INI-Novation Bulgaria is a host of training sessions for cultural tourism start-ups

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Angela Ivanova in Events, Start-ups | Leave a comment

The city of Veliko Tarnovo, a hotbed for cultural traditions & crafts production in north central Bulgaria, hosted the training session, organized by INI-Novation Bulgaria, as part of the International Tourism Fair “Cultural Tourism”.

This event proved to be a great success: representatives from municipalities, art organisations, tourism agencies and single start-ups showed a lot of interest in the presentations of EUROPETOUR partners Karin Drda-Kühn (Kultur und Arbeit e.V., Germany), Angela Ivanova (INI-Novation), Wolfgang Kniejski (INI-Novation), Lacramioara Beilic (Bucovina Tourism, Romania) and Antonio Kuzmanovski (Macedonian start-up “WheninX“).

THE MULTIPLIER EVENT

After an introduction about the vision of EUROPETOUR by Karin Drda-Kühn (Kultur und Arbeit e.V., Germany), Angela Ivanova (INI-Novation Bulgaria) presented the EUROPETOUR training modules and one of the main topics of interest for the Bulgarian tourism stakeholders and mainly startups in tourism: Positioning, branding, marketing of cultural tourism in rural areas and the importance of networking. Her presentation was built on so called case-based learning: By providing a best practice example surrounded by theoretical knowledge and practical exercises, a better understanding about the specifics of the topic was achieved.

After that, Lacramioara Beilic (Bucovina Tourism, Romania) presented the region of Bucovina as a best practice example and opportunity for collaboration between Bulgarian and Romanian stakeholders. She highlight her “vision for networking”, sharing what the Bucovina region did for addressing the specific needs of cultural travellers in a successful way.

Wolfgang Kniejski (INI-Novation Bulgaria) gave a deep overview of financing instruments with special emphasis on topics such as value generation chains in cultural tourism, business planning, sales and distribution, as well as market-oriented financing. Best practise examples were provided and many insides about how to build a successful project idea were discussed.

At the end, a best practice presentation about distribution policies from Macedonia complemented the event. Antonio Kuzmanovski, CEO of the Macedonian start-up “WheninX“, presented a service-driven technological solution for fostering cultural programmes for locals and visitors.

EUROPETOUR – new training for cultural tourism in rural areas

A young girl by cell phone photographed of The smallest cathedral in the world, church of the Holy cross, Nin, Croatia

Being successful in cultural tourism needs training for cultural workers, tourism experts, business developers and representatives of public authorities. In urban areas there already are numerous examples for successful cooperation, but good practice in rural areas is rather rare. Specifically, training is needed in professionally using social media and online marketing of tourism services. Identifying the actual training needs is one of the objectives of EUROPETOUR and developing a detailed training program accordingly. EUROPETOUR will be implemented until 2018 in eight European regions, supported by the European ERASMUS+ programme.

First of all, the project partners aim at identifying the necessary steps for successful cultural tourism development in rural areas. In a second step, training modules for local stakeholders wishing to develop or foster their own skills are established, including guidelines for the use of social media as well as online marketing in cultural heritage, and cultural tourism. The guidelines will be available in seven European languages in order to get European outreach.

European travellers on their way to discover cultural heritage

Additionally, all project partners to EUROPETOUR have committed to developing networked, tangible offers and ready-made packages across Europe. In this way, travellers with a special interest in, say, castles and monasteries or creative travel, should end up with a tailor-made travel arrangement allowing them to explore the Italian region Marke, the Spanish region Cantabria or the German region of the Heilbronner Land in a similar way. Opportunities provided by social media as well as the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, are to be directly addressed. The goal is to generate income for cultural tourism stakeholders, to develop attractive packages for cultural travellers and to benefit from the best-practice examples demonstrated by the project partners across Europe.

Participating partners and cultural touristic networks