EAVF, represented by Mr Christian Schülé, participated in the Annual Forum of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, which took place in Sibiu, Romania on 2-4 October 2019. It brought together over 200 participants from 50 countries.
The Forum of Cultural Routes is the most important annual event for the Cultural Routes Programme, bringing together the Member States, Cultural Routes, candidate networks, international organisations, local and regional authorities and other donor organisations and heritage and tourism organisations and platforms.
The 2019 edition was entitled "Cultural Routes for Cultural Tourism” and was organised by the Council of Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes and the Ministry of Tourism of Romania. During the Forum, the Cultural Routes were able to come together with representatives from organisations involved in the development, management and marketing of cultural tourism and share their experiences and learn from one another.
The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe have a tremendous capacity to develop cultural tourism - an increasingly important driver for economic and social development. Across many regions of Europe and both individually and collectively, the Routes provide distinctive, authentic, cultural tourism products which transcend boundaries.
While recognising the success of the Cultural Routes, their diverse offer and cultural richness, the routes also face continued challenges such as capacity building, communication and management.
In the light of the above, this Advisory Forum provided an important platform to discuss these challenges and the opportunities for the tourism development. The Forum has addressed the role of the Cultural Routes in realising the potential for cultural tourism and paid particular attention to building partnerships for its successful and sustainable development.
The representatives of the EAVF offered their best practices on encouragement of creativity and innovation in the cultural sector and shared experiences in exchange, new mobilities and inter-cultural dialogue across Europe and internationally.
Through high-level interventions from tourism organisations and plenary discussions the Forum has explored, in partnership with European and International organisations, new markets and audiences for the Cultural Routes. It provided an opportunity to focus on ways in which Cultural Routes continue to capitalise on the growing demand for cultural tourism to profile the cultural heritage, traditions, experiences and connectivities of Europe.
It has also studied the synergies between the public and private sectors in developing unique cultural tourism products. EAVF contributed to the discussion on how to stimulate and support the development of local, regional, national and transnational tourist economies through cultural routes.
For more information follow the links:
https://www.coe.int/fr/web/cultural-routes/annual-advisory-forum
https://www.coe.int/it/web/cultural-routes/sibiu-forum
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