Cultural and natural heritage is very important at all levels, local, regional, national and European, consisting of several dimensions that can lead to resource efficiency, through deployment for sustainable and responsible tourism development, with innovative character. Policies for heritage applications to eco-cultural tourism need to be further developed, implemented and monitored, through inter-regional cooperation. CHRISTA (Culture and Heritage for Responsible, Innovative and Sustainable Tourism Actions) project in the Interreg Europe inter-regional cooperation programme of EU, aims to protect and preserve natural and cultural heritage assets and deploy them for the development and promotion of innovative, sustainable and responsible tourism strategies, including intangible and industrial heritage, through interpretation and digitisation, with capitalisation of good practices, policy learning, policy implementation and capacity building. CHRISTA project started in April 2016, involving 10 partners from 10 EU Member States regional and local authorities, as well as tourism authorities in 9 EU regions.
Project partners are:
During four years, the project partners will focus on the improvement of regional operational programmes, regional/local startegies and plans in nine destination regions, advances in relevant policy implementation, as well as upgrading of cultural and natural assets and innovative applications. The project main outputs will be Action Plans, with implementation and monitoring of improved Regional Operational Programmes, regional/local Strategies and Plans in nine destination regions, communication and dissemination tools for policy learning and capacity building, contribution to EU policies and EU2020 targets. The main beneficiaries are public authorities and their stakeholders. The overall budget of CHRISTA project is 1,771,775 EUR, co-financed by European Regional Development Fund with a budget of 1,506,008.75 EUR (85%). This project is made possible by the financial support from the European Union – the Interreg Europe programme and European Regional Development Fund.
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CHRISTA Inauguration
23 - 24 May 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece Project CHRISTA Inauguration was started by 1st Interregional Steering Committee Meeting which took place in Thessaloniki, Greece on 23 – 24 May 2016. At this meeting the project partners were introduced to each other, presented their regions and cultural assets and discussed the four selected good practices as well as the roles and tasks of the project and its partners. European Cultural Tourism Network will be the project Communication Manager, coordinate the inter-regional exchange of experience policy learning process by providing technical assistance to the partners on the specific topics through external expertise, as well as secure durability of the project results through continuity in policies, responsible tourism actions beyond the project end and making the policy learning and capacities available to other destination authorities. |
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1st Workshop: Intangible Heritage Tourism
22 - 24 September 2016, Guimaraes, Portugal The first day of the Inter-regional workshop, 22 September, started with presentation on the 'State of the Art' of intangible heritage for sustainable cultural tourism' by external expert Dr Jordi Tresserras of the University of Barcelona LabPRTC/Ibertur, appointed by partner ECTN. Partners destinations presented intangible heritage assets in their regions, best practices in terms of deploying them for cultural tourism development and promotion. Discussion was following on the key questions:
On the second day, 23 September, the Workshop theme was exposed to a wider audience with keynote speakers, policy makers, experts and external contributors in the conference format, entitled: ‘Intangible Heritage: Incomparable Asset for Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Development’. The conference programme was enriched with a Study Tour in Ave region on the third day, 24 September, which included visits to Guimaraes “Oficina” (traditional Needlework and “Lovers Pottery”, the railway museum of Arco de Baúlhe and the Tamancos exhibition, to Casa da Lã - Bucos – Cabeceiras de Basto – project for the development of traditional wool craft and demonstrations of Luta do Pau - Bucos – Cabeceiras de Basto (traditional stick fight). More photos available HERE. |
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