Fully in accordance with the EU2020 Grand Societal Challenges, the European Heritage Year 2018, the New Narrative for Europe (https://www.nnfe.eu/) the TR2023 Development Strategy and the ERASMUS+ Objectives for Higher Education, TOURiBOOST is re-orienting tourism education with digital, social and intercultural competences to support local stakeholders tackle strategic innovation in heritage tourism. TOURiBOOST establishes long lasting partnerships in 6 EU/TR regions (TR52/TR100/HU101/NL321/ITD55/EL41), to upgrade heritage based offers for new investment opportunities in heritage tourism adhering to the rising force of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). The Transnational Partnership fosters tourism entrepreneurship exploiting the rising powers of the CCI to communicate heritage places to the connected consumer market. Challenges, the tourism sector faces with existing services, are matched with new skills for new jobs by addressing the new world order of Audiovisual Media Services (EU AVMSD/2016). 30 small/micro enterprises in tourism are mentored that they grow in the regional/national/international context and enhance their competitiveness through the rise of 136 skilled workers. TOURiBOOST builds an unprecedented opportunity to terminate the vicious circle of generating and distributing low quality tourism commodities exchangeable by price: a methodological framework assists capacity building of 136 tourism stakeholders, who apply project-based learning in TR52/TR100/HU101/NL321/ITD55/EL41, to engage in tourism innovation. Thus culture-driven consumption is advanced across the Project Area and beyond by communicating cultural values, from natural monuments and ecosystems to sites and collections, from the arts to traditions and handicrafts inspiring new forms of cultural consumption, and skilling young professionals into the management of heritage. To prevent brain drain and effectively address the skills gaps tourism stakeholders and SMEs are facing, skills needs and supply-demand trends are mapped transforming the teaching/learning practice in Higher Education, while tourism employers are assisted in recruiting and retaining talents at local level. A new skills-mindset is inducing business sophistication with business models built on customer insights, key experiences and stakeholder participation integrating transversal key competences into the product-process innovation. The Partnership perceives the 2020 Grand Societal Challenges as a new force to design and deliver the new high quality tourism experience that supports the extroversion of heritage places and trains tourism stakeholders to understand the socio-economic potential of heritage. The Partnership defines culture-based solutions for community-led development, market opportunities and facilitates 6 new investments in heritage tourism putting the cultural heritage experience into the heart of tourism reform in the Project Area and beyond. TOURiBOOST incorporates heritage education into upskilling pathway of Higher Education in tourism. The innovation is guiding professionals to further develop exceptional experiences at heritage places and connect offers to global markets transforming the product-buyer into a product-seller. Novel skills acquired are certified according to the European Qualification Framework (EQF) to support 136 local stakeholders access key tourism markets and invest in heritage tourism. In this way a novel cultural consumption pattern is launched in the Project Area: it is communicating cultural values to visitors and users impacting consumer choices at heritage places. TOURiBOOST is challenging the traditional tourism generation by remodeling supply-demand at places with natural and cultural significance. Meeting market needs for authentic experiences, the desire for cultural capital and environmental protection, a new cultural mobility is launched in the Project Area: the ATTRACTION CLUSTER, a unique multimodal tourism product-service set with 30 selling points in the Project Area is connecting the technology-intense experience with onsite authenticity to let supply-demand converge and combat seasonality. Cross-sectoral cooperation and post-project operation are ensured through the Project-driven statutory Association SMART SKILLS OBSERVATORY with five branches in TR/HU/NL/IT/GR, which inherits the PROJECT LEGACY with a highly transferable training infrastructure for tourism with 42 durable training tools. In this way the continuation of works, sales-distribution in 30 heritage places in the Project area, business extroversion and further funding are ensured by highly skilled workers implementing and selling new customized heritage tourism services being interconnected at (g)local level.
Touriboost project consists of a series of five Intellectual Outputs organised into 16 tasks. Each task is connected to deliverables, which are project results involving all partners, participants and stakeholders. The project management was composed of: -Three in-person meetings, Konya, Budapest and Modena and one virtual (due pandemic) covering Istanbul meeting. Including Agenda, Certificates, Minutes, signatures, study visit and documentation of the activities. Konya: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Mk4gTdVggdumfgFYfsjUBE_Vi1QhVQ4K Budapest: https://touriboostproject.org/mng/budapest/ Modena: https://touriboostproject.org/mng/modena/ Istanbul: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fxJNb45-SvVdvnhAK2bycEydXHUJQTvj -After meetings quality and content evaluation -Six months financial reports on budget control and project implementation -One intermedia report with partners contribution -Follow up of dissemination activities and local impact https://touriboostproject.org/dissemination/ -Multiplier events conducted in Greece, Italy and the Netherlands https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/119oXQVwbsWNBBEzQ5SEfNzkeYSvxC8SD Project implementation: The Project has five intellectual outputs; each IO has different tasks that enable the smooth performance and delivers results. To see all IOS tasks and results go here: https://touriboostproject.org/ios/ The IO1 activate three tasks being the first step to make and focus on: development of a methodological framework to assist the capacity building of tourism stakeholders for heritage tourism development. T1: Survey study on entrepreneurial needs of tourism stakeholders T2: 6 stakeholder workshops T3: Research report - business model IO1 delivers: -6 reports -6 Business Models -6 local workshops https://touriboostproject.org/ios/io1/ Once this is achieved, IO2 is implemented focusing on linking stakeholder education to essential tourism experiences and quality services in the territory. T1: MOOC training course T2: the 4-module curriculum T3: the pocket library T4: the attraction design tool IO2 delivers: -The MOOC platform -The modules of the curriculum -The LAP (local attraction plan tool) -The library with a consistent source of resources https://touriboostproject.org/ios/io2/ IO3 focus on applying project-based-learning to engage local stakeholders in tourism innovation. The tasks of the IO was to implement a local visit study in Konya, Budapest, Modena and Istanbul based on the selected heritage. After the visit, a workshop is conducted involving the stakeholders that enable a fruitful dialogue to understand the real needs of innovation and what new services needed to be developed or which ones needed to be improved. The central core deliverable of this IO are: the Local Attraction Plan https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1vrg441dyxoiSyzWemVvcApg1bVH_YwXD The iBooks brings into light hidden heritage https://touriboostproject.org/ios/ibooks/ IO4 focus validating professional skills to support local stakeholders access key tourism markets and invest in tourism innovation With the previous deliverables in place, the Project implemented the EQF certification. NEU and Koljani Universities are making this available to any student today and in the future to gain an EQF certificate. https://touriboostproject.org/ios/io4/ IO5 has to do with smart skills observatory in heritage tourism. Through three different but connected tasks: T1: project area attraction cluster T2 marketing and distribution strategy T3: smart skills observatory the Project look for a more considerable impact and bring into the light of new hidden heritage. https://touriboostproject.org/ios/io5/ The project website provides the key results of the Project at one click giving excellent visibility to the Project results and methodology. https://touriboostproject.org Touriboost project includes 30 geolocations some of them were a hidden heritage that the Project made available to the public. A new online training curriculum implemented delivering 36 heritage planners with EQF certification in cooperation with the two Universities NEU and KJU. 104 Stakeholder were involved in training and tourism cooperation. 164 participants from the tourism sector participated in the Multiplier events. More than 120 pieces of dissemination have been created covering from newsletters, flyer, books, research papers, videos and national TV. See https://touriboostproject.org/dissemination/ 6 iBooks for Android and iPhone published. https://touriboostproject.org/ios/ibooks/