More than 40% of European heritage houses belong to families. They provide multiple contributions to the EU including cultural, social, educational and environmental benefits that reach far beyond the physical boundaries of their properties. Culturally, they host activities such as concerts, festivals, plays, exhibitions, and artist-in-resident programmes. Socially, they involve local communities, volunteers, school children and local associations in their activities. These contributions help to foster social cohesion across Europe by embodying a ‘European identity’ and in particular it helps to preserve social ties within rural areas. They make an undoubted contribution to tourism, with family-owned heritage houses across Europe having hosted an estimated 52 million visitors in 2018. However, the COVID-19 crisis has had a dramatic impact on tourism related to heritage houses. Most houses are completely dependent on public revenue during the spring and summer months. Although in some countries governments have introduced measures to pay wages or finance economic unemployment, some work cannot be done remotely and many seasonal jobs have been suppressed. In addition to this catastrophic situation, European historic houses have faced challenges with 45% of private owners operating at a loss and injecting personal funds to the business activity in order to keep their building open to the public. A publication on family-owned heritage houses highlights a gap in current digital training for historic house owners. As a result of a lack of visibility, they are not able to maintain and restore the European Common Heritage and are limited in their abilities to employ staff. This ultimately results in the stagnation of local communities where it is their only tourism value. HERIT will focus on implementing the EU policy recommendations by building capacities of digital skills in partnership with tertiary education as well as national and European organisations. The main target groups of this project include all key stakeholders (current and future private-owners, landowners, employees of historic houses, etc.), who deal with historic houses, with a particular focus on the family-owned properties. These target groups have a recognized need which this project will address. The general objective of this project is to provide the needed training to private-owners and their employees so that they can overcome the COVID-19 crisis impacts by developing and professionally managing digital activities related to communication and cultural heritage and foster the development, commercialization and promotion of tourism connected to cultural heritage. The specific objectives are to: - Mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 crisis through the development of online and digital training; - Foster an entrepreneurial and proactive spirit; - Maintain the jobs of local communities surrounding historical buildings; - Enhance the visibility of the common European cultural heritage, online and offline, in order to raise awareness about and promote the cultural heritage related to historic houses; - Promote tourism related to cultural heritage and revitalise rural areas. To reach these objectives, the following output will be produced: IO1 - Digital innovation in private cultural heritage management: guide and best practices. IO2 - HERIT curriculum. IO3 - HERIT training contents. IO4 - HERIT MOOC. HERIT training methodology is based on the Open Educational Resources (OER) approach, thus developing digital training materials that will be available under a creative commons license allowing their use and distribution free of charges. The project consortium is made by the following partners: ELO (BE): is a unique federation of national associations from the EU27, which represents the interests of the landowners, land and forest managers and rural entrepreneurs at the European political level. UPVM (FR): is a university with a specific expertise in the valorisation of heritage. OnP (ES): is a consulting enterprise specialised in Europe project managing, monitoring and evaluation. ID (IT): is a SME with a particular expertise on crossed fields of cultural heritage and digital; they are digital strategists and were in the European platform to build up a library for cultural heritage. EHH (BE) is an umbrella organisation representing the interests of 24 national associations of privately-owned historic houses towards the European institution bodies as well as advocating for the professionalisation of the sector. AMHZ (CZ), is an organisation of privately-owned historic houses from the Czech Republic. UDC (ES): is a university that will participate in the project with two research groups: GET group, an interdisciplinary group specialized in social sciences applied to the study of tourism, culture, heritage and territory and TALIONIS group, specialized in the application and study of technology in different areas.
HERIT primary goal was to equip private owners and their employees with essential training to develop and professionally manage digital activities related to communication and cultural heritage, thus enabling them to navigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, the project aimed at encouraging the growth, commercialisation, and promotion of tourism associated with cultural heritage. The specific objectives are to: - Alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis by creating online and digital training opportunities. - Cultivate an entrepreneurial and proactive mindset. - Sustain employment within local communities neighbouring historical structures. - Amplify the visibility of shared European cultural heritage, both online and offline, to foster awareness and promotion of cultural heritage associated with historic houses. - Stimulate cultural heritage tourism and rejuvenate rural regions. These objectives are being achieved through a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) focused on improving the expertise in the use of digital tools of private owners of historic houses, in order to acquire skills and knowledge to maintain their historic buildings (in terms of business development, digital competences, etc).
Over 40% of European heritage houses are owned by families, providing diverse contributions to the EU beyond their physical boundaries. However, the COVID-19 crisis severely impacted these houses, relying on public revenue and facing financial losses. Lack of digital training and visibility hampers their ability to preserve heritage, employ staff, and support local communities, leading to tourism stagnation. Owners of historic houses frequently encounter challenges related to limited visibility and inadequate skills in utilising innovative digital technologies and solutions. Innovative changes in the existing business models of family owners are needed. These changes are essential to ensure the long-term profitability and sustainability of these houses. There was significant demand for an online training course targeting the underestimated sectors of cultural heritage, tourism, and the economy. It was important to acknowledge that those lacking essential digital skills could greatly benefit from a tailored training program aimed at revitalising their sites and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.