Be.CULTOUR Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy is a new Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission and led by CNR-IRISS.
Be.CULTOUR is a new Horizon 2020 innovation project funded by the European Commission and led by CNR-IRISS. Be.CULTOUR stands for Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy. It expresses the goal to move beyond tourism through a longer-term human-centred development perspective, enhancing cultural heritage and landscape values.
The project proposal has received an evaluation of 15 out of 15 points, scoring first above other 86 proposals submitted in March 2020. It will start in February 2021, in a particular period when global tourism is addressing the greatest crisis since ever, due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The project will contribute to the post-Covid recovery of the tourism sector in Europe and beyond, identifying alternative cultural tourism services and products in line with the human-centred circular economy model, and contributing first of all to local communities recovery, trust and cohesion.
The project is worth 4 Million Euro and will last 3 years (2021-2023) during which the experienced Consortium partners will co-create and test sustainable human-centred innovations for circular cultural tourism through collaborative innovation networks/methodologies and improved investments strategies, targeting deprived remote, peripheral or deindustrialized areas and cultural landscapes as well as over-exploited areas.
This project will develop specific strategies to promote an understanding of cultural tourism, which moves away from a stop-and-go consumer-oriented approach towards one that puts humans and circular economy models at its centre, paying attention to nature, communities and cultural diversity. Place, intended as the genius loci, the ancient spirit of the site expressing its intrinsic value and people as co-creators of its uniqueness, culture, art, tradition, folklore, productivity, spirituality, as well as its time space routine, are the focus of Be.CULTOUR, which aims at realizing a longer-term development project for the pilot areas involved.
Be.CULTOUR responds to the Topic of Innovative approaches to urban and regional development through cultural tourism (H2020 transformations-04-2019-2020), and addresses its specific scopes through a systemic framework of innovation actions focused on a longer-term human-centred development perspective through integrated sustainable and circular cultural tourism solutions in 6 pilot regional ecosystems and additional 12 mirror ecosystems in EU and non-EU countries of Northern-Central and Southern Europe, the Balkans, the Eastern neighbourhood and the Mediterranean.
Be.CULTOUR will build a Community of Practice in Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Sweden, Serbia and at the cross-border area of North-East Romania and Moldova (WP3). Additional 12 EU and neighbouring mirror regions and cities will be actively engaged and invited to share their best practices and participate in the co-creation, peer-learning and capacity building activities. This activity will be the backbone of the Be.CULTOUR Community of Interest (WP4).
The Be.CULTOUR Consortium comprises 15 partners, including: 4 research institutes; 5 provincial and regional authorities; 1 consultancy specialized in financial services; 1 Foundation as support for engaging local stakeholders; 1 Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities implementing the Action Plan; 1 non-profit organization active in the environmental protection; ICLEI and ERRIN as European umbrella organizations representing respectively local and regional governments.
The CNR-IRISS team coordinating the project is strongly inter-disciplinary: Antonia Gravagnuolo, architect and expert in evaluation methods for cultural heritage and landscape conservation and circular economy, co-coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project CLIC led by CNR-IRISS, and Alessandra Marasco, service management researcher and expert in collaborative innovation and service experience design in cultural tourism. Scientific responsible for many research projects at CNR-IRISS. The coordination of this project is supported by prof. Luigi Fusco Girard, Emeritus Professor at the University of Naples Federico II and Associate at CNR-IRISS, and Alfonso Morvillo, Research Director and expert in tourism economy.