Heritage Interpretation through Digital Storytelling for Experiential Tourism Development in Rural Areas / INHERIT
Programme: Erasmus+
Key action: Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training
Start date: September 1, 2023
End date: August 31, 2025
Duration: 24 months
Coordinator: Devetaki Plateau Association (www.devetakiplateau.org)
Partners:
Tetra Solutions Ltd., Bulgaria (www.tetra-solutions.eu)
Naturalwalks, Spain (www.naturalwalks.com)
Kato Drys Community Council, Cyprus (http://www.katodrys.org/english/history.shtm)
Občianske združenie Lišov Múzeum (www.lisovmuzeum.sk)
Objectives:
The overall objective of our project is to enhance capacity of micro and small tourism enterprises and aspiring entrepreneurs in rural areas to create and promote new experiential tourism products based on local heritage interpretation augmented by digital technologies and tools.
The specific objectives are to:
- Develop a 2-credit / 50-hour continuing vocational training course in the cross-fields of experiential tourism product development and digital marketing, heritage interpretation and digital storytelling.
- Develop knowledge and skills of owners and managers of micro and small tourism enterprises and aspiring entrepreneurs in rural areas needed to engage in the process of experiential tourism product development, valorizing local natural and cultural heritage and using digital technologies and tools.
- Create a digital portfolio of heritage interpretation stories, “heritage trails” and “thematic quests” that could be experienced in the partners’ rural areas, forming a basis of experiential tourism products of the given destinations.
- Promote wide dissemination and exploitation of the project results for enhancing travellers’ experience and supporting sustainable development of tourism in natural and rural destinations.
Key results:
- Modular course in the fields of experiential tourism product development, heritage interpretation, digital storytelling & digital marketing, incl. a Syllabus, 4 Learning Modules with lectures, learning activities, self-assessment tests, and a Training Toolkit (methodological guidelines for trainers).
- Transnational 3-day, 1-credit/ 25-hour Train the Trainer workshop in Bulgaria with min. 10 C-VET trainers from the partner trained to deliver the Course.
- Pilot implementation of the INHERIT course with min. 40 participants (3 one-day face-to-face sessions, 24 hours, and individual learning, 26 hours) trained to create and promote new experiential tourism products based on the INHERIT approach.
- Portfolio of 40 digital heritage interpretation stories, 12 heritage trails marked on digital maps & 12 thematic quests.
- Project’s Dissemination and Exploitation Plan, visual identity, website and platform containing all project’s outputs, and final dissemination conferences in BG, CY, ES & SK gathering min.150 participants.
Target groups:
PRIMARY
- Owners and managers of micro and small tourism enterprises in rural areas (such as providers of accommodation, tourist attractions and tourist activities), farmers, local craft makers, etc., who would like to diversity their business by developing and providing new tourism products and services;
- Aspiring entrepreneurs, in particular young people, women and unemployed, who could start a new tourism business in the local area;
- Vocational education and training providers, in particular continuing VET centers in rural areas that are interested in expanding their education and training offer by a new course in experiential tourism;
- Local authorities, NGOs, foundations, associations, etc., whose mandate is related to rural development and who can reach out to and mobilize local communities to develop a joint tourism product for their rural destination.
SECONDARY
- Travellers visiting rural destinations
- Tour guides and nature guides who could use the developed resources
- Learners outside of rural areas, interested in the topics of our course
- Other groups of education providers interested in integrating our course (or parts of it) in their education and training offers (e.g. tourism schools)
- Tourism associations and tourism boards who can further promote domestics rural tourism