Periodic Reporting for period 1 - rurALLURE (Promotion of rural museums and heritage sites in the vicinity of European pilgrimage routes)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-01-01 bis 2021-12-31
The pilgrimage routes of Europe are becoming a significant economic and political asset. On the one hand, the thousands of travelers mobilize substantial resources around them, to the point that the economic impact of Camino de Santiago alone was estimated to exceed 300 million euros in 2019. On the other hand, many routes are transnational and act as vehicles for cultural exchange and cross-border relationships.
The rurAllure project aims to harness opportunities due to the growing popularity of pilgrimage and by the diversification of the pilgrim/tourist motivations and profiles. It addresses the problem that the impact of pilgrimage is almost exclusively perceived in the places located directly on the paths, rarely permeating into the surrounding rural areas. The project plans to overcome this situation through the allure of the cultural heritage found in the rural environment, taking advantage from the fact that pilgrimage is usually planned with some flexibility regarding dates, distances traveled in successive journeys, places to rest, etc.
The concept put forward by rurAllure is that of a network of institutions that could benefit from the flows of people on nearby pilgrimage routes. Those institutions will work together to analyze relevant initiatives for the development of cultural routes and for rural promotion, to develop and test new strategies, and to come up with recommendations for integrated future action during the decade 2021-2030.
The members of the network will be provided with an IT platform featuring specialized content management facilities and web-based tools that will make it easy for pilgrims/tourists to discover the most interesting resources and experiences, to arrange transportation to/from the towns and villages, if needed, and to find suitable accommodation and dining possibilities in the rural environment.
The strategies and recommendations are assessed in four pilot studies, conducted in regions of Europe traversed by different transnational pilgrimage routes, and focusing on different facets of cultural heritage relevant to regional development. The pilots are developed within a cohesive framework to ensure that the outcomes will be exchangeable and exportable at the European level.
The rurAllure project aims to harness opportunities due to the growing popularity of pilgrimage and by the diversification of the pilgrim/tourist motivations and profiles. It addresses the problem that the impact of pilgrimage is almost exclusively perceived in the places located directly on the paths, rarely permeating into the surrounding rural areas. The project plans to overcome this situation through the allure of the cultural heritage found in the rural environment, taking advantage from the fact that pilgrimage is usually planned with some flexibility regarding dates, distances traveled in successive journeys, places to rest, etc.
The concept put forward by rurAllure is that of a network of institutions that could benefit from the flows of people on nearby pilgrimage routes. Those institutions will work together to analyze relevant initiatives for the development of cultural routes and for rural promotion, to develop and test new strategies, and to come up with recommendations for integrated future action during the decade 2021-2030.
The members of the network will be provided with an IT platform featuring specialized content management facilities and web-based tools that will make it easy for pilgrims/tourists to discover the most interesting resources and experiences, to arrange transportation to/from the towns and villages, if needed, and to find suitable accommodation and dining possibilities in the rural environment.
The strategies and recommendations are assessed in four pilot studies, conducted in regions of Europe traversed by different transnational pilgrimage routes, and focusing on different facets of cultural heritage relevant to regional development. The pilots are developed within a cohesive framework to ensure that the outcomes will be exchangeable and exportable at the European level.
The first months (January to May) focused on providing foundations for the pilots to start their work in June. This included setting up the collaboration processes and tools for the partners, ensuring adherence to ethics regulations, creating the project’s brand and website, ensuring that all the partners had shared understanding of the functionalities to be provided by the IT platform, and assessing the common guidelines that could be provided to the pilots. These guidelines included the following aspects:
- A common approach to profile pilgrims/tourists and their trip motivations, both during the stage of preparing future travel plans, and once they are already “en route”.
- Reference data about the pilot routes, including GPS coordinates, points of interest along the official paths and in the rural surroundings, relevant statistics from previous years, multimedia contents that may be reused, etc.
- Data models for Cultural Heritage resources and services (accommodation, transport, activities, etc.) for pilgrims/tourists.
- References about the narratives that could be offered to the pilgrims/tourists as they travel, to promote the understanding of the rural territories they traverse and the discovery of points of interest.
- A mapping of policies at various NUTS levels, identifying relevant stakeholders and policymakers that might become members of the rurAllure network of institutions, and defining the terms of collaboration agreements.
- A detailed set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Complementary Performance Indicators (CPIs), to be used as reference in the pilot reports.
The pilots started in June 2021, and their overall plans and progress were assessed in a General Meeting in September. Some pilots managed to organize activities already in 2021 oriented to different pilgrim/tourist profiles, showing them to points of cultural interest in the rural environment. In parallel, the development of the IT platform made progress steadily, making the content management facilities ready for use by the pilots through dedicated frontends. The trip planning, booking management and other services were ready in first version, too. As a key output, a Policy Brief was written that yields four main recommendations:
- To develop a common governance model for pilgrimage routes all over Europe with shared priorities and clear responsibilities, allowing dialogue and coordination.
- To support infrastructure development and management of pilgrimage routes through the Recovery and Resiliency Facility (RRF) and current programming period funds.
- To set common standards and criteria to measure the performance and impacts of pilgrimage routes.
- To foster opportunities for public authorities’ capacity building on pilgrimage routes at local and regional level.
- A common approach to profile pilgrims/tourists and their trip motivations, both during the stage of preparing future travel plans, and once they are already “en route”.
- Reference data about the pilot routes, including GPS coordinates, points of interest along the official paths and in the rural surroundings, relevant statistics from previous years, multimedia contents that may be reused, etc.
- Data models for Cultural Heritage resources and services (accommodation, transport, activities, etc.) for pilgrims/tourists.
- References about the narratives that could be offered to the pilgrims/tourists as they travel, to promote the understanding of the rural territories they traverse and the discovery of points of interest.
- A mapping of policies at various NUTS levels, identifying relevant stakeholders and policymakers that might become members of the rurAllure network of institutions, and defining the terms of collaboration agreements.
- A detailed set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Complementary Performance Indicators (CPIs), to be used as reference in the pilot reports.
The pilots started in June 2021, and their overall plans and progress were assessed in a General Meeting in September. Some pilots managed to organize activities already in 2021 oriented to different pilgrim/tourist profiles, showing them to points of cultural interest in the rural environment. In parallel, the development of the IT platform made progress steadily, making the content management facilities ready for use by the pilots through dedicated frontends. The trip planning, booking management and other services were ready in first version, too. As a key output, a Policy Brief was written that yields four main recommendations:
- To develop a common governance model for pilgrimage routes all over Europe with shared priorities and clear responsibilities, allowing dialogue and coordination.
- To support infrastructure development and management of pilgrimage routes through the Recovery and Resiliency Facility (RRF) and current programming period funds.
- To set common standards and criteria to measure the performance and impacts of pilgrimage routes.
- To foster opportunities for public authorities’ capacity building on pilgrimage routes at local and regional level.
The project seeks to achieve impact by introducing cost-effective and accessible means for agents in the rural environment to gain visibility and allure through their cultural heritage. The goals include:
- Serving as a model to extend promotional actions all along the pilgrimage routes selected for the pilots, involving as many of the relevant agents as possible from the rural environment.
- Conducting dissemination actions to transfer strategies, recommendations and tools to other European routes.
- Promoting knowledge of rural spaces in other territories, fostering the exchange of ideas and experiences, reinforcing the visibility of the heritage resources and deepening their knowledge.
- Creating working links between different organizations at the local and regional levels, as well as between universities, museums, communities, agencies and tourism offices.
- Providing new tourism and cultural promotion options to more geographically- or socially-isolated spaces.
As of Jan 2022, the project has consolidated the seed for the network of institutions, gathering more than 40 collaboration agreements. Its procedures, structure and plan of activities/intents for 2022 and 2023 are being elaborated in collaboration with some of the aforementioned organizations. The IT platform already offers the content management facilities needed by the pilots to upload points of interest, to define featured trips and to create narratives; the first versions of the trip planning, booking management and other services are ready to be accessed by websites and mobile apps, too. These tools will be improved during 2022 to reach the level of maturity that will allow opening up to new routes in 2023. Finally, the pilots have defined their plans for 2022 and (partially) 2023, using a cohesive conceptual framework and attaining early evidences of impact. The plans comprise a range of different ideas, tailored to the topics, demographics and levels of touristic development in the corresponding territories. Most actions are planned on a local level, aiming to scale up progressively and shifting the mindset from brainstorming to deriving recommendations.
- Serving as a model to extend promotional actions all along the pilgrimage routes selected for the pilots, involving as many of the relevant agents as possible from the rural environment.
- Conducting dissemination actions to transfer strategies, recommendations and tools to other European routes.
- Promoting knowledge of rural spaces in other territories, fostering the exchange of ideas and experiences, reinforcing the visibility of the heritage resources and deepening their knowledge.
- Creating working links between different organizations at the local and regional levels, as well as between universities, museums, communities, agencies and tourism offices.
- Providing new tourism and cultural promotion options to more geographically- or socially-isolated spaces.
As of Jan 2022, the project has consolidated the seed for the network of institutions, gathering more than 40 collaboration agreements. Its procedures, structure and plan of activities/intents for 2022 and 2023 are being elaborated in collaboration with some of the aforementioned organizations. The IT platform already offers the content management facilities needed by the pilots to upload points of interest, to define featured trips and to create narratives; the first versions of the trip planning, booking management and other services are ready to be accessed by websites and mobile apps, too. These tools will be improved during 2022 to reach the level of maturity that will allow opening up to new routes in 2023. Finally, the pilots have defined their plans for 2022 and (partially) 2023, using a cohesive conceptual framework and attaining early evidences of impact. The plans comprise a range of different ideas, tailored to the topics, demographics and levels of touristic development in the corresponding territories. Most actions are planned on a local level, aiming to scale up progressively and shifting the mindset from brainstorming to deriving recommendations.