place-based model of tourism rooted in living heritage, local communities, food culture, and regenerative practices. It contributes to the broader vision of SMARTIES for SMEs, a transnational initiative designed to support tourism SMEs in the twin green and digital transition across the EU Mediterranean region.
Through this framework, Terra Futura Experience positions Cilento as the first territory in a wider journey that explores how tourism can become more meaningful, more ecological, and more connected to the identity of place.
SMARTIES for SMEs is a transnational project focused on improving the competitiveness of tourism SMEs in the EU Mediterranean region. It supports innovative solutions for sustainable tourism and helps strengthen the resilience of the tourism ecosystem through research, capacity building, networking, and direct support to innovative projects.
The project works across several Mediterranean countries and regions, combining qualitative and quantitative research, training activities, support for innovative SMEs, and dissemination of best practices. It also promotes visibility and networking among tourism and agri-food actors at local, national, and international level.
SMARTIES for SMEs promotes forms of tourism that respect the authenticity of local territories and contribute to the wellbeing of local communities. In this sense, tourism is not understood as mere consumption of place, but as a practice that can support regeneration, stewardship, and shared value. The project builds on the idea of the Smart Way, a model developed by The Phoenicians’ Route, one of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes, already applied in several Mediterranean areas. For Terra Futura Experience, this means creating experiences that connect people with landscapes, food cultures, traditions, biodiversity, and community life in ways that are respectful, participatory, and future-oriented.
A second core area of SMARTIES for SMEs is the relationship between tourism and the agri-food ecosystem. The project promotes the Mediterranean Diet as a model of food sustainability in tourism, highlighting the deep connections between local production, cultural identity, health, and hospitality. This dimension is central to Terra Futura Experience. In our work, food is not a secondary attraction but a living cultural system — one that connects memory, territory, wellbeing, and local economies.
The third thematic area focuses on supporting tourism SMEs in the green and digital transition, helping them adopt innovative solutions for sustainable tourism and increasing the resilience of the wider EU tourism ecosystem. Within Terra Futura Experience, this objective is reflected in the creation of a digital platform, the development of narrative and promotional tools, the strengthening of visibility for local actors, and the use of digital storytelling to connect authentic territories with international audiences.
Terra Futura Experience gives local expression to the wider objectives of SMARTIES for SMEs.
Our project translates the three thematic areas into a concrete territorial action:
In this way, Terra Futura Experience contributes to a broader Mediterranean conversation on how tourism can evolve beyond extractive models and become a driver of cultural, social, ecological, and economic value.
The relevance of SMARTIES for SMEs lies in its ability to connect local innovation with a wider regional vision.
For Terra Futura Experience, being part of this framework means:
This is especially important for territories like Cilento, where biodiversity, cultural memory, food traditions, and community knowledge can become the foundation for a new generation of tourism offers.
Cilento is the first territory explored through Terra Futura Experience, but the vision is broader.
By connecting local stories with the wider priorities of SMARTIES for SMEs, the project helps demonstrate that small territories can play a major role in shaping the future of tourism. Places often perceived as marginal can instead become laboratories of innovation, where digital tools, ecological transition, living heritage, and local participation generate new models of value.
This is the spirit in which Terra Futura Experience has been developed: as a local project with international relevance, rooted in place and open to a wider Mediterranean and global dialogue.
