From May 30th 2022 to June 3rd 2022 KU Leuven was the host to the biannual academic conference of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, bringing together highly established tourism scholars such as prof. Dan Fesenmaier, prof. Larry Dwyer, prof. Bob McKercher, prof. Ulrike Gretzel, prof. Scott McCabe, prof. Pauline Sheldon, prof. Stefan Gössling and many others. The SmartCulTour project was presented as part of the main conference programme by Astrid Dickinger of Modul University, with a presentation on “Research avenues to contribute to the future of tourism” and by Bart Neuts, with a presentation on “Supporting regional tourism development through community-driven ideation”.
Furthermore, as part of the conference, on June 2nd the SmartCulTour consortium organized a first sub-regional workshop on the tools and methods developed within the Horizon 2020 programme to support stakeholder engagement and community-supported development of cultural tourism initiatives. Jeroen Klijs of Breda University of Applied Sciences presented the general introduction to the SmartCulTour project while Bart Neuts of KU Leuven presented the design process crafting stages and the double-diamond design model, as well as destination design roadmapping. Dario Bertocchi of Ca’Foscari University gave an overview of the SmartCulTour Platform and Simone Moretti of Breda University of Applied Sciences presented the dynamic House of Quality for supporting decision-making. Finally Bert Smit and Jessika Weber, both also from Breda University of Applied Sciences, gave a video presentation, respectively on systems and visitor flow mapping and on the SmartCulTour Game.
The session was presented live and also streamed online through KU Leuven’s institutional streaming service. Participants included interested parties from European cultural and tourism networks, local cultural heritage networks, academic institutions and knowledge centres, and regional DMOs.
World Environment Day on 5 June is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually since 1973, the event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet.
On this occasion, our colleagues from the Scheldeland Living Lab have prepared the following text:
The great poet Emile Verhaeren called it ‘Wild and beautiful river Schelde’. His grave monument can be found in Sint-Amands, one of the many places where our new festival STROOM will be held during its first edition. The river was a source of inspiration for him more than a hundred years ago, and the Schelde remains so today.
Water is the origin of all life on our planet. It has an unprecedented power that gives life, and in the case of the Schelde Valley, nourishes a magnificent nature reserve. But water can also be devastating, as we saw last summer in the east of our country.
The Schelde valley is the setting for the Sigmaplan, the water management plan to protect our regions from flooding. As such, it is at the center of the climate discussion, a discussion that cannot be held by scientists and politicians alone. To really turn the tide, a broad social movement is needed. The indispensable voice of the artists can be heard within this movement.
STROOM originated with the Ghent Festival of Flanders, a festival that has kept its finger on the pulse of society for 65 years. Once again, we are linking our broad view of the world to our own environment and tackling a relevant theme. The Schelde region is our dream biotope for this new project.
Together with Rivierpark Scheldevallei, we are unlocking the hidden pearl of open space where nature and heritage abound. We follow the meandering river Schelde between Ghent and Antwerp. The journey takes us past picturesque villages and magnificent castles, which are connected by beautiful walking and cycling paths. STROOM lets artists speak, in a unique symbiosis between nature, culture, heritage and tourism. Together with the public and numerous local partners, we look forward to a sustainable future for this area, for our country and for the planet.
On 24 and 25 May, Utjoski’s living lab hosted one of the six exchanges programmed between the LLs of the SmartCulTour project. On this occasion, the Huesca and Scheldeland living lab managers and main stakeholders visited Finland to learn the methodologies and see the interventions made by their Finnish counterparts first hand. This was a great opportunity to share unique experiences to enrich and improve the quality of tourist services in the project’s regions.
On the first day, one of the main stakeholders of the Utsjoki living lab gave their visitors a guided tour to see the cultural and tourist attractions of the area and learn more details, in particular about the Sami culture that the Utsjoki LL is focusing on in their analysis. In the afternoon, the group tested the Placemaking Method for the first time in the project. The method uses a working dynamics approach to favour connexion between tourists and their surroundings and enhance the services they demand and the experiences they enjoy at their tourist destinations.
The next day was devoted to a working session with some of the LL stakeholders, giving the Spanish and Belgian teams the chance to learn more about the work in Utsjoki and exchange opinions with the Finnish participants. They all took part in a working meeting focused on improving tourist proposals previously designed for the territory. They also examined the major results of the tourist survey to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Utsjoki as a sustainable cultural tourist destination.
Scheldeland will be hosting the next exchange in June later this month, followed by another exchange in Huesca in October 2022.
Between the 11th and 13th of May, Split Metropolitan Area Living Lab hosted the stakeholders from the Rotterdam and Vicenza Living Labs. Split Metropolitan Area consists of micro destinations in the coastal area, which are currently the hub, and rural regions that, although rich with heritage, experience significantly lower tourism demand. As tourism in the Split centre has reached its peaks organising alternative visitor experiences, i.e. flagship attractions, to pull in visitors, meet the needs of residents and develop more robust tourism activities in such places could be a solution.
As announced in the exchange preparation meetings, the program in Split focused on challenges associated with the marketing of sustainable cultural tourism, more precisely, the sustainable interpretation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The main idea behind the program was to showcase two distinctive approaches (public vs private; more vs less successful) toward the organisation of cultural tourism visitor experiences in two distinctive yet neighbouring destinations and discuss the challenges and opportunities with visiting stakeholders.
The exchange program began on 11 May when visitors had the opportunity to enjoy the guided tour of the Diocletian Palace in the Split town centre (Photo 1). This was also an opportunity for hosts and visitors to meet and discuss the expectations from the two-day workshop in an informal atmosphere.
The exchange program began on 11 May when visitors had the opportunity to enjoy the guided tour of the Diocletian Palace in the Split town centre (Photo 1). This was also an opportunity for hosts and visitors to meet and discuss the expectations from the two-day workshop in an informal atmosphere.
On 12 May at 9 AM, hosts and visitors meet at the Faculty of economics, business and tourism to meet the Faculties management. Following a brief introduction, we visited the city of Sinj, where we were welcomed in «Alkarski dvori» by Ms Monika Vrgoč, the DMO manager. Ms Vrgoč introduced tourism development in Sinj while particularly focusing on the disparity between the potential for cultural tourism development and what has been done. Ms Vrgoč outlined the challenges associated with visitor experience design, sustainable interpretation and communication with visitors. During the presentation, the visitors posed questions. After the presentation, Ms Vrgoč took us to visit the Museum of Sinjska Alka, where she organised guided tourism and the projection of the documentary movie on the Alka knight tournament and the history of Sinj. Following, we visited the local church, i.e. sanctuary of the Miraculous Madonna of Sinj, and the local site with the roman monument representing what seems to be the first evidence of football in Europe, as recognised by FIFA. After the lunch break, Ms Vrgoč organised a visit to the recently built interpretation centre, which has not been opened for visitors due to the lack of consensus within the local government regarding who should take responsibility for management. This was followed by a short visit to the horse centre. We went back to «Alkarski dvori» where we discussed the challenges that were raised and questions that emerged during the visit (Photo 2).
On 13 May at 9 AM, we visited Stella Croatica privately owned experience centre in Klis. The centre is focused on the interpretation of Mediterranean customs, traditions and natural heritage. The place involves the (1) a small factory where dominantly employed local community members produce selected products (food, cosmetics) from locally grown ingredients; (2) the botanic garden with the majority of typically Mediterranean plants; (3) a distillery outlining the process of the development of cosmetics; (4) olive museum interpretation and education centre showcasing the process of the development of olive oil; (4) concept store; and (5) outlay of the traditional Dalmatian stone village where visitors can explore the village and enjoy the traditional gastronomy. We were welcomed by Mr Marin Jerković, who gave us 3 hours guided tour and explained the history and the vision for the centre’s future, their commitment to conservation, education, and benefit to the local community. The guided tour started in the factory, where visitors could see the production and packaging of some of their products and taste a Fig cake, their most famous pastry. Following, we were taken to the distillery, where Mr Jerković explained the process of the extraction of the lavender and immortelle essential oil, which has been used to create many of their product. The tour continued with the exploration of the botanic garden. He took us then to the interactive and educational olive oil museum, where he reflected on the history of olive oil and the extraction of oil from olives and provided some good insights on distinguishing lamp oil from virgin and extra virgin olive oil. The tour continued with a stop at the concept store and a visit to the interpretation of a traditional Dalmatian village. Within the village, Mr Jerković organised the tasting of their product and, after instruction on how to blend the tasts, left us to explore unique tastes for some time. After some 30 minutes, Mr Jerković returned, and the discussion began. While the visitor posed a question on how they plan to increase the number of visitors, Mr Jerković explained how visitor growth is not the primary focus of the experience centre as they are currently satisfied with the numbers. They are focused on diversifying offers and maintaining the quality of experiences. Some good points on market visibility of concept and branding were made.
Indeed, the exchange visit is considered a success as it provides insight into the complexity of the cultural-heritage founded visitor experience design and sustainable interpretation. The main lessons learned could be summarised as follows:
Indeed, the exchange visit is considered a success as it provided insight into the complexity of the cultural-heritage founded visitor experience design and sustainable interpretation. The main lessons learned could be summarised as follows:
Successful cultural tourism development requires the commitment and partnership of the relevant stakeholders.
The collaboration between DMOs and other stakeholders is crucial for sustainable experience design and interpretation.
The development of facilities and infrastructure requires the consensus of the local government and DMOs.
Cultural tourism businesses need a clear vision of a sustainable future and prioritise value and service quality over volume.
Sustainable valorisation of the cultural heritage requires emphasising the wellbeing of local communiteis and delivering transformative and memorable visitor experiences.
In April and May, stakeholders from Hoek van Holland and Bospolder-Tussendijken worked on a roadmap for both districts. Based on ideas and inspiration from earlier sessions, stakeholders worked to make a timeline more concrete, where interventions aimed at sustainable cultural tourism would be given a logical place. For the time being, the sessions were the last major brainstorming sessions within the framework of the European project SmartCulTour.
SmartCulTour in Rotterdam
The Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam is one of the six living labs participating in the European project SmartCulTour, which is funded by the European Commission within the framework of the H2020 programme. The aim of the living labs is to encourage networking between stakeholders in the tourism sector in order to develop best practices and innovative solutions for sustainable cultural tourism, which can then be shared with other European regions.
In recent months, several meetings have taken place in Hoek van Holland and Bospolder-Tussendijken. Neighbourhoods with great potential for the further development of sustainable cultural tourism. Want to know more about the meetings? Read here the article about the Serious Gaming sessions in the districts.
Hoek van Holland
On 14 April the roadmap session for Hoek van Holland took place in PLSTK-café. The session was a continuation of the previous sessions which focused on tools such as participatory system mapping, house of quality and serious gaming. The aim of the session on 14 April was to create ideas for the development of Hoek van Holland and at the same time to outline potential development paths.
New ideas are often difficult to come up with but are necessary to achieve innovations. We often revert to ideas from the past to try and make something new out of them. However, these ideas are often not very innovative. Wild ideas, on the other hand, can lead to innovations. To get to these wild ideas, the ‘ideation washing machine’ was used during the session. This is a tool that helps stakeholders to think out of the box and come up with wild ideas. Three elements were put in the washing machine, namely; the interventions from the previous sessions, elements that make Hoek van Holland the way it is and things that make the participants happy.
The elements were successfully mixed and worked out within a maximum of five minutes each. This resulted in new ideas, such as
– Various stories and experience routes
– Adding nature and gastro elements to a hip campsite
– Boulevard with balls; a lively boulevard with activities for young and old
– Various dining concepts such as: bunker in the bunker
Next, the stakeholders started working with the ‘Design Roadmapping Tool’. This tool can help areas to make conscious choices by stimulating discussion about:
– Developing types of experiences and what is missing for specific groups
– Timeline and prioritisation of interventions and ideas
– Who within an area, city should have a mandate.
By actually placing the roadmap on a long table, the stakeholders came up with nice timelines. As a follow-up to this session, the researchers involved in SmartCulTour will produce an action report that various participants can elaborate on in order to further perpetuate sustainable cultural tourism in the Hook of Holland.
Bospolder-Tussendijken
On 18 May, the roadmap session in Bospolder-Tussendijken took place at De Fruitvis. The session had the same set-up as the roadmap session in Hoek van Holland. Of course, this time stakeholders from Bospolder-Tussendijken joined the session.
The ‘ideation washing machine’ again produced interesting ideas during this session, such as:
– Route through the neighbourhood – discover the world through the diversity in BoTu
– Best Brewed Beverage Festival – brew or drink delicious drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
– BoTu: Bo-Toons – special carrying boards to create new walking lines across the water
– International Electric BBQ Event – driving around electric BBQ event.
What is striking about all the ideas is that they mostly have to do with food and drink or celebrating the cultural diversity of the neighbourhood. These interventions are all fairly small-scale, but they are a better fit with the neighbourhood, where many small entrepreneurs work and where many ideas come from the neighbourhood itself.
The second part of the session was again the application of the ‘Design Roadmapping Tool’. The three timelines that were set out all started with an easy-to-organise event (e.g. coffee crawl), and then developed into larger interventions that require more structural funds and/or infrastructure. The interpretation in terms of responsibilities and mandates differed per group.
Naturally, the researchers will also come up with a concrete action report for this week, with which various stakeholders from Bospolder-Tussendijken can get to work.
From 11 to 13 May, Programme Manager of the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam, Iris Kerst and Joël Ferdinandus from Rotterdam Partners had the opportunity to participate in an exchange within the framework of the European project SmartCultour. Destination: Split! SmartCultour focuses on the sustainable development of cultural tourism. This development takes place in a total of six European living labs and the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam is one of them.
Exchange
Exchange of knowledge and experience takes place between the living labs in Rotterdam, Split and Vicenza. Between 11 and 13 May Iris and Joel visited the region and the city of Split. At the beginning of June, the representatives of the various living labs will travel to Rotterdam, after which the final visit to Vicenza is planned for September. Each of the visits will focus on a different sub-theme related to cultural tourism. During the visit to Split, for example, the focus was on the challenges faced by the various stakeholders in the Croatian lab.
Visit to Sinj
Split is booming! More and more visitors from France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, among others, are finding their way to the place. This results in high visitor numbers. It is predicted that in 2022 Split will receive more tourists than ever before. Researchers from the University of Split, together with stakeholders from Split and the surrounding area, are looking into how to further develop cultural tourism in order to entice visitors to visit other places in the region in the future.
One of these places is Sinj, a village 35 kilometres north of Split. Sinj is mainly known for its church and the painting of the ‘Miraculous Madonna of Sinj’. The painting was made by an unknown painter and dates from the 15th or 16th century. According to the stories, the painting caused the Croatians to win the battle against the Turks in 1715. After that, the Madonna has caused many more miracles. The Madonna is the cause of much religious tourism, since there are many pilgrimages that pass through Sinj.
Sinj is also known for its Sinsjka Alka. An equestrian competition that has been held every first Sunday in August since 1715. The aim of the competition is for the riders to pass their lance through a ring (alka). The riders receive points for this. The contest still attracts thousands of visitors every year. The creation of the Alka museum means that visitors can now learn more about Alka all year round.
Stella Croatica
On Friday 13 May, a visit to Stella Croatica was planned. Stella Croatica is an Experience Centre in Klis where you can experience all things Dalmatian. Artisanal foodstuffs, health and beauty products are produced on the estate. Visitors can see the whole process of developing the products and learn more about the production in the museum. The production is done by local people, which makes Stella Croatica of great local importance.
Stella Croatica is a good example of craftsmanship in its purest form. After the interesting tour, there was a brainstorm with the account manager of Stella Croatica. The brainstorming highlighted the importance of the value of quality. Stella Croatica has good visitor numbers and is thinking about how to continue to combine the growing visitor numbers with good quality products and tours. A great challenge!
Valuable knowledge
The exchange has provided many new insights into the field of cultural tourism, visitor management, city marketing and hospitality. These insights will be included in the projects and collaborations that the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam is running.
The SmartCulTour project held a two-day Training of Trainers sessions in Huesca, Spain. The sessions were planned for project partners working with their Living Lab stakeholders and tourism development. The aim was to offer more hands-on and practical training for multiple tools created and developed in the project. Let’s look at how the sessions were organized and facilitated from the WP 7 point of view, who took responsibility for the training.
The SmartCulTour project has constructed various tools and methods for developing sustainable cultural tourism. Most of them are already published separately as part of the Set of Service Design and Art-Based Methods for Co-Design and Stakeholder Work in Cultural Tourism or as part of the SmartCulTour Dashboard and the SmartCulTour Game. We selected ten tools and methods and planned a workshop structure where participants systematically progressed from one tool or method to another, utilizing and constructing the data and insights from one tool and using them in a next. The workshop was an overview of a design process, starting from the discover phase and ending in the developing phase.
Pictures: Bert Smit, Iris Kerst and Mira Alhonsuo.
There were multiple purposes for the Training of Trainers session. First of all, we aimed to apply service design and art-based tools developed for the SmartCulTour project. We selected several tools and methods from the toolkit of Set of Service Design and Art-Based Methods for Co-Design and Stakeholder Work in Cultural Tourism. We also clarified when and which tools can be used in which phase of the development process. During the practice-based hands-on work, we exchanged ideas on using the tools for different Living Lab purposes. We also evaluated the tools and methods for further development and the final deliverable 7.3. In addition, the final goal of the Training of Trainers sessions was to get to know each other and introduce some tips for facilitating co-creation workshops. The picture below illustrates the ten different tools and methods presented and trained during the sessions and the design process the tools belong to.
Diagram: The ten tools and methods in the Double diamond design process.
Program
We focused on the Huesca region during the intensive two days while training the tools and methods. It was a logical choice because we were located in the area. Having at least a little bit of a concrete context around us made the training more focused. Let’s take a closer look at what happened during these two days.
Day 1
The first training day was organized in Loarre, the beautiful rural village in Huesca province. We started the Training of Trainers session with the Placemaking method not previously described in the Service Design and Art-Based Methods toolkit. The method involved a pre-assignment sent to participants two weeks earlier. We asked participants to record a 360-degree, 1-minute video of a location that is somehow significant to them. At the beginning of the workshop, we utilized the placemaking method as a stakeholder engagement action. The participants first introduced themselves and explained why the place in the video was meaningful for them. Then the video was shown. The placemaking was a great starting point for getting to know each other and understanding different levels of meaningful places of others. It was fascinating to hear very personal stories from the participants.
After the placemaking, we introduced the Double diamond design process and clarified where the tools and methods belong. We also introduced the Huesca region and the challenges highlighted from the Living Lab data of Huesca. Also, the SmartCulTour Platform was presented from the viewpoint of Huesca region dashboard. This introduction gave participants an understanding of what kind of material they will be working with over two days. As an example of the materials, we pre-developed four tourist personas utilized in follow-up methods.
We then went through the system mapping and visitor flow mapping, both introduced in the Service Design and Art-Based Methods toolkit. Here, we grouped the participants into teams of four people. They got their destination in Huesca region and utilized personas as a part of the tools. The system maps are overviews of tourism, cultural, historical, and entrepreneurial destination resources, which are visualized on a geographical map of the destination. Those can be understood as a library of exciting places, sights, and events that form the cultural tourism system. Visitor flow maps provide a sequenced overview of touchpoints (or activities) that tourists combine while visiting (an area of) a destination. Together these two tools provided insightful knowledge of Huesca region.
We focused on playing the SmartCulTour Game at the end of the day. It was the first time playing and evaluating the game for almost all of the partners. The playing took quite a lot of time, but it was indeed worth it. In particular, Living Lab managers need to understand the game structure from the perspective of both the player and the facilitator. Most participants noticed that taking on the role of a particular type of stakeholder helps to empathize with their stakes and stakeholding issues in cultural tourism development.
Day 2
We started our next day by traveling from Loarre back to CIHEAM Zaragoza, where we held our morning program. We started the day by introducing the House of Quality method, utilizing the data from the previous day. The House of Quality method was presented using clear examples, which offered an in-depth understanding of using the method. As a result of the House of Quality, some first ideas for cultural tourism interventions were presented, then used in the following tools: Ideation washing machine and Multi-method process flow. The ideation washing machine was a new meth We started our next day by traveling from Loarre back to CIHEAM Zaragoza, where we held our morning program. We started the day by introducing the House of Quality method, utilizing the data from the previous day. The House of Quality method was presented using clear examples, which offered an in-depth understanding of using the method. As a result of the House of Quality, some first ideas for cultural tourism interventions were presented, then used in the following tools: Ideation washing machine and Multi-method process flow. The ideation washing machine was a new method for the partners and used for the first time in tourism development. It aims to give very out-of-the-box ideas combining interventions from House of Quality, keywords of meaningful place in the Placemaking method, and an extra, an action or object that makes a person feel happy or joyful. Combining these three elements, the ideas were brainstormed a little differently than usual. The teams chose one of the ideas and developed it further by using the Multi-method process flow. The method helps participants consider the unique local assets they identify as culturally interesting ones, employing stories and senses to design a sophisticated experience for cultural tourists. The final tool we used was Destination Design Roadmapping. The tool was used to support destinations to make conscious choices to set up a roadmap to prioritize the implementation of interventions based on resources under development and identified with system mapping. As an overall objective for tourism in destinations and using Destination Design Roadmapping, we can achieve: recent experiences/offerings, value proposition portfolio, experience supporting features, and support resources.
Conclusion
The two-day intensive program was certainly very tiring for many partners. Still, we received a lot of positive and enthusiastic feedback. Many of the methods were seen as valuable and helpful in our Living Lab locations. The application of the tools and methods was also considered during the days and afterward. The WP7 team evaluated the tools and methods using a survey sent to all participants after the Training of Trainers. The tools will be customized based on wishes and ideas, then introduced and described more in-depth in the final SmartCulTour Toolkit on cultural tourism policy development. The tools will assist development of policy recommendations and guidelines for cultural tourism, based on relevant stakeholders’ perceptions of key issues and opportunities. In addition, the WP7 will provide a Training aid for implementing the SmartCulTour Toolkit. These deliverables will be published in autumn 2022.
As foreseen by its role as leader of WP6, UNESCO has kicked off capacity-building actions in two of the six SmartCulTour Living Labs (LLs): the Metropolitan city of Split and the Municipality of Utsjoki. The subject and programme of the actions were defined in close consultation with the LLs stakeholders, with a co-designing approach.
The Split Living Lab recognized living heritage as one of the resources for strengthening cultural tourism and active community participation. Accordingly, UNESCO and the University of Split (as the LL manager) organized a series of workshops aimed at building the capacities of local stakeholders in strengthening the ICH-tourism synergy, with special focus on “Community-based inventorying and awareness raising”, which were prepared and delivered by the UNESCO-trained facilitator Ms Tamara Nikolic Djeric.
The training programme was organised in a hybrid format and was divided into four parts. The first online theoretical workshop presented the Convention, its ethical principles and methods of participatory inventorying, seeking to answer the question on how to ethically identify and inventory local knowledge for the development of cultural tourism.
During the second in-presence workshop, the Split Living Lab continued the discussion on inventorying with a special focus on community participation. Based on the participants’ inventorying activities, two ICH elements (Sirnica-making and Opanci-making) and two communities (Solin and Sinj) were identified as pilot projects for the development of the awareness raising campaign as second part of the workshop.
The third online meeting offered participants the opportunity to work on messages that they would like to convey through different awareness raising campaigns. The concepts of pride, continuity and intergenerational relations were widely articulated.
On this basis, the pilot project members and Duje Kundić, a Split-based artist and video-maker, met for the fourth workshop. Prior to the field-work, a scenario was developed, and semi-structured interviews undertaken with community members during the first shooting. The connection between the young artist and more experienced members of the local communities were recognized as key to awareness raising. “Relying on the power of intergenerational transmission, we hope that the results of this awareness raising campaign will be evident in the next future”, said the participants.
In the Municipality of Utsjoki, which also features a strong living heritage component mostly linked to the local Sàmi community, Living Lab participants opted for a pilot capacity-building programme on UNESCO’s approach to sustainable cultural tourism destination management, with a focus on how to ensure that the tourism sector contributes to the sustainable safeguarding and promotion of ICH, thereby preventing over commercialization, misappropriation and decontextualization.
During the first online workshop, held on 26 April 2022, Mr Peter Debrine, former coordinator of the World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism programme, delivered two introductory sessions, focusing respectively on “Understanding Tourism at your Destination” and “Communicating with visitors and heritage interpretation”. The presentation focused on UNESCO’s approach to destination management as a way to secure benefits for communities, safeguard their living heritage and enhance its values. For this to be achieved, it is key to invest in storytelling, namely the idea of a destination and its community telling their own story.
The presentation was followed by a participated discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of Utsjoki as a cultural tourism destination. The Sàmi culture was identified as an attractor, even though the issues of misappropriation and misrepresentation were raised by several participants. What emerged from their voices is that the tourism offer is too often tailored on visitors’ expectations and demand, in a way that disregards the local communities’ will. This is the case, for instance, of husky rides and igloos, which are widely requested by visitors although not being part of the Sàmi culture. These frictions should be addressed through an active participation of the local community in policy discussions on how and what kind of tourism should be developed in the region.
Taking the moves from the results of the online workshop, a follow-up session with the Utsjoki Living Lab will be held on 25 May next, focusing on how to develop a strategy for progressive change and add value through products, experiences, and services, as well as on innovative ways to communicate with visitors, including through digital media, marketing and promotion tools.
Local community in Solin preparing the traditional Easter cake during field visit. Photo credit: Tamara Nikolic Deric
Local community member in Sinj demonstrating the production of ‘opanci’ shoes during field visit. Photo credit: Tamara Nikolic Deric
Split workshop on community-based inventorying in developing sustainable cultural tourism led by Tamara Nikolic Deric, facilitator for the implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Photo credit: Ante Mandic
1st online session of the capacity building workshop on sustainable cultural tourism destination management for the Utsjoki Living Lab. Photo credit: Costanza Fidelbo.
It is generally agreed upon that cultural heritage can be an important strategic resource for a destination and provide both economic and non-economic benefits for local communities and visitors alike. However, strategies with regard to cultural tourism development remain somewhat scattered and tangible, readily available evidence on the benefits often remain ideological, anecdotal or local. Within this webinar, we focus on a broader analysis of cultural tourism policies, policy responses to Covid-19 and success conditions of different types of cultural tourism interventions. Lessons learned on both success conditions and barriers of implementation can serve further policy recommendations.
The webinar is jointly organized with the SPOT project and will be held next 20 June from 11:00 to 12:30 (CET). Speakers include Bart Neuts (KU Leuven, SmartCulTour), Milada Šťastná (Mendel University, SPOT), Alun Jones (CIHEAM Zaragoza, SmartCulTour), Claire Wallace (University of Aberdeen, SPOT), John Shaddock (University of Aberdeen, SPOT) and Simone Moretti (Breda University of Applied Sciences, SmartCulTour).
You can register and read all the details here: Webinar
From 11 to 13 May, the Living Lab of Split organized an exchange, within the framework of the SmartCulTour H2020 Project, with Lab managers and stakeholders from Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam and Università Ca’Foscari (Venezia) Vicenza Living Lab. The objective of this visit was to exchange experiences and discuss some of the challenges that local stakeholders face. The two-day event included a visit to the beautiful city of Sinj and the fantastic Stella Croatica experience centre in Klis. The next exchange will take place in June organized by Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam.
