For the third time in 2016, the EUROPETOUR team has gathered in the town of Vicenza, Italy. The aim has been to discuss the content, structure and writing style of the training modules for stakeholders in cultural tourism development, and to use the conference “Tourists, Travellers & Pilgrims” of EUROPETOUR partner “Future for Religious Heritage” for dissemination purposes about the goals & aims of EUROPETOUR.
“If we care for our future, we have to be aware of our past.”
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the conference, Oliver de Rohan-Chabot calls for the safe-guarding, and innovative use, of religious heritage buildings across Europe. The EUROPETOUR team, notably the “networking power” represented by Lilian Grootswagers from the Netherlands, Karin Drda Kühn from Germany, Pilar Bahamonde from Spain & Elena Paschinger from Austria, use their presentations to emphasise the values which EUROPETOUR generates for (religious) cultural heritage tourism.
Talking about the “Power of Community Building through Social Media” in the context of innovative marketing campaigns, communication expert Elena Paschinger explains why and how EUROPETOUR achieves successful Social Media communication in the lead-up to the Social Media guidelines the partnership is set to produce.
- Pilar G. Bahamonde, (Centro de Estudios Lebaniegos y Torre del Infantado, Sociedad Regional de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Spain) has presented her experiences with pilgrimage and community building,
- Karin Drda-Kühn (Association Culture & Work, Germany) has presented her expectations of travellers interested in religious heritage, as well as successfully communicated the first results of the EUROPETOUR project,
- Lilian Grootwagers (Future for Religious Heritage, Belgium) has spoken about visitors as donors and other fundraising ideas.
Training modules for stakeholders in cultural tourism development
A great part of the EUROPETOUR team meeting has been dedicated to improving the content, structure and work on the training modules following the results of the EUROPETOUR survey conducted earlier in 2016. Best practice examples, as well as a glossary of terms, exercises and checklists are said to enhance the quality of the manuals, and make them more user-friendly for future audiences.
Wolfgang Eisenreich, our project partner from Austria, is responsible for the overall outcome of writing up & presenting the training modules.
Besides taking part in the conference …
… we discuss new ways of promoting EUROPETOUR …
… always focusing on the innovative use of Social Media in cultural heritage tourism …
… a heritage that needs to be protected …
… enjoyed …
… and celebrated.
Everybody “in the wider EUROPETOUR family”, as well as the conference participants, loved our day trip to Venice !!
Elena Paschinger, of Kreativ Reisen Österreich – Creative Tourism Austria, and Karin Dada-Kühn, of the German association “Culture & Work”, presenting at the FRH conference in Vicenza.
In a next step, we will update you here about the progress being made on developing the training modules for stakeholders in cultural tourism across Europe, as well as the Social Media guidelines, whose publications are both scheduled for early 2017. Meanwhile, be sure to follow us on Social Media and like / subscribe to our pages on on Flickr, Facebook & Twitter.
All the photographs from our project meeting in Vicenza & the FRH conference are published here: