The 24th edition of the Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debates, organised by the Border Focal Point Network, was successfully held on the morning of September 18th 2025. The debate focused on the ever-important topic of cross-border tourism and destination management, exploring how stronger cross-border cooperation can boost sustainable tourism and regional development across Europe.
Our esteemed host, Andrew Lansley, moderated the discussion, welcoming the four panellists. He highlighted the focus on cross-border regions and tourism, particularly the importance of joint destination management, stressed both the opportunities (revenue, jobs, integration) and the challenges (regulation, sustainability, taxation) of cross-border cooperation, and encouraged active participation through polls and the chat to enrich the panel discussion.
The first speaker, Ms Valeria Cenacchi, DG REGIO, underlined that tourism has always been a priority for territorial cooperation, especially in cross-border areas, as it promotes cultural exchange, local heritage, jobs and European identity. She highlighted numerous successful projects related to monument restoration, improvement of accessibility, digitalisation of services and support of local businesses, backed by significant EU investment through Interreg and the ERDF. Recurring challenges include that many projects remain isolated, lack long-term strategies, coordination, or stakeholder consultation and often fail to measure impact. She also noted tensions between economic growth and environmental or social sustainability, referencing cases of . She concluded by emphasising the need for more strategic, integrated, and sustainable approaches to cross-border tourism.
The next speaker, Ms Ramunė Genzbigelytė Venturi, Policy Officer for Tourism at DG MOVE, noted at the outset the new momentum for tourism within the Commission, now combined with transport under one portfolio. She highlighted that the EU is currently developing a new strategy for sustainable tourism, following consultations with stakeholders and building on the Tourism Transition Pathway and Agenda created after the pandemic. Key opportunities and challenges include unbalanced tourism (over-tourism in some places, lack of visibility in others), the need to balance visitors and residents, climate adaptation, geopolitical impacts, global competition, fragmented business ecosystems, and shortages in investment and skills. Yet, the potential of tourism to benefit local communities is very high if developed strategically and sustainably. Participants were invited to contribute to ongoing consultations, with emphasis on the need to strengthen a shared “Brand Europe,” improve connectivity and build a common vision for the future. Several EU tools and initiatives were presented, including the Together for Tourism forum, webinars on sustainability and regenerative tourism, the EU tourism dashboard with sustainability indicators and the Tourism Platform as a one-stop resource hub. Her intervention closed with an invitation to attend European Tourism Day in Brussels on 26 January, where the new strategy, achievements and future challenges will be discussed.
Following Ms Genzbigelytė Venturi, a very interesting video from the PORTOLANES project was presented on cross-border cooperation between Greece and Italy on the sustainable development of nautical tourism and the enhancement of small ports of the Ionian Sea, within the framework of the Interreg VI-A Greece-Italy 2014-2020.
Next, Ms Alise Lūse, Project Manager at the Kurzeme Planning Region (Latvia) presented the Access Routes project, a cross-border initiative supported by the Interreg Estonia–Latvia (ESTLAT) programme, noting that the Baltic countries are often seen as a single destination by visitors thanks to their shared 4,500 km coastline with diverse beaches, fishing villages and cultural heritage.
The project’s main focus is to improve accessibility in tourism, since many sites and services remain difficult to access for people with disabilities, seniors, families with strollers or those with temporary injuries. Accessibility, she stressed, benefits everyone, and is often simple and inexpensive to implement. A key element is providing reliable accessibility information, supported by hundreds of on-site inspections, published data and practical guidelines for adapting infrastructure and services. The project also develops cross-border routes (1–3 day-trips) tailored both to accessibility needs and visitor interests, covering nature, culture, food, or family-friendly destinations. Innovative solutions are being piloted, such as tactile maps and models for the visually impaired, sound interpretation and mobile museum boxes to enhance cultural understanding. Over 20 sites in Latvia and Estonia are being equipped with tactile innovations and 15 with other interpretation tools. The project, set to conclude next year, will also publish a travel guide, with the overall aim of making the Baltic region’s routes inclusive and welcoming to all.
Finally, Giovanni Vassena, Project Manager EGTC Alpine Pearls, introduced the EGTC Alpine Pearls, a network of around 20 Alpine municipalities cooperating since 2006 (and formally an EGTC since 2022) to promote sustainable tourism with a focus on mobility. He noted that one of the main barriers to sustainable cross-border tourism is the fragmentation of strategies, governance and funding frameworks across countries and regions, which makes delivering a seamless visitor experience difficult. Tourists, however, do not think in terms of borders; they simply want to explore regions as a whole, hence the strong need for truly transnational approaches, especially in mobility and infrastructure. To address these challenges, he stressed the importance of harmonisation of strategies, a multi-level governance approach, trust and long-term cooperation, a real added value, and coordinated communication and branding.
Following the interventions of our four speakers, a lively discussion ensued, boosted by questions and comments from the debate participants in the online chat. The discussion the importance of integrating accessible and reliable tourism information into digital platforms, ensuring it reaches all users. Cross-border connectivity, through rail, cycling and multimodal transport, was emphasised as crucial, alongside empowering Destination Management Organisations to coordinate strategies across sectors. Participants also stressed the potential of regenerative tourism to benefit biodiversity and local communities, underlining the need for long-term, strategic, and sustainable approaches.
The two poll questions that were featured on the debate were:
1. What is the biggest challenge to coordinated tourism destination management in cross-border regions? Here, the participants clearly identified lack of harmonisation of tourism strategies as the biggest challenge, with weak cooperation between local and regional tourism stakeholders, unequal investment in cross-border tourism infrastructure and limited cross-border transport and connectivity receiving less but nevertheless substantial importance.
2. What is the best way to strengthen joint marketing and branding of cross-border tourism destinations? Here, the results showed that participants saw the biggest opportunities for strengthening joint cross-border tourism in cross-border business networks, shared digital tools and visitor information, and joint events and festivals. These priorities indicate a focus on collaboration, digital integration, and coordinated cultural or tourism activities as key strategies for improving cross-border tourism marketing and branding.
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