Inspire Project will encourage refugees to engage in tourism

Supported by the "European Union Higher Education Cooperation" call, the project is implemented by Shannon University of Technology in Ireland, while Turkey, along with Belgium, Croatia, and Ukraine, is also involved.The Faculty of Business Administration of Kuz Eylül University is among the partners with faculty members Prof. Dr. Gürhan Aktaş and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Uzgören.

The project was announced as follows: “As part of the project, which will be completed in November 2025, interviews were conducted with refugee entrepreneurs or prospective entrepreneurs, as well as public institutions and NGOs operating in refugee-related activities, in order to identify the factors that positively or negatively influence refugees' desire to become tourism entrepreneurs in all partner countries. One of the most important conclusions from these interviews was that, contrary to widespread prejudice in society, there are a significant number of educated, qualified individuals with previous tourism or management experience, and fluent in languages ​​among refugees. With the necessary support, refugee entrepreneurship could contribute significantly to the sector, providing opportunities for both a new workforce and cultural diversity. Bureaucracy in obtaining work and residence permits, and the scarcity of institutions that can provide consulting support, particularly for refugee entrepreneurs, during the business start-up process, are among the significant challenges.

In light of all this, the project partners organized a series of workshops to provide training support to refugee entrepreneurs and to share examples of successful refugee entrepreneurship in tourism from member countries. The project website is also available in six different languages: inspireproject.eu. A guidebook for refugee entrepreneurs, support for business start-ups, In addition to a database of available institutions and successful entrepreneurship examples, information on the process of starting a business in the desired language and partner country can be accessed by participating in the online training program on the website. Participants who complete the training program also qualify for the Inspire digital badge.

To support the project, be included in the database, or participate in future project workshops, please contact Prof. Dr. Gürhan Aktaş or Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Uzgören, members of the project team.