The Altener project HOTRES finished at the end of March, 2003. Its aim was a systematic implementation of conditions for the future massive applications of RES in the Tourism Sector.
The Tourism industry is amongst the most dynamic areas within the services sector, this being especially the case in the Southern EU Member States (France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal). In many of these countries the tourism sector is an essential development tool.
In Greece for instance, the contribution of the sector to the Gross Domestic Product was approximately 9.6% in 1995. The Tourism sector is also a very important source of employment for a large share of the active population of these countries.
The HOTRES project aimed at:
- Developing and implementing a strategy for the promotion of RES in the Hotel sector. This activity was focused on the development of the appropriate conditions for the enlargement of RES market sector;
- Promoting of RETs applications (biomass, PV, geothermal, solar thermal) in the tourist sector, in particular EUBIA, EPIA, ESIF, EGEC, construction companies, have presented their existing projects in the hotel sector?in several workshops organised for representative of the tourist sector. EUBIA in particular attended a workshop in Athens presenting most promising biomass technologies on the market, maintenance and?installation requirements.
- Promoting and implementing solar thermal systems, which are known technological development in the tourist sector of certain countries
- Attending businessmen (hotel owners, constructors, suppliers of RES technology, engineers, technicians).