THE_PROJECT – TOURiBOOST

THE PROJECT

Fully in accordance with the EU2020 Grand Societal Challenges, the European Heritage Year 2018, the New Narrative for Europe (https://www.nnfe.eu/) the TR2023 Development Strategy and the ERASMUS+ Objectives for Higher Education, TOURiBOOST is re-orienting tourism education with digital, social and intercultural competences to support local stakeholders tackle strategic innovation in heritage tourism.

TOURiBOOST establishes long lasting partnerships in 6 EU/TR regions (TR52/TR100/HU101/ NL321/ITD55/EL41), to upgrade heritage based offers for new investment opportunities in heritage tourism adhering to the rising force of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). The Transnational Partnership fosters tourism entrepreneurship exploiting the rising powers of the CCI to communicate heritage places to the connected consumer market. Challenges, the tourism sector faces with existing services, are matched with new skills for new jobs by addressing the new world order of Audiovisual Media Services (EU AVMSD/2016). 30 small/ micro enterprises in tourism are mentored that they grow in the regional/national/international context and enhance their competitiveness through the rise of 136 skilled workers.

TOURiBOOST builds an unprecedented opportunity to terminate the vicious circle of generating and distributing low quality tourism commodities exchangeable by price: a methodological framework assists capacity building of 136 tourism stakeholders, who apply project-based learning in TR52/TR100/HU101/NL321/ITD55/EL41, to engage in tourism innovation. Thus culture-driven consumption is advanced across the Project Area and beyond by communicating cultural values, from natural monuments and ecosystems to sites and collections, from the arts to traditions and handicrafts inspiring new forms of cultural consumption, and skilling young professionals into the management of heritage..

To prevent brain drain and effectively address the skills gaps tourism stakeholders and SMEs are facing, skills needs and supply-demand trends are mapped transforming the teaching/ learning practice in Higher Education, while tourism employers are assisted in recruiting and retaining talents at local level. A new skills-mindset is inducing business sophistication with business models built on customer insights, key experiences and stakeholder participation integrating transversal key competences into the product-process innovation.

The Partnership perceives the 2020 Grand Societal Challenges as a new force to design and deliver the new high quality tourism experience that supports the extroversion of heritage places and trains tourism stakeholders to understand the socio-economic potential of heritage. The Partnership defines culture-based solutions for community-led development, market opportunities and facilitates 6 new investments in heritage tourism putting the cultural heritage experience into the heart of tourism reform in the Project Area and beyond.

TOURiBOOST incorporates heritage education into upskilling pathway of Higher Education in tourism. The innovation is guiding professionals to further develop exceptional experiences at heritage places and connect offers to global markets transforming the product-buyer into a product-seller. Novel skills acquired are certified according to the European Qualification Framework (EQF) to support 136 local stakeholders access key tourism markets and invest in heritage tourism. In this way a novel cultural consumption pattern is launched in the Project Area: it is communicating cultural values to visitors and users impacting consumer choices at heritage places.

TOURiBOOST is challenging the traditional tourism generation by remodeling supply-demand at places with natural and cultural significance. Meeting market needs for authentic experiences, the desire for cultural capital and environmental protection, a new cultural mobility is launched in the Project Area: the ATTRACTION CLUSTER, a unique multimodal tourism product-service set with 30 selling points in the Project Area is connecting the technology- intense experience with onsite authenticity to let supply-demand converge and combat seasonality.

Cross-sectoral cooperation and post-project operation are ensured through the Project-driven statutory Association SMART SKILLS OBSERVATORY with five branches in TR/HU/NL/IT/GR, which inherits the PROJECT LEGACY with a highly transferable training infrastructure for tourism with 42 durable training tools. In this way the continuation of works, sales-distribution in 30 heritage places in the Project area, business extroversion and further funding are ensured by highly skilled workers implementing and selling new customized heritage tourism services being interconnected at (g)local level.

THE PROJECT

PARTNERS