Tourism and Cultural- & Creative industries in the digital and green transformation of Central Europe (Capacity2Transform)

left picture: the Capacity2Transform consortium during a partner meeting in Košice in October 2024
right picture: the Transferability Conference with 8 EU-funded projects: A proven format for exchanging project results

Many organisations in tourism, culture and the creative industries want to become more digital and more sustainable but often lack practical tools, formats and strong networks to make it happen. At the same time, staff shortages and the ongoing effects of recent crises increase the pressure to change quickly.

Capacity2Transform (Interreg Central Europe) tested a simple idea: Real change happens faster when businesses do not just “attend another training”, but work together on real problems. In the project, tourism SMEs teamed up with people and organisations from the cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI). Tourism businesses brought concrete challenges from their day-to-day work; creative professionals contributed fresh perspectives and hands‑on methods. Together, they developed ideas and tested what works in practice.

The approach in in a nutshell: Learn, exchange, build together

The project’s Digital‑Green‑Creative (DGC) approach is built on three pillars:

(1) Upskilling: Learning skills that can be applied immediately,

(2) Peer exchange between regions and stakeholder groups, and

(3) Co-creation: mixed/interdisciplinary teams develop concrete ideas and solutions to real challenges

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum's role in the project

As a project partner, we implemented two pilot programmes in Baden‑Württemberg (between May 2024 – April 2025) and played a key role in making results transferable and usable for others. Highlights included a Storytelling Masterclass, an Innovation Workshop Series, and an international peer exchange on sustainable wine tourism destinations with 60 participants from 13 countries.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum also organised a co‑creation workshop where participants developed two new business concepts in interdisciplinary teams and presented them as short video pitches:

• Weinparadies (EN): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJDIRC5Fko
• Weinparadies (DE): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsxeLUXeikg
• CoupinoApp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceOWj_iRzkw

More insights into the Baden‑Württemberg pilot programme are available hier.

A central contribution of SEZ was to package the project method and results so that other regions can easily repeat and adapt the formats. This includes a practical step‑by‑step guideline and examples that show how to transfer the pilot formats to new contexts.

SEZ also hosted the Transferability Conference on 4 February 2026 in Stuttgart with 120 participants from 17 countries, together with seven other EU projects. The conference combined short pitches, panel discussions, stakeholders’ testimonials, and hands‑on workshops designed to share tools and lessons learned in a very practical way.

Tangible results at consortium level

Across the whole partnership, the project delivered:

• 131 learning activities with 2,920 participants, resulting in 94 ideas;
• 12 co‑creation workshops with 140+ participants, producing solutions documented as video pitches.

To keep results accessible beyond the funded period, the project set up:

• a free e‑book guide to replicate the approach, and
• two online platforms that store learning content and materials for long‑term use: Knowledge Factory (peer learning) and Media Factory (resources and thematic contributions).

Although the project ended in February 2026, partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue working together including maintaining the platforms, replicating successful pilot formats, and developing follow‑up initiatives.

Further information:

• Funding: European Commission, INTERREG Central Europe
• Total budget including all partners: 2.4 Mio EUR
• Project duration: 03/2023 – 02/2026
• Participating countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia