During the last meeting of the EUROPETOUR team hosted by our project partner Pilar Bahamonde in Potes / Cantabria, we not only had the honour (and tasty pleasure!) of learning more about the actual Cantabrian cultural tourism products, services, and their marketing for cultural, religious heritage enthusiasts, and food lovers (see our latest blog post here), but also made good progress on the development of our training modules for cultural tourism stakeholders.
These modules are now further developed & translated into seven European languages, available for download soon.
how to set up & manage a (digital) communication strategy? How to network and assure finances for your business development?
Important questions and concerns, such as these, are answered and addressed in the shared knowledge development of the EUROPETOUR partnership for all stakeholders in cultural tourism in rural areas across Europe. During the meeting, we took particular care to address the practical needs of stakeholders in rural areas, as opposed to the cities, whose access to knowledge, funding, and networks is much more readily available. Specifically, the EUROPETOUR team appreciated the discussion with many Cantabrian stakeholders (like the prior of the Franciscan Santo Toribio Monastery, see our title picture of Miguel de Arriba).
The training modules, whose full structure and content is available for dissemination here (completed by autumn / end of the year 2017) are now being finalised following the input of all partners from around Europe, as well as translated in all of the partnership’s European languages (German, Romanian, Italian, Bulgarian, Spanish and Polish). Interested parties are welcome to be included in the EUROPETOUR mailing list and will be invited to meetings and events in the partner countries.
Have a look here with us in order to see the scale and visualise what a EUROPETOUR meeting looks like and what kind of knowledge based activities the partnership organises.
Being welcomed by the local government of Cantabria represented by Mr. Ramón Ruiz, the Regional Minister for Education, Culture and Sports and Ms Marina Bolado, General Director for Culture of Government of Cantabria (second right). (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD
… our actual project meeting & discussions take place inside this beautiful Romanesque church building in Potes, which was converted in an education center … (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD
… with project leader Karin Drda-Kühn (on the left) handing over EUROPETOUR certificates and “medals of honour” to our meeting hosts, Marina Bolado, General Director for Culture of Government of Cantabria, & Pilar Bahamonde, Director of the Centro de Estudios Lebaniego (from left to right) … (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD
… we also were not afraid to go for an actual, short pilgrimage to experience religious heritage tourism in the context of the Cantabrian rural areas around the Picos de Europa … (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD
… and further the discussion of our training modules & Social Media Guidelines for cultural tourism in rural areas, based on many practical inputs (e.g. by Lilian Grootswagers from Future for Religious Heritage (left) and Pilar Bahamonde) during our meeting. (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD
The social media guidelines for cultural tourism in rural areas …
… are currently being further developed over the summer, too, including many best practice examples from around Europe, as well as a detailed structure in setting up, managing & evaluating Social Media strategies for small to medium-sized enterprises in cultural tourism. It is a challenging task for sure, but very rewarding thanks to many interesting, networked initiatives already out there, inspiring us to continue working hard !
Do you have any further questions? Don’t hesitate to drop us a line, or see further progress being made (and shared) here: https://www.europetour.tips/results/training-modules/, https://www.europetour.tips/results/social-media-guidelines/.
We look forward to staying in touch with you: #EuropeTour @EuropeTourTips on Facebook, Twitter, SlideShare & Flickr!
The EUROPETOUR partnership / “family gathering” during our one-day-pilgrimage to Santo Toribio Monastery, on the Camino Lebaniego in Potes. (c) Miguel de Arriba SRECD