The objective of the overall Danube Ecotourism project is to foster the development of sustainable eco-tourism in the lower Danube Region in order to create new job opportunities for the young and unemployed by increasing public awareness about the socio-cultural and environmental value of the Riparian area. The aim of the START project was to enable direct communication between Romanian, Bulgarian and Serbian experts of sustainable eco-tourism, to define realistic integrated cross-border criteria for ecotourism development and to develop a work plan on how cross-border eco-tourism products can effectively be offered to tourists. With the help of START, the overall project design was elaborated and submitted under the Romanian-Bulgarian Cross Border Programme.