Promoting Post-Conflict Refugee Tourism Entrepreneurship
Team INSPIRE
1. pro 2025.
As the INSPIRE project approaches its conclusion in November 2025, we are proud to reflect on two years of dedicated work supporting refugee-led tourism entrepreneurship across Europe.
Led by the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Ireland, and funded by the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 programme, INSPIRE provides training and education materials for refugee tourism entrepreneurs across Europe, we equip individuals in refugee-like situations with practical tools, knowledge, and confidence to start post-conflict tourism businesses.
Throughout the project, we developed a range of resources including –
A state-of-the-art Research Report which analyses academic literature, grey literature and policy documents from Ireland, Ukraine, Turkiye, Belgium and Croatia in relation to refugee tourism entrepreneurship
An Interviews and Engagement Report which analyses engagements, including focus groups, interviews and surveys with over 200 refugees in Ireland, Ukraine, Turkiye, Belgium and Croatia in relation to refugee tourism entrepreneurship.
A Database which presents a number of organisations in the project partnership countries who support both resident communities and people in refugee like situations with various types of business start-up supports, including legal supports, business planning and strategy, e-government sites/ websites for work permit, general Information, language tuition, mentoring, tax advice and more.
A Good Practice Guide which presents good practice case studies, barriers to success case studies, and lessons applicable for people in refugee like situations who wish to start a post-conflict tourism business. The guide is available in English, Dutch, Turkish, Croatian and Ukrainian.
An online Training Course, support people in refugee-like situation in starting their own business in the tourism sector as a refugee entrepreneur. The content is both generic (e.g. on business planning) and specific (e.g. on tax and employment laws), with content relating to Ireland, Ukraine, Turkiye, Belgium and Croatia. The training course in available in English, Arabic, Dutch, Croatian and Ukrainian.
And a Website and Mobile Application which captures and stores all the resources mentioned above, as well as videos, news and workshops that we delivered.
The online course had 298 people registered and 197 completed the full training and received the INSPIRE Digital Badge by 25 November 2025. These badges recognise participants’ learning achievements, knowledge and skills acquired to support refugee-led tourism entrepreneurship.
Over the life of the project, INSPIRE delivered more than 24 workshops, reaching 662 participants. Of these, 449 were individuals in refugee-like situations, the remaining 213 participants were educators, mentors, and members of the academic community.
INSPIRE’s achievements would not have been possible without the strong collaboration and commitment of our project partners: Businet, KHNU and DVA (Ukraine), Dokuz Eylül University – DEU (Türkiye), PAR University College (Croatia), and PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium). Their expertise, engagement, and dedication ensured that the project remained relevant, meaningful, and impactful.
Our sincere thanks also go to individual in refugee-like situations, learners, educators, NGOs, policies, and community organisations who participated in workshops, contributed to research, and helped co-develop INSPIRE’s outputs.
Although the project formally concludes in November 2025, INSPIRE’s resources will remain accessible beyond its end. We hope Project INSPIRE continues to inspire people who are involved in post-conflict tourism businesses.
