CERTESS presents project results

ITAS and its eleven international partners analyzed the design and management of European cultural routes and developed a tool kit for cultural tourism networks.
Foto: © CERTESS partnership

The scientists involved in "CERTESS – Cultural European Routes: Transfer Experiences, Share Solutions" compiled project manuals for nine European cultural routes – from cultural landscapes of the Romanian Carpathians to archaeological sites on the Balearics. The ITAS team analyzed the network and governance structures behind the cultural routes and published a "tool kit for establishing a cultural tourism network and a cultural route". The publication provides support for a long-term strategic management and coordination of cultural routes right from their establishment, despite the large number of different actors from administration, culture, and tourism.

In the first section, the authors analyze cultural tourism networks, present results, and provide recommendations for actions. Their analysis is based on the "good practices" identified during the project and "governance instruments" in the European partner regions, complemented with successful regional examples in Baden-Württemberg. The second part of the tool kit is a planning aid and orientation guide for the navigation of cultural routes and addresses existing European networks. The contents of the tool kit are in particular intended to support the regional policy in Baden‐Württemberg.

The pdf file of the tool kit is available for download.

The CERTESS results also include an online data base with 41 examples of "good practices" from the field of cultural routes and cultural tourism. They provide suggestions and ideas for the successful design of a cultural route and indicate the required resources. The data base also documents a total of 83 "governance instruments" which structure, facilitate, and improve the cooperation of different actors along a cultural route.

The project results were presented to an interested audience from culture, tourism, and politics during the final international CERTESS conference in Luxembourg and a regional conference in Baden-Baden.

CERTESS was funded in the framework of the INTERREG IVC program and co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). (04.03.2015)

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