ADRIATIC-ROUTE FOR THEMATIC TOURISM
Program: IPA ADRIATIC Cross Border Cooperation 2007-2013
Lead Beneficiary: Region of Epirus, Greece
Project length: 10/2012 – 03/2016
Project budget: € 1.784.484,22 (DUNEA proračun € 246.790,37)
Partners:
DUNEA – Dubrovnik Neretva Regional Development Agency
Province of Padua, Italy
Region of Marche, Italy
SERDA – Sarajevo Regional Development Agency
Municipality of Saranda, Albania
Project description: ADRIATIC-ROUTE represents a project that is based on the use of new ICT (information and communication technologies) as well as on the promotion of awareness and enhancement of the territory in culture and multimedia. It aims at promoting alternative forms of tourism in the Adriatic area through multimodal transport systems. The ultimate goal is to increase mobility in the participating regions for thematic tourism purposes, with special emphasis on gastronomy , while at the same time promoting accessibility from one region/country to the other. The term “Gastronomy” implies both culture and food, thus is represents a significant sector with great potential in the cross-border area.
This goal will be achieved through the development of a Web-GIS platform that will connect tourism/cultural/natural resources and transport systems of the participating regions while at the same time it will improve accessibility to information and services to tourism/cultural/natural resources and transport systems.
The lack of a systematized approach for the promotion of the whole territory combined with seasonality and mass tourism in many Adriatic areas, implies that alternative forms of tourism have not been thoroughly examined and exploited in the cross-border area, leaving a lot of space for formulation and implementation of relevant common initiatives. Furthermore, the lack of accessibility to touristic information along with the limited number of communication media used for the promotion of tourism/cultural/natural resources highlight the need for a more integrated ICT-based approach.
The project also promotes joint ventures in the tourism sector while the cooperation actions proposed concern cultural and natural heritage, training, institutional capacity building and investment promotion.
Benefits brought by the development and promotion of alternative forms of tourism are significant:
Prolongation of tourism season
Expansion of tourism activities (i.e. differentiation of the tourism product)
Promotion of local identities
Creation of sustainable and high-quality jobs
Attraction of high-income, educated and sophisticated tourists.
Furthermore, alternative forms of tourism seem to represent a continuously growing market segment which is expected to account for 20% of all travel, set to grow faster than any other segment. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) predicts that most of the increase in European tourism receipts in the next decades will come from alternative forms of travel.
Web page: www.adriatic-route.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AdriaticRouteProject/?fref=ts