The overall objective is to build on experiences and exploit the outputs, methods, results, policies and strategies of previous projects and initiatives in the field of culture, heritage and sustainable tourism development strategies and to potentially transfer highly relevant Good Practices between the participating regions and Europe-wide, as added value to regional policy formulation and implementation, as well as contributing to the Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas.

 

Sub-objectives are:

 

  • To exchange experience amongst the partners in established Good Practices on the sustainable management of cultural heritage and landscape


  • To use best practice from previous projects and the current exchange of experience to refine and consolidate a policy framework to improve the sustainable management of heritage tourism destinations within regions in 11 different countries of the EU. Also capitalise on the results of relevant initiatives taken at EU level, such as Qualitest, the benchmarking scheme for quality management of tourism destinations, and the European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) initiative, both developed and supported by EC DG Enterprise Tourism Unit, the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, the annual European Tourism Forum, Cultural Forum and the work of the EC Tourism Unit and approaches developed by other regions and support the possible application of these initiatives and approaches to Mainstream Programmes


  • To transfer established & succesfully applied Good Practices of heritage tourism management between regions of Europe. The best practices are in the field of climate change, effective partnerships, host community engagement, quality criteria, visitor accessibility, visitor information, place marketing, cultural routes, railway heritage, local products and gastronomy, traditional skills and cycling for tourists. The project brings in experience from partners and previous initiatives as added value, which would not be able to be transfered without the interregional cooperation in INTERREG IVC.


  • To support and provide added value from initiatives at EU Level regarding the Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas, by fostering competitiveness and cohesion, more and better jobs, while preserving and enhancing the environment, culture, heritage and landscape


  • To deliver Implementation Plans in partner regions, including details for the regional policy formulation and implementation with regard to the Good Practices, as well as integration of the results into local, regional, national & EU policies


  • To involve all key stakeholders in culture and tourism in all partner regions, as well as stakeholders from other sectors, which are related to sustainable regional development and socio-economic cohesion


  • To disseminate the Project's outputs and results beyond the interregional partnership and throughout the EU and influence policy makers in other regions, EU Institutions (EP, CoR, EC), CoE, international bodies (UNWTO, UNESCO, WTTC) and relevant networks (Europa Nostra, NECSTouR).