Digital Cultural Heritage Custodians Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Cultural Heritage Custodians

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Cultural heritage tourism is a vital part of Europe’s economy with 8.4 million people employed in this sector and 4 out of 10 tourists choosing their destination based on its cultural and heritage offering. However, Europe’s cultural heritage is under threat. The decay and abandonment of some European cultural heritage gems and the over/insensitive tourism of others are two very pressing areas for concern. According to UNESCO, people-centred approaches which include young people in future preservation actions of cultural heritage are key, because communities and people are key sources of the resilience for cultural heritage. This is reinforced by the EU Commission, who also highlights the need for visualizing and interpreting cultural heritage in new ways and encouraging sustainable tourism.

Few would argue with the need for innovation in the cultural heritage tourism sector but for many, particularly those in rural areas, the pressing question is how to successfully innovate within current budget constraints (worsened by the ensuing tourism crisis) and do so quickly and effectively. This is where digital cultural heritage and low/no-cost technical solutions come in. Technology and innovation have a leading role to play in Europe to build a strong, sustainable cultural heritage tourism sector for and of the future. INSITES explores the dual purpose of technology to digitally preserve and safeguard Europe’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage gems and future proof the sector by making it more attractive to young people (digital natives) who are the future consumers/custodians of Europe’s cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage tourism is defined as “travel to experience the places, artefacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present, including cultural historic and natural resources” such as urban and rural landscapes, museums, theaters, archaeological sites, monuments and cultural interpretation centres. INSITES will upskill those who work and manage these businesses (hereby called cultural heritage custodians) and also the VET providers and business mentors who support them in the following ways. During the project it will:
1) improve the digital and immersive tourism skills of cultural heritage custodians leading to the creation of new digital cultural heritage tourism experiences, the preservation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage assets, and new engaged consumer audiences for cultural heritage (digital natives/immersive explorers)
2) increase the ability of VET trainers and business support organizations in UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Italy, Turkey and Greece to deliver future-focused digital and immersive tourism training to cultural heritage custodians
3) directly impact the work of INSITES partners BDEL, MMS, EUEI, ORT-BEL and AKMI who will all add digital/immersive elements to their current cultural heritage tourism training/supports while also bringing new innovations to the ongoing work of Arctur and DM in this sector.

INSITES will achieve these objectives via 4 IO’s expertly constructed via a theory of change principals:
IO1 The Future – Immersive Cultural Heritage Experiences OERs is a multilingual cultural heritage tourism training pack which upskills learners in the powerful potential of digital technology to rejuvenate, preserve and grow cultural heritage tourism in Europe. It includes learning outcomes, teachers’ guides for VET classroom delivery with stimulating lesson plans, multimedia lecture materials, and methodologies for assessing learners’ progress.
IO2 Active Peer Learning Guide (IO2) captures inspirational case studies and best practice examples of cultural and heritage tourism custodians across Europe who have improved their digital skills and embraced technology in innovative ways to rejuvenate, preserve and grow their cultural heritage tourism business
IO3 Digital Cultural Heritage MOOC is a multilingual one-stop digital training point where cultural heritage custodians can “drop-in” and access up-to-date info, guidance/training from European digital cultural heritage experts
IO4 Digital Cultural Heritage Technology Toolkit which identifies, rigorously tests and guides the use of 20+ low/no-cost digital tools with the powerful potential to rejuvenate, preserve and grow cultural heritage tourism. IO4 will make digital cultural heritage accessible and achievable for smaller tourism providers/custodians.

On project completion, our high IMPACT dissemination and sustainability efforts will widely extend these results to other EU countries leading to powerful European impact that reflects EU cultural heritage policies for example, the Digitising Cultural Heritage 2019 Report which states that ‘Making our cultural heritage widely available in the digital era is vital’ and EU Commission’s requirement for ‘new insights and approaches to address the challenges and opportunities that exist in cultural heritage’

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299491 Eur

Project Coordinator

Banbridge District Enterprises Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• AKMI ANONIMI EKPAIDEFTIKI ETAIRIA
• DESTINATION MAKERS SRLS
• European E-learning Institute
• ARCTUR RACUNALNISKI INZENIRING DOO
• Trabzon Ortahisar Belediyesi
• MOMENTUM MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED