
PROJECT IDENTIFICATION
The Project “SMART TRAVEL ON CULTURAL ROUTES” with the acronym “SMART TOUR” is being implemented under the “INTERREG IPA II CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROGRAMME GREECE – ALBANIA 2014-2020” and is co-funded by the European Union and National Funds of the participating countries.
PRIORITY AXES: 2. Boosting the local economy
THEMATIC PRIORITY: Encouraging tourism and cultural and natural heritage
OBJECTIVES
Overall objective: SMART TOUR project aims to protect, preserve and develop the cultural heritage of the CB area, promoting sustainable tourism and boosting economic growth via creation of innovative experiential tourism Destinations, ICT tools and branded products involving sites, partners and cross border cultural routes. SMART TOUR is going beyond simple destination management branding and tools, aiming at transforming tourism offering to Travel Experiences. At the end, visitors will be connected to area through unique experiences that tell the story of a destination’s people, culture, tradition, gastronomy, nature and geography. Local Actors, supported by SMART TOUR capacity building actions/knowledge transfer, will be able to offer unique experiences for visitors. Specific objectives are:
- O1: Formulation of an Integrated Strategy for the development of Experiential Tourism offering and its branding in the CB area connected to cultural routes.
- O2: Increase of the Experiential Tourism Capacity of cultural, tourism and creative industry stakeholders and actors in local, regional, cross border and national level.
- O3: Provision of a sustainable technological framework to support Immersive Experiential Tourism offering utilizing cloud technologies, virtual and augmented reality, intuitive and interactive user experience design, open systems, architecture and standards.
- O4: Provision of sustainable paradigms and showcases for Experiential Tourism offering connected to UNESCO routes, Ancient Heritage, Museums, tangible and intangible culture driven by local actors to support local economic development.
- O5: Assure transferability, expandability and sustainability of the project.
OUTPUTS
Experiential Capacity Building, Dissemination, Sustainability linked to objectives O1, O2, O5:
- Study of the Experiential Tourism Market Potential, Branding and Destination Management tools for the CB Area of Greece and Albania.
- Strategic Analysis of the Digital Content Management in the Era of Experience.
- Establishment of the Cross-Border Network of Creative Experiences Actors.
- Publicity and Dissemination (3 Information Days, brochures, media campaign.
- Experiential Dissemination showcases coupled with high tech immersive technologies and gamification tools for youth, e.g. “sense my roots”, “local music karaoke, “cook as my grandmother”, “design your souvenir”, “paint my nature”, jointly design with local communities.
- Final Scientific Conference “technology as a driving tool for enhanced Cultural Experiences”.
- Capitalization Strategy as per transferability, expandability and service offering models
Innovative Sustainable ICT Products, Services and Pilot Demonstrations, linked to Objectives O3, O4, O5:
- SMART TOUR Cloud Platform, the technological backbone of the project, with tools for data management, digital libraries, e-learning, aggregators, social networking, multimedia, 3D, VR/AR models, LB tourism assets, user driven UI and authoring tools, etc.
- SMART PORTAL as the main access point to project content and services, used by “creative experience actor” to create mini promotional web sites for its “experience offering” and from “consumers” to enjoy the experiences.
- SMART REALITY Platform and Intuitive Tools for User Interaction Design, for adding VR/AR/MX dimensions to the Experiential Tourism Offering.
- Three large scale pilots: “UNESCO Roots Experiential Identity”, “Antiquities Routes Enhanced Travel Experience” and “Museums in the Era of Experience”, as unique paradigms on how the project technology can enhance the local tourism experience offering.
RESULTS
- R1. The development of a coherent & comprehensive CB strategy for the experiential tourism offering, branding and marketing.
- R2. Increased innovation capacity for the CB region and beyond as per Digital Cultural Content Management, with embedded sustainability, repeatability and expandability constituting a significant toolkit for the digital preservation of the tangible and intangible assets.
- R3. Increased visibility and promotion of the selected CB area to the Global Immersive Tourism Market.
- R4. Increased Visibility of local traditions, gastronomy, artisan products, services and enterprises, including tourism and creative industries via the Cross-Border Network and Smart Portal.
- R5. Fifteen (15) new Experiential Tourism Products will be created within the project as result of three local Experiential Activities (2 per activity), three large scale Pilots Actions (1 per Pilot) and 2 per region as result of the user engagement through Cross Border Network of Creative Actors.
- R6. Visitors increase in the cross-border area. It can be measured by the number of on-site visitors, linked also to the result indicator of the programme “annual overnight tourist stays in cross border area”. A target value of 20.000 overnight tourist stays is set by the project for its contribution to Programme’s respective indicator including a 1.000 increase in expected number of visits to supported sites.
- R7. Cross border economy strengthened via new product offering and Holistic Marketing through SMART PORTAL.
- R8. Cloud Infrastructure, Tools, Equipment and Systems necessary for further development of the Experiential Tourism in the CB area are established.