The “Turning our Villages into Tourism Destinations” project was funded by the EU through the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme of Montenegro and Kosovo. The overall objective of this project was to improve the volume, quality and visibility of tourism related to valorization of cultural and natural heritage and values, with the specific objective of supporting rural tourism by developing the tourism offer on a village level. To this end, the project has achieved the following results:

Result 1: Increased capacities for rural tourism in the cross-border zone of Kosovo and Montenegro, where more than 200 individuals benefited from capacity building efforts, and development of guidebooks on delivery of rural tourism services based on the European Federation of Rural Tourism “RURALTOUR” methodology.

Result 2: Rural tourism offer developed in 15 rural zones through improvements to tourism related public infrastructure, and investments in 40 rural households. Additionally, 18 cross-border rustic trails were developed that promote the cultural and natural attractions of these zones and also incorporate the 40 households that have been supported to offer services for guests and tourists.

Result 3: Tourism offer in villages promoted through websites, brochures, and annual cross-border promotional events, including development of cross-border networks of tourism service operators, to enrich the tourism service offer in both Kosovo and Montenegro.

This project was implemented by a cross-border partnership, comprised of Peja Municipality as the coordinator and RDA-West from Kosovo and RDA of BKP from Montenegro as partners.