The European Commission decided to support the new SPOT project under the Horizon 2020 led by the team from MENDELU in the Czech Republic.
The SPOT project will provide a new approach to cultural tourism to reflect patterns of travel in the 21st century. It will bring together partners from across the European Union and beyond to analyse the varieties of cultural tourism and how they can benefit host communities and regional economies. An important and innovative aspect of the project is that stakeholders are integrated into the project design. The output would include an innovation tool for analysing the potential for cultural tourism and how it could be developed.
More specific objectives include:
▬ Expansion of the concept of cultural tourism and enrichment of scientific evidence base by developing an integrated analysis of the many diverse forms of cultural tourism across different regions of Europe.
▬ Determine and promote good practices in the cultural heritage field including cultural, environmental and social development responses to the challenges of new flows of tourism through the assembly of a database of good practice examples.
▬ Provide new insights into the inclusive, innovative and reflective challenges for society by understanding the role of cultural tourism in creating place-based identities and how these link to broader processes of regional and European culture.
▬ Show ways in which cultural tourism can be used to develop social and economic cohesion with reference to minorities, women and young people.
▬ Understanding the role of local stakeholders, their ownership and participation in cultural tourism as well as their interrelationship with visitors.
▬ Develop a greater understanding of the different challenges facing contrasting types of cultural tourism in European countries including both peripheral, cross border and de-industrialised areas. SPOT will also include analysis of under-touristed as well as over-touristed ones where tourist flows need to be managed. It will consider which policy mechanisms work best in each case.
▬ Develop a new innovation tool for cultural tourism (Social Platform on cultural Tourism Innovation Tool = SPOTIT) within a Web-based Resource Centre to facilitate the development of cultural tourism. This will advance the formulation and implementation of relevant policies and practices in Europe.