The Municipality of Durres in partnership with the Municipality of Trabias, Sicily - Italy, Sicily Promotion - PRISM, Sicily - Italy, Promimpresa sh.pk, Sicily - Italy, Delphi Partners & Co - Cyprus, Piraeus University - Greece, University of Technology - Cyprus, Italian Chamber of Commerce for France, Marseilles - France, PETRA PATRIMONIA CORSICA, Corsica - France, Haliéus, Lazio - Italy, Valencia Port of Valencia for Studies and Cooperation - Spain, January 2017 has started to implement The TOURISMED project, which is funded by the Interreg Med 2014-2020 program and will be completed in 2019.

The overall purpose of this project is to promote fishing tourism as a sustainable practice of sea tourism in the Mediterranean area. Partners from EU countries have teamed up to develop, test and transfer a Bespoke (Bespoke) fishing business model to the coastal territories of the Mediterranean region as a way to promote a sustainable tourism approach, thus promoting the preservation of the marine ecosystem and traditional fishing culture. The 'bespoke' business model will include fishermen as well as tourism industry operators; will be promoted through training sessions and with an innovative online platform.

In order to link the business model to local needs and potentials, in the Municipality of Durres was organized a meeting with local stakeholders and project focus groups such as fishermen and tour operators, to provide further proposals on improving fishing tourism. This meeting started with the presentation of the goals, objectives and activities of the TOURISMED Project, focusing on the management and communication aspects of this project.

Subsequently, this meeting continued with the presentation of the feasibility study results by the fishing expert. According to the expert, this study was conducted with the support of FAO and has been dealt with in three aspects: legal, administrative and human / social, with the aim to serve the community and the environment, but at the same time to benefit from the latter. Also during the meeting, were held discussions and controversies between focus groups and fisheries experts on fishery needs and potentials, focusing mostly on improving legal aspects, as well as finding solutions to improving the fishing sector.

Representatives from the National Tourism Agency, Fisheries Inspectorate at the Ministry of Agriculture, Durres Port Authority, Port of Durrës Port, owners of fishing vessels and representatives of the fishing sector in Durres, Durres Prefecture, "Aleksander Moisiu University", civil society etc.