Building on the notion that cultural tourism, particularly with a maritime dimension, constitutes a job generator and a driver for sustainable development, the project CulTourE4Youth - Supporting youth entrepreneurship in cultural tourism for coastal communities was launched to address two crucial challenges for the Black Sea region, i.e. brain drain and youth unemployment.

The project built on the potential of the Black Sea countries as attractive tourist destinations that creates job opportunities and necessity for skilled human capital in the sector, and assessed the level of support to the latter by national policies and regional cooperation frameworks.

The final report of the project includes the key results and recommendations for future actions. It is addressed mainly to policy stakeholders, funding agencies, the business community and the academia, as the primary actors of policy-making and policy-delivery.

The project was coordinated by the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), in cooperation with the Balkan and Black Sea Commission (BBSC) of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the Middle East Technical University Institute of Marine Sciences (METU-IMS) for a period of 24 months (Jan 2021 – Dec 2022). It was co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Contract ENI/2020/421-957, coordinated by the BSEC PERMIS.