Keeping project momentum alive online

How do you keep everyone in an Erasmus+ capacity building project motivated, engaged, and on track when face-to-face meetings happen only once or twice a year? The ENRICHER hubs project, which advances sustainable tourism development in Georgia and Moldova through service design, has discovered that co-created online activities can fuel inspiration, foster collaboration, and deliver results.

Sparking inspiration

One of the highlights of the ENRICHER hubs project has been the Business Challenges where Moldovan and Georgian students collaborate with local tourism companies. The students apply service design methods and tools to solve actual tourism challenges. The challenges were kicked off with an interactive webinar uniting students and teachers from six partner universities in Moldova and Georgia.

At the start of the webinar, participants received a brief overview of future tourism trends and shifting European consumer behaviour. To turn awareness into action, students were introduced to Sitra’s (s.a.) trend cards before engaging in the session’s main activity: dynamic breakout room discussions. Student groups explored how trends like sustainable mobility, carbon passports, and AI-powered travel planning (e.g., Intrepid Travel & The Future Laboratory 2023) will transform tourism. The discussions were skillfully facilitated by Moldovan and Georgian teachers previously trained in sustainable tourism and service design.

The conversations were bold and eye-opening. Students envisioned a more responsible travel future: low-impact, wellness, healing, intergenerational and conservation-focused experiences, automation filling staffing gaps, and influencers co-creating destinations. They noted that AI and VR offer greater personalisation but raise concerns around energy use, data privacy, and authenticity. In short, students see a future of travel that balances sustainability and digital innovation with authentic human connection.

Peer learning and collaboration

The interactive discussions delivered impact on multiple levels. They encouraged students to think big and develop innovative solutions for their Business Challenges. They enabled meaningful peer exchange across universities and borders. By gaining insights into emerging trends, students were better equipped to design tourism concepts that meet future consumer expectations and address both global and local realities.

The webinar also introduced a practical tool, the trend canvas (Sitra s.a.), that students can apply far beyond this project. The trend canvas encourages collaboration and provides a clear structure for discussions.

Since the webinar was planned and delivered collaboratively by the target country universities and EU partners, it fostered a strong sense of shared ownership among all participants. Digital platforms and online tools enabled teachers and students to connect seamlessly across time zones and borders, demonstrating that meaningful collaboration is possible even without physical presence.

Pitching and sharing online

Regular social media updates and online sharing sessions have kept teachers and students well-informed and engaged throughout the Business Challenges.

In a dedicated online event, winning teams from each university presented their ideas to an international audience of partners and peers. The diversity of challenges and solutions was impressive. Challenges ranged from rural SMEs to hotels and wineries, resulting in varied and creative solutions. Some teams created mobile apps, others built tangible cardboard prototypes, and several developed hybrid ‘phygital’ concepts blending physical and digital elements.

After the student pitches, Moldovan and Georgian teachers joined EU partners online to exchange experiences and best practices. It was crucial to share experiences and lessons learned online immediately, while the insights were still fresh, rather than waiting for the next in-person meeting.

The ENRICHER hubs project social media channels recorded their highest engagement levels during the Business Challenges, thanks to the active dissemination of short videos and photos of student activities by each university. Social media posts captured students collaborating at research walls, sketching ideas, and testing prototypes in the hubs. These student-centered online updates kept stakeholders actively engaged, fostering a vibrant and inclusive atmosphere in which everyone learned from each other’s experiences.

Ownership powered by online connections

Research (e.g., Kearney, Raddats & Qian 2024) and our recent online experiences show that interactive formats, co-designed activities, and futures thinking tools significantly boost engagement and ownership in international projects.

As we are in the final year of the project, momentum is stronger than ever. Stakeholder trainings are now underway in the hubs, with students, teachers and local tourism stakeholders actively using service design to shape the future of sustainable tourism in Georgia and Moldova. Online connections continue to keep us aligned and learning together until we meet in person for the final dissemination seminar in Chisinau in May 2026.

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