Cultural and natural heritage is an important legacy left to future generations, but often neglected or put on the back burner. With that in mind, the BOOST5 project, funded by the Interreg V A Italy-Croatia CBC programme, aims to valorise and preserve the rich cultural heritage of Adriatic Croatia and Italy, while supporting economic growth and development through its sustainable use.
Why promote our cultural heritage?
By raising awareness of the importance of cultural and natural heritage, we keep the traditions and uniqueness of our regions alive; we realise the full potential of undeveloped tourist destinations.
The project will identify poorly developed tourist sites, isolated areas, abandoned heritage, and low adoption of digital solutions in tourism. Subsequently, strategies will be developed to create new and sustainable tourist initiatives, attractions, goods, and services.
It is important to mention that BOOST5 uses the results of five previous projects funded by the Interreg V A Italy-Croatia CBC programme, which supported economic growth in the Adriatic territory (ATLAS), protected and valorised unexploited natural and cultural capital (MADE IN-LAND), directed the attention of regional and local communities and potential investors to lost heritage (REVIVAL), created pop-up exhibitions in the area’s ports (TEMPUS), and grew underwater eco-museums (UNDERWATERMUSE).
Promoting sustainability
How can we give greater importance to heritage? What channels should we use to achieve this? The answer is quite simple: by promoting sustainable tourism. However, despite the simplicity of the answer, the solution requires extensive actions.
BOOST5 aims to remove major obstacles to the full development of sustainable tourism through capacity-building, finding new market opportunities, promoting environmental awareness, and paving the way for accreditation of tourist areas.
We expect the project to: emphasise opportunities in cultural tourism, improve planning and programming, highlight the importance of deepening knowledge about cultural and natural heritage, and better coordinate the flow of tourists.
Tangible results
Raising awareness of the importance of heritage is a long-term process. The results we are working on include:
1) a written thematic best practices catalogue with over 30 examples of projects that can be used as a reference for future ones;
2) an inventory of different examples and types of heritage in minor territories of Italy and Croatia (urban, inland, archaeological, underwater, coastal, industrial) that could be included in sustainable cultural routes;
3) guidelines for the design and exploitation of alternative natural and cultural routes in Italy and Croatia;
4) the white paper identifying financial opportunities to improve the tourism sector in the programming period 2021 – 2027. The document provides an overview of the main financial instruments (both transnational and national) that can be used to achieve this. As a key reference point, the white paper takes into account pillar 4 of the EU strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian region;
5) the flagship paper containing a comprehensive set of new project ideas and proposals for the 2021 – 2027 programming period, aiming to develop sustainable and thematic natural and cultural routes in the minor territories of Italy and Croatia, inspired by the above-mentioned best practices catalogue;
6) the permanent cross-border observatory. New organisations will be able to join the initiative established by the MADE IN-LAND project, participate in implementing the cross-border strategy and contribute to using natural and cultural heritage to promote the sustainable development of inland areas;
7) the masterclasses programme, consisting of five permanently available online trainings, to give those working in the tourism sector the knowledge and skills to allow them to relaunch tourist destinations and take advantage of sustainable tourism opportunities.
In the hope that this brief presentation has awakened your curiosity, we invite you to read more about the project at https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/boost5, and on the following social networks:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BOOST5Project
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcanUhvKJhtInumfOxMlJvw
Twitter - https://twitter.com/BOOST5Project
