This year from 4th to 5th of July Opatija held an initial work meeting of the project partners on Zero Waste Blue sport events for territorial development, with a ZERO WASTE BLUE acronym, within the Interreg Italy-Croatia 2014-20120 program.

The aim of the project is to extend the tourist season through the implementation of sustainable "green" sporting events on sites of a significant cultural and / or natural heritage. With the Zero Waste's project capitalization results, a new, joint touristic product will be made aiming at sustainable sporting events in Italy and Croatia. The project will be implemented for 18 months and the total value is 861,435.70 Euros. The project Zero Waste Blue was successfully completed by the EU Project Zero Waste that Opatija City and the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management completed several years ago.

The leading partner in the new project is the City of Opatija and the project manager for FTHM is the Associate Professor, Ph.D. Marinela Krstinić Nižić. The other partners are: Zadar County Development Agency ZADRA NOVA, Dubrovačko-Neretvanska County, ERVET Emilia-Romagna Valorizzazione Economica Territorio SpA, Emilia-Romagna Region, Veneto Region, Molise Region, the city of Ancona.  At the opening of the two-day meeting, a press conference was held attended by  the deputy mayor of the City of Opatija Ph.D. Emil Priskić, a project manager at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Ph.D. Marinela Krstinić Nižić and an associate at the Agency for Economic Development of the Emilia Romagna Region,  Rita Trombini.