PRO EXTOUR is a project that aims to promote experiential tourism as a sustainable development pathway for tourism business in the BSB by valorising the potential of the indigenous heritage and culture, innovative solutions and cross-border cooperation. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the PRO EXTOUR consortium and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. PROMOTING HE
RITAGE- AND CULTURE-BASED EXPERIENTIAL TOURISM IN THE BLACK SEA BASIN
Tourism and hospitality contribute substantially to the economic growth and employment in the Black Sea Basin due to a favourable mix of rich natural and cultural recourses, skilled labour and competitive prices. It is, however, affected by the main common regional challenges such as climate change, rapid overexploitation of the resources and increasing workforce shortage. In addition, the 2020 pandemic challenged hospitality industry all over the world and raised the need for new approaches in the governance and management of all sectors related to it
Modern tourists become increasingly demanding not only in terms of quality of services, but also in terms of innovative ways of enjoying destinations and of spending their leisure time. The new trend is known as “experiential tourism” and refers to those forms of travelling in which people focus on experiencing a country, city or particular place by connecting to its history, people and culture and participate actively in the experience-creation process. The project will bring about
- a regional needs assessment report and action plan for encouraging the heritage and culture-based experiential tourism in the BSB,
- inventories of business models, heritage- and culture-based activities and events,
- an on-line repository of resources and tools for experiential tourism,
- a cross-border network of Black Sea Hubs on experiential tourism,
- international conferences and fair on digital technologies, heritage- and culture-based experiential tourism in the BSB. The transnational cooperation has a high added value since it mobilises the capacity of the regional actors and leads to tailor-made solutions, economic and social viability in tourism and hospitality. Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020 is co-financed by the European Union through the European Neighbourhood Instrument and by the participating countries: Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.
