Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Be.CULTOUR (Beyond CULtural TOURism: human-centred innovations for sustainable and circular cultural tourism)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-02-01 bis 2022-01-31
Cultural tourism entails opportunities but also risks. Tourism as a whole can be a highly volatile economic sector. If not managed properly, cultural tourism can also easily turn into a “value extractive” industry, generating negative environmental, social and cultural impacts on local communities and ecosystems.
Be.CULTOUR stands for “Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy”. It expresses the goal to move beyond tourism through a longer-term human-centred development perspective, enhancing cultural heritage and landscape values.
This project will develop specific strategies to promote an understanding of cultural tourism, which moves away from a “stop-and-go” consumer-oriented approach towards one that puts humans and circular economy models at its centre, paying attention to nature, communities and cultural diversity. “Place”, intended as the genius loci, the ancient spirit of the site expressing its “intrinsic value” and “people” as co-creators of its uniqueness, culture, art, tradition, folklore, productivity, spirituality, as well as its “time space routine”, are the focus of Be.CULTOUR which aims at realizing a longer-term development project for the pilot areas involved.
Be.CULTOUR is an Innovation Action (IA) funded under the Horizon 2020 Call on “Innovative approaches to urban and regional development through cultural tourism” (H2020 TRANSFORMATIONS-04-2019-2020).
The overarching goal of Be.CULTOUR is to co-create and test sustainable human-centred innovations for circular cultural tourism through collaborative innovation networks/methodologies and improved investments strategies. Targeting deprived remote, peripheral or deindustrialized areas and cultural landscapes as well as over-exploited areas, local Heritage innovation networks will co-develop a long-term heritage-led development project in the areas involved enhancing inclusive economic growth, communities’ wellbeing and resilience, nature regeneration as well as effective cooperation at cross-border, regional and local level.
Be.CULTOUR stands for “Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy”. It expresses the goal to move beyond tourism through a longer-term human-centred development perspective, enhancing cultural heritage and landscape values.
This project will develop specific strategies to promote an understanding of cultural tourism, which moves away from a “stop-and-go” consumer-oriented approach towards one that puts humans and circular economy models at its centre, paying attention to nature, communities and cultural diversity. “Place”, intended as the genius loci, the ancient spirit of the site expressing its “intrinsic value” and “people” as co-creators of its uniqueness, culture, art, tradition, folklore, productivity, spirituality, as well as its “time space routine”, are the focus of Be.CULTOUR which aims at realizing a longer-term development project for the pilot areas involved.
Be.CULTOUR is an Innovation Action (IA) funded under the Horizon 2020 Call on “Innovative approaches to urban and regional development through cultural tourism” (H2020 TRANSFORMATIONS-04-2019-2020).
The overarching goal of Be.CULTOUR is to co-create and test sustainable human-centred innovations for circular cultural tourism through collaborative innovation networks/methodologies and improved investments strategies. Targeting deprived remote, peripheral or deindustrialized areas and cultural landscapes as well as over-exploited areas, local Heritage innovation networks will co-develop a long-term heritage-led development project in the areas involved enhancing inclusive economic growth, communities’ wellbeing and resilience, nature regeneration as well as effective cooperation at cross-border, regional and local level.
Be.CULTOUR achieved to build its Community of Interest in almost all European regions, stimulating debate and reflections around circular and sustainable cultural tourism. The large Community is made of 6 pilot heritage sites, 16 mirror innovation ecosystems, 3 advisers, and 16 members of the learning community, working together and exchanging knowledge and experiences to develop sustainable innovations in cultural tourism. Pilot partners started their journey in Be.CULTOUR by engaging local stakeholders in the Community of Practice, implementing local workshops to co-create strategic Action Plans for circular cultural tourism in less-known and deprived heritage sites. The ambition of Be.CULTOUR is to engage stakeholders in Heritage innovation networks leveraging the potential of cultural and natural heritage to drive circular and sustainable regional development. 4 key concepts (circular tourism, human-centred development, cultural Europeanisation, smart data management), 6 niche Innovation Areas, as well as 4 emerging trends in tourism were identified and explored in the first part of the project activity. Surveys to visitors and residents of the pilot heritage sites were conducted in order to discover the characteristics of amateurs of less-known heritage areas, as well as their point of view on the quality of landscape, services, environmental management and cultural experience, assessing their needs and desires when visiting the places. First draft of Action Plans in pilot heritage sites have been developed based on the co-creation exercise with local stakeholders, highlighting the specific challenges, “hidden treasures” of the territories involved, and orientation for future development of innovative solutions for circular cultural tourism. The Open Call for innovative solutions has been structured and launched on the project website. Communication and dissemination activities made Be.CULTOUR already visible to interested target audience groups and the general public, reaching and engaging diverse actors in all regions of the project.
After one year of work, Be.CULTOUR already progressed beyond the state-of-the-art in cultural tourism research, introducing the circular economy dimension and the specific innovation areas: rural co-living, contemporary meanings of heritage, nature as heritage, industrial heritage experience, sensorial heritage experience, spiritual travel experience. 6 Heritage innovation networks were established in the pilot heritage sites, engaging stakeholders from local tourism enterprises, destination management organisations, local governments, universities and research centres, as well as sectors “beyond” tourism such as cultural and creative industries, and agricultural / food production sector. Specific challenges were identified in pilot sites, starting a process of bottom-up innovation supported and facilitated by local partners. International experts from Be.CULTOUR Community provided knowledge and inspiration to local innovators to co-create their strategies for the future of cultural tourism in their regions. The Be.CULTOUR Community includes outstanding experiences where the human-centred and community-led approach, the circular economy model, as well as the regeneration and reuse of cultural heritage have been practically implemented changing the patterns of deprivation and degrade. The good and best practices identified will be of inspiration to the innovators in the European regions involved. The Be.CULTOUR framework of circular cultural tourism will be tested and validated in pilot and mirror heritage sites, identifying a new circular and human-centred model for cultural tourism, which can support sustainable regional development, social cohesion and tourism social responsibility in European regions.