The Kick-off Meeting of the project RISTOR – “Rural Innovation centers for Sustainable and Inclusive TOuRism” took place on 9 December 2025 in Zagori, organized by the Municipality of Zagori, marking the official start of the project under the Interreg VI-A IPA III CBC “Greece–Albania 2021–2027” Programme.
All project partners participated in the meeting: the Research Organization for the Commons and Peer to Peer Practices and Impact Hub Labs NGO from Greece, and the Municipality of Korça and the Observatory for Children and Youth Rights from Albania.
The project aims to establish two accessible Rural Innovation Centers for sustainable and inclusive tourism through the revitalisation of unused municipal buildings in Demati (Greece) and Dardha (Albania). The centres will support capacity building, innovation and cross-border cooperation through training activities, incubation services and networking initiatives tailored to local needs.
During the meeting, partners presented the project objectives and discussed key implementation activities, with emphasis on energy-efficient and heritage-sensitive infrastructure works (WP3), operational design (WP4) and the pilot implementation of innovative business models (WP5).
The Kick-off Meeting confirmed the partners’ strong commitment to effective cooperation and the successful implementation of the RISTOR project.
Project co-funded by the European Union and National Funds of Greece and Albania via the Interreg (VI-A) IPA “Greece-Albania 2021-2027” Cross-Border Cooperation Programme