The "Promoting Wine Tours Destinations through Contemporary Media Platforms" project targets common problems for the tourism enterprises in EU countries such as the existing gap between available ICT and their application in the process of promotion of the relevant products and services. The project aims to equip managers in alternative tourism enterprises with practical skills and tools for contemporary media preparation and use, and to provide them with wide range of ideas and instruments concerning the introduction of ICT in their line of work. The project is transnational initiative that will be implemented in Bulgaria, Italy and Greece by organizations with significant experience in creating alternative types of tourism products and services, methodology development and innovative methodics research and product promotion. The expected project outputs are not nationally limited and their application changes the whole concept of the promotion process, stimulating trans-partner cooperation and networking. The applicant organizations will systematize the world best contemporary practices in product promotion for alternative types of tourism and will jointly develop new advertising and training tools, and approbate new and modern way of contact between themselves and their customers, based on ICT. The blended or hybrid approach combines online (web and mobile based) platform that allows flexibility and self-regulation of promotion without the time and space constraints. This project aims at developing and piloting a web- and mobile-based platform for promoting wine tourism, utilizing contemporary functionality as multimedia streaming, Virtual Reality, social sharing, etc. That platform will expand the use of ICT in the promoting the products stage and the business-to-customer relationship process. The main outcome will be a converged platform divided in different sectors and categories of users - enterprises and tourists. The platform will offer a complete set of services and tools supporting the blended processes of developing wine tourism products, advertising them, booking resources, sharing and grading tourist's experience, connecting customers and businesses, offering additional services and upcoming new products. The main content will be structured as information and streaming multimedia files, including Virtual Reality presentations about the wine tour destinations. The platform will be created to be "social" and it will interact with the social networks in order to increase the number of participants in the project. Partnering enterprises will be able to exchange good practices, knowledge and materials with others on reciprocal base. There will be an e-tool for training employees how to use the ICT in the whole process. These intellectual outputs will be applied and tested in the three piloting partners - one in Bulgaria, one in Italy, one in Greece. Moreover, the platform will create space for networking and exchange of ideas, files, video, etc. on national and international level in the field of specialized tourism. All produced intellectual outputs will be available and in use after the lifetime of the project - analyses of best promoting practices in alternative tourism sector, generated media and information within the web- and mobile-based platform. The final project results will be available in four EU languages - Bulgarian, Italian, Portugal and English, and will be adjusted according to the cultural, social and urban context in each country. These products will be integrated in the management and promotional framework of the participating organizations. This will not only enlarge the scope of their work but will make the number of the potential users unlimited. In long term perspective, the project goal is to support the sustainable development of alternative types of tourism in EU countries by providing enterprises with the skills required by the competitive market and the economy, and by mobilizing all stakeholders to change the role of digital technologies at tourism institutions.
The result of this project is developed and piloted web- and mobile-based platform for promoting wine tourism, wine tourism destinations, utilizing contemporary functionality as location sharing, VR videos, social sharing, personalization, etc. That platform expands the use of ICT in promoting the product stage and the business-to-customer relationship process. The main outcome is a converged platform divided into different sectors and categories of users - enterprises and tourists. The platform offers a complete set of services and tools supporting the blended processes of developing wine tourism products, advertising them, booking resources, sharing and grading tourist's experience, connecting customers and businesses, offering additional services, upcoming new products, team development, and e-learning. The project is a transnational initiative, implemented in Bulgaria, Italy, and Greece by organizations with significant experience in creating alternative types of tourism products and services, methodology development and innovative methods research and product promotion. The project outputs are not nationally limited and their application changes the whole concept of the promotion process, stimulating trans-partner cooperation and networking. The partner organizations systematized the world's best contemporary practices in product promotion for alternative types of tourism and jointly developed new advertising and training tools, and approbate new and modern ways of contact between organizations and their customers, based on ICT. The blended or hybrid approach combines online (web and mobile-based) platform that allows flexibility and self-regulation of promotion. The direct target group of this project are enterprises from Bulgaria, Italy, and Greece, specialized in offering wine tourism products and researching new methods of expanding the attractiveness of similar services and thus their regions as tourist destinations. Eight workshops were carried out in Bulgaria (3), Italy (2), and Greece (3). The project piloting groups in each country were also involved in dissemination activities. 75 persons were planned to take part in the piloting stage, 25 in each country. Actually the piloting team consisted of 102 persons. Outreach campaign geared towards direct beneficiaries and aiming to select 75 managers from specialized tourism enterprises in each country to take part in dissemination workshops. More than 275 were counted. The final outcomes were disseminated through partner networks on a national and regional level and are available for all partners from Bulgaria, Italy, and Greece. The final project outcomes are presented in four EU languages - Bulgarian, English, Italian and Greek. This not only enlarges the scope of each partner's work but it increases the number of potential users. Extended target groups of this project are all wine tour enterprises from the above-mentioned countries as indirect beneficiaries and direct participants into the researching process, vocational training networks for tourism professions, other educational institutions, public educational structures, and educational inspectorates. Archived objectives: - On an individual level: to equip wine tour businesses with innovative skills and tools for promoting the destinations; to create a network of partners from different destinations and boost the professional development and skills of their employees. - On partner level: to integrate contemporary media resources into the business process and to increase the quality of the offered final product; - On system level: to upgrade the business and specific operational knowledge of the employed in the sector in order to develop the specialized tourism types, one of which is wine tourism. All partners have declared mutual interest in the maintenance and sustainability of the media content and the platform. All produced intellectual outputs are available and in use after the lifetime of the project. The generated media and additional information are integrated into the platform and available in four European languages. These products could be tailored to the needs of other enterprises which are not Hospitality oriented and even transferred in new areas. Thus new partnerships could be established and developed. The availability of the project outputs and results is a basic presumption of the so established partnership. The final product, the platform itself, will be available for every interested person, who is familiar with the four project languages. The participating organizations are interested in continuing the platform maintenance and support because this tool will broaden the scope of their work among new instructors. However, the main responsibility for the platform overall maintenance will be on Bilta EAD.