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“Cultural Heritage: Exploiting Opportunities for Rural Development”

Sustainability and Marketing Cultural Hub Guide

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1. Introduction

The cultural heritage of each country is an unbreakable bond between the past, the present

and the future, and along with natural heritage it is an irreplaceable source of life. The culture

of a region, as it has developed over the years, reflects its lifestyle, its folklore traditions and

customs, which have passed from one generation to the other. This is why the preservation

and the protection of this heritage have to be a priority for every region. Due to its cultural

heritage, each region has a unique identity, which separates it from the others and this

uniqueness can become a comparative advantage if it is effectively exploited.

The cultural sector has significant consequences, social, economical and political. Culture has

always been fundamental for European integration and the preservation and promotion of

cultural heritage is one of the main priorities of the European Union, since it is obviously a

critical factor for the development of local economies and for the support of local income and

employment.

Culture and its preservation, due to globalization, has entered a new face where it is also

considered as a comparative advantage because of its connection to tourism. Without a doubt,

culture is directly linked with tourism in an area, although culture is an immaterial good while

tourism is purely an economic figure. The overall objective of each region should be to find a

balance between the promotion of its cultural heritage and the subsequent touristic

development and the preservation of its uniqueness. The stakeholders, who are active in the

highly lucrative sector of tourism, should recognize the importance of cultural heritage so that

it won’t be sacrificed for profit.

Culture has been acknowledged as one of the most important comparative advantages of the

Mediterranean regions and as a political priority. Culture, within the framework of an organised

promotion strategy can also become a regional development tool, especially in the

Mediterranean, which is a hub connecting three continents. There are numerous examples of

successful combination between cultural and natural resources of a region and economic

development coming from tourism and the boost of local entrepreneurship. A prerequisite for

the success of such an initiative is the perception that cultural heritage is a priceless

development asset, which should be protected from being overexploited.

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Despite the fact that the culture industry is a key element for development, many isolated

Mediterranean regions, although they have important cultural monuments, are not in the

position to effectively exploit them due to the lack of planning and coordination.

Consequently, the overall objective is the development of an effective strategy for the

promotion of cultural hubs, services and initiatives of each region, which can lead to the

creation of a competitive tourism industry, able to become driver of local economic and social

development.

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2. Description of creative and cultural enterprise heritage hubs

The analysis of cultural resources in the CHORD partners’ territories and the evident variety of

cultural assets clearly indicate a wide potential for cultural tourism.

Promoting tourism development in the area through the CHORD Project involves identifying

thematically grouped resources based on the travel motivations and interests of potential

visitors.

The resources have been grouped and analysed into cultural hubs, defined by themes of

interest to the potential market.

Province of Benevento

The analysis of cultural resources in the Province of Benevento and the evident variety of

cultural assets as illustrated in the tables above clearly indicate a strong province-wide

potential for cultural tourism.

Promoting tourism development in the area through the CHORD Project involves identifying

thematically grouped resources based on the travel motivations and interests of potential

visitors.

The resources were analysed according to category and then grouped into cultural poles,

defined by themes of interest to the potential market.

Five pre-existing or potential cultural poles for the Province of Benevento were identified:

• Archaeology

• History and Art

• Nature and Landscape

• Villages and Crafts

• Food & Wine.

Archaeological Pole

The Province of Benevento offers a great variety of fascinating archaeological sites and

museums. Over the centuries this area was inhabited by many different peoples and

civilizations. Numerous archaeological remains dating from the Samnite and Roman age can be

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found in and around towns throughout the province. These include well-known monuments

such as the Arch of Trajan in Benevento as well as less famous but equally fascinating sites for

anyone interested in archaeology.

As regards existing and potential promoters of the Archaeology Pole, in addition to town

councils responsible for the resources, local promoters such as local tourist offices and cultural

associations actively promoting and protecting archaeological sites and resources may be

involved.

History and Art Pole

Churches, monasteries, castles, palazzi and monuments scattered throughout the province are

a living testimony to more recent times and important historical events. During the Middle

Ages, the area was fought over by the Goths and Byzantines and later ruled by the Lombards.

The long period of papal domination, interrupted only by a brief Angevin interlude, saw the

construction of many churches, monasteries and convents, which are today an important part

of the local historic and artistic heritage.

In addition to town councils responsible for the resources, existing and potential promoters of

the Archaeology Pole could include local tourist offices and cultural associations.

Nature and Landscape Pole

The Province of Benevento offers many areas of outstanding natural beauty for eco- and geo-

tourists to enjoy. The area between the peaks of the Matese and Partendo mountains is

crossed by the Fortore, Tammaro and Calore river valleys and by a vast network of their

tributaries. The variety of natural environments ranges from stark mountains to woodland,

rivers, streams and lakes. Important fossil discoveries have also transformed the area into a

great attraction for palaeontologists.

Existing and potential promoters of the Nature and Landscape Pole include the mountain

communities of the Province of Benevento (Alto Tammaro, Fortore, Taburno and Titerno), the

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WWF, the Benevento section of the Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Mountaineering Club), and the

Benevento delegation of the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (National Trust for Italy).

Villages and Crafts Pole

For a very long time, much of the Province of Benevento was defined by the habits and

customs of farming communities. Throughout the area there are many rural villages with

distinctive architectural features where traditional crafts are still practised. Popular traditions

can also be enjoyed at the many festivals associated with country life as well as religious sites

situated outside urban areas. Several towns and villages have particularly interesting historic

centres either for their well-preserved buildings or traditional craft industry.

In addition to town councils, local tourist offices and cultural associations, other potential

promoters of the Villages and Crafts Pole include art colleges and local guilds.

Food & Wine Pole

The Province of Benevento offers a range of food products that have been or are in the process

of being awarded PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status, as well as DOC wines and

other traditional locally produced foods. The following table lists the province’s major food and

wine resources.

There already exist a number of organizations in the province set up to protect and promote

local products. These include Samnium, a consortium of vine growers, wine makers and

bottlers protecting Aglianico del Taburno or Taburno DOC wines, and a consortium of farmers

and packers protecting Mela Annurca apples. Manufacturing companies could be involved in

activities promoting the Food & Wine Pole either individually or jointly.

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

The areas resources can be divided in four types and in five sub-areas (Prefectures of Evros,

Rodopi, Xanthi, Kavala and Drama). The cultural assets have been divided in the following

themes:

Archaeological and ecclesiastical monuments - Museums

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Eastern Macedonia and Thrace offer to the visitor a magnificent combination of places

and itineraries of archaeological and historical interest, tangible evidence of all historic

periods. The visitor will certainly discover here the historical and cultural development

of the area.

The region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace is indissolubly connected with the historical

development of Christianity and Orthodoxy in Greece and Europe. The large number of

religious monuments that are saved till today, Byzantine and Post Byzantine churches

in their majority, in combination with the ecclesiastical museums, the hagiographies

and the holy vessels, as well as the local events and festivals, compose an important

pole of attraction for the visitors.

Natural Heritage – sites of natural and scenic interest

In the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace there are four of the total eleven wetlands

of international importance, that Greece has included to the list of Ramsar Convention.

During the ancient years, Region of East Macedonia and Thrace was covered at 80%

from forests approximately. Nowadays, despite the great forest destructions, the

percentage it’s still high mainly on mountainous areas and it is up to 55% per

prefecture.

Annual traditional cultural events

Region of East Macedonia and Thrace is a unified cultural area, where every prefecture

or even smaller geographical area or social group, has specific unique characteristics.

And the cultural activity of the Region, either it is related to day-to-day life, or it is

revival of old customs, is really significant and it is an integrated part of the social life

and potential polar of touristic attraction, if it is dully developed. On this area and its

activities, great part of the Greek history it is visible, either coming of what is

considered as Greece nowadays, either from the outgreek Hellenism. All these

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elements, in accordance to the geomorphologic characteristics, are consist of an image

which can be promoted and be part of the touristic development process of the Region.

Traditional food products – wine and gastronomy

Another form of alternative tourism, gastronomic and wine tourism, completes the

options in the Region of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace. The tastes are unique revealing

the long and multicultural tradition of the area.

The kitchen of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace combine creatively the products of local

agricultural, piscatorial and farming production. The big variety of tastes is a result of

the combination of the traditional Macedonian and Thracian recipes with the kitchen of

Sarakatsani, of the refugees from Pontos, Eastern Romylia, Eastern Thrace, Minor Asia

and from Cappadocia, Armenia, Roma, Pomaks, Turkey.

The unique dishes are completed by sweets and famous wines, ouzo and tsipouro that

are produced in the area. The wine tradition, famous from antiquity, continues till our

days, proving that the inhabitants of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace know to enjoy

every moment of life. Each Prefecture has particular local food products and wines.

Ena Chios S.A.

The island of Chios has great cultural and historical heritage both of which, with the

implementation of an effective promotion strategy, can enhance the development of the island

and have positive impact both economically and socially. Those, which should be further

exploited, are the local traditional products of the island (mastic -a worldwide unique natural

product, oranges and mandarins, traditional wines, perfumes marmalades, liqueurs and other

alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, etc) and the numerous cultural attractions, thus

archaeological, historical and religious sites (some of which are protected by UNESCO’s World

Heritage), inhabited medieval settlements (Mesta, Pirgi, Anavatos etc.) and sites of a great

architectural and natural interest (Kambos etc). Actions towards the promotion of the cultural

heritage of the island are already taken and with successful results, for example the cultural

events, which take place during the year across the island (the customs of religious festivals,

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the Agro tourism festival, the Mastic festival, the Carnival festivals and many other Religious

festivals) and the music, dance and theatre festivals.

Acknowledging the importance of the promotion of cultural heritage, the competent

stakeholders of the island have sought their participation in many European projects on

cultural heritage. The aforementioned projects, through transnational collaboration and

exchange and transfer of best practices, have contributed to the overall development of the

island.

Research has clearly showed the potential of tourism development in Chios, within the

framework of the exploitation of its cultural heritage. Of course there are still numerous

obstacles, which have to be overcome.

The island of Chios, located in the north Aegean Sea, has a rich and varied heritage. Visitors

can enjoy picturesque scenery, areas of unspoilt natural beauty and numerous sites of historic

and artistic interest.

The island’s cultural assets can be summarized as follows:

historic sites and monuments, including churches and monasteries

archaeological sites

villages with distinctive architectural features

sites of natural and scenic interest

museums

traditional food products

crafts

events and local traditions

An analysis of the cultural resources of Chios clearly indicates a strong potential for cultural

tourism.

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In order to promote tourism development in the area, the main existing or potential poles,

either directly or indirectly involved in promoting cultural tourism in the island of Chios, are,

between others, the following:

North Aegean Region

Municipality of Chios

Municipality of Mastichochoria

20th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities

3rd Ephorate of Christian Byzantine Antiquities

Greek Ministry of Culture

Museums (Archaeological Museum of Chios, Nea Moni Museum, Byzantine Museum,

Maritime Museum, Koraes Library –Ethnological Traditional Museum, Folklore Museum

of Kalimasia,

Agricultural Association of Chios’ Citrus Cultivators

Chios brand of Aegean University

Mastic growers association

Castle of Chios

Chamber of Commerce

Homerion Cultural Centre of Chios

Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Islands and Fisheries

Hotel owners association

Travel Agencies

ENA CHIOS S.A. Development Corporation

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Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The analysis of cultural resources in the Province of Seville and the evident variety of cultural

assets clearly indicate a strong province-wide potential for cultural tourism.

The resources have been grouped into cultural hubs, defined by themes of interest to the

potential market. Five themes for potential cultural hubs were identified for the Province of

Seville, for each of them it follows a brief description.

Archaeology

The Province of Seville offers a great variety of fascinating archaeological sites and

museums. Over the centuries this area was inhabited by many different peoples and

civilizations. Numerous archaeological remains dating from the Roman age can be

found in and around towns throughout the province. These include well-known

monuments such as the Roman Amphitheatre in Italica as well as less famous but

equally fascinating sites for anyone interested in archaeology.

As regards existing and potential promoters of the Archaeological hubs, in addition to

town councils responsible for the resources, local promoters such as local tourist offices

and cultural associations actively promoting and protecting archaeological sites and

resources may be involved.

History and Art

Churches, monasteries, castles, palaces and monuments scattered throughout the

province are a living testimony to important historical events. Under the Arab ruling,

Seville entered into an age of splendour. After Ferdinand III the Saint conquered Seville

for Christianity, Muslims were forced to leave whereas Mudejar and Hebrews stayed. A

lot of churches were built to replace the mosques and many building were rebuilt and

transformed in Mudejar style. Seville experienced its apogee after the discovery of

America and the monopoly on the trade relations.

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In addition to town councils responsible for the resources, existing and potential

promoters of the History and Art hubs could include local tourist offices and cultural

associations.

Nature and Landscape

With an extraordinary wealth of bird life, the province of Seville is one of the best

places in Europe for bird-watching. This invaluable bird diversity is due to the province’s

unique natural areas, which range from the Sierra Norte’s abrupt mountains with

extensive cork and holm oak forests to the tranquil lakes of the province’s three

endorheic systems, not to mention the mosaic of ecosystems that make up the Doñana

Natural National Park. These places are also ideal setting for practising outdoor sports,

including hiking, horse riding, and cycling routes.

Existing and potential promoters of the Nature and Landscape hubs include

Environmental Ministry of the Junta de Andalucía and the town councils of the

municipalities where the protected areas are situated.

Villages and Crafts

Traditional crafts can be found throughout the Province of Seville. Popular traditions can

also be enjoyed at the many festivals and pilgrimages associated with folklore and

religion. Several towns and villages have particularly interesting historic centres either

for their well-preserved buildings or traditional craft industry.

In addition to town councils, local tourist offices and cultural associations, other

potential promoters of the Villages and Crafts hubs include art colleges and local guilds.

Food & Wine

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The Province of Seville offers a range of food products that have been awarded PGI

(Protected Geographical Indication) status, as well as other traditional locally produced

foods. Some of them have been protected by the Designation of Origin (DOP).

There already exist a number of organizations in the province set up to protect and

promote local products. These include the different Regulatory Boards or the Quality

Wine from Lebrija Association. Manufacturing companies could be involved in activities

promoting the Food & Wine hubs either individually or jointly.

In order to incentivize tourism development in the area, the main existing or potential players

either directly or indirectly involved in promoting cultural tourism in the Province of Seville

were also identified:

Seville Town Council

Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, Prodetur (Seville Provincial Tourist Board)

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

Confederación Empresarial Sevillana (Seville Business Confederation)

Mancomunidad de Desarrollo y Fomento del Aljarafe (Aljarafe Development

Community)

Consorcio de Medio Ambiente Estepa-Sierra Sur-El Peñón (Estepa-Sierra Sur-El Peñón

Environment Consortium)

Asociación Red para el Desarrollo Turístico de las Ciudades Medias del Centro de

Andalucía (Medium Cities of Central Andalucía Tourist Development Association)

Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral del Territorio de Sierra Morena (Sierra Morena

Development Association)

Consorcio Vía Verde (Green Route Consortium)

Fundación Vía Verde de la Sierra (Green Route Foundation)

Alcalá de Guadaíra Town Council

Fundación para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos de la Ruta del Tempranillo (Villages of the

Route of Tempranillo Development Foundation)

Asociación para el Desarrollo del Territorio de la Comarca de Doñana (Doñana Region

Development Association)

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Asociación de Ciudades Andaluzas de Turismo del Caballo (Horse Tourism Association)

Asociación Turística de las Comarcas de Estepa y la Sierra Sur Sevillana (Estepa and

Sierra Sur Regions Tourist Association)

Asociación Comarcal Gran Vega de Sevilla (Gran Vega Region Association)

Asociación interprovincial de municipios para el desarrollo del Turismo Sostenible de la

Faja Pirítica (Pyrite Belt Sustainable Tourism Development Association)

Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral del territorio de Sierra Morena (Sierra Morena

Development Association)

Asociación Red de Conjuntos Históricos y de Arquitectura Popular de Andalucía

(Network Association of Historical Sites of Andalucía)

Mancomunitat de la Ribera

The tourist resources in the region of Ribera Alta are multiple and varied, taking into account

their uniqueness, form and function. All of them are related to the historical era where they

were built and, because of the different people who have inhabited the regions, the region has

several important and unique monumental remains, as small functional buildings that mark a

certain period.

The following cultural assets have been identified for cultural hubs:

Historic, monumental and Artistic Heritage

Fortress monastery of Santa Maria de la Murta, s.XIV; s.XV; s.XVI; s.XVII

Alzira Walled Circuit of Alzira

Town Council Hall of Alzira

Monastery of Aigües Vives of Alzira

Santa Catalina´s Church of Alzira

Sanctuary of “la Virgen Del Lluch” of Alzira

Napoleonic Battery of Gavarda

Tower of la Plaça of Benifaio

Hermitage of Sant Roc de Ternils of Carcaixent

Store of the Ribera of Carcaixent

Hermitage of San Bernat of Carlet

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Condes de Orgaz Palacy of Sumacárcer

Roman Villa of Enova

Roman Quarry of Énova

Cultural events

Museum of feast of Algemesí

Gastronomic feast of Alcudia

FIVAMEL of Montroy

Taurine week of Algemesi

International week of Chamber Music of Monserrat

Natural or Landscape Heritage

Rice Cultivation in Algemesí

Orange cultivation of Ribera del Xuquer

Murta and Casella Valley of Alzira

Weir of Antella

Folklore and Festivals

Fallas of the Ribera del Xúquer

Holy Week of Ribera del Xuquer

Procession of la Mare de Deu de la Salut of Algemesi

Fogueres de Sant Antoni

Local Food Products

Local products that stand out are:

Paella, Baked rice“, Arròs amb fesols i naps” , Arròs a banda, all i pebre, Arnadí.

These products are the foundation that supports the gastronomic culinary heritage of the

Ribera del Xuquer.

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San Severino Lucano

The area of the Lucania Region side of the Pollino National Park covers a territory of 98,000

hectares in the province of Potenza and includes 24 municipalities. The cultural heritage offer

of the area must be considered as a whole focused on the Pollino National Park.

It has a very rough morphology, with altitudes approximately ranging from 300/400m above

sea level near the valley floors of the western and eastern side, to 2267m above sea level of

the highest peak in the park: Serra Dolcedorme. This also means a wide variety of natural

environments. In many cases, this diversity is even evident to the less attentive observer: for

example in places where the soil reaches the greatest slopes (western side with an average

slope of more than 45%) where, within a few km, it goes from the Mediterranean scrub to

deciduous xerophilous forests and then to the beech and loricate pines, typical of the higher

altitudes and mountain environments.

The Pollino National Park has a rich and varied heritage. Situated in inland Basilicata, visitors

to the area can enjoy picturesque scenery, areas of unspoilt natural beauty, and numerous

sites of historic and artistic interest.

The area’s wealth of tourism resources is a result of the fact that the area has been inhabited

since prehistoric times. Traces of the different civilizations that ruled over the area are often

still visible in monuments and buildings. Other resources adding to the area’s cultural heritage

include the local customs and traditions.

Over time, traditional food products have come to the fore and gained visibility. Thanks to

their high quality and distinctive character, many have been awarded official status both

nationally and at EU level.

The area’s assets can be summarized as follows:

Archaeological itinerary (includes the archaeological sites and the museums);

• Architectural tour: the castles;

• Nature itineraries (includes sites of natural and scenic interest);

• Traditional food.

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Ceuti

Ceutí forms part of the area known as the Middle Plain of the River Segura and is bordered by

the boroughs of Archena, Lorquí, Alguazas and Villanueva del Segura. Its town centre is some

18 kilometres from Murcia capital. It is not known exactly when this town was first populated,

although some references exist suggesting that there was first an Iberian settlement and then

later a Roman one. The Moslems also had a decisive influence on the area, which was then

known as “Alquería del Zepti”. The written history of Ceutí begins when the Islamic kingdom of

Murcia is conquered by Castilla. During many centuries Ceutí was continually passed on to

different owners (the crown of Castilla, Aragon, military orders). For several centuries there

was hardly any growth in population, until, in the 19th century an important demographic

change took place and leading up to 1960 Ceutí experienced a significant growth brought on

by the development of the fruit and vegetable canning industry.

In the last years, Ceutí has been one of the most dynamic towns in the region of Murcia, with a

very important cultural development: the programmes which its auditorium puts on are

excellent, its exhibition hall welcomes the region’s painters and sculptors from September to

June, the success of its cantautor (Spanish traditional singer-songwritter) contest “Cantigas de

Mayo” grows from one year to the next, Antonio Campillo Museum hosts the most important

collection of this famous Murcian sculptor, and, in the last years, a sculpture and mural

exhibition has been created in the open air. However, in this area what really stands out is the

new contemporary art centre called “La Consevera”.

The cultural heritage in Ceutí could be divided as follows:

MUSEUMS

La Conservera. Opened since May 2009, La Conservera, which takes its name form the

former use of the building as a cannery, has undergone a major refurbishment project

led by the architect Fernando de Retes, who devised a dynamic, flexible design proving

capacity for four impressive large exhibition rooms.

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La Conservera is the linchpin that sets the guidelines and determines the management

of the other cultural spaces administered by the Department of Visual Arts of Murcia’s

Regional Ministry of Culture, such as the Veronicas Church gallery and the Visual Arts

Space (EAV).

Antonio Campillo’s Museum. Inaugurated on 19th December 2003, the Antonio

Campillo’s Museum is located in one of the 19th century noble buildings preserved in the

borough of Ceutí, right in the old quarter.

The Museum of the 7 Chimneys. The building where the Museum is located dates from

the 19th century, and owes its name from the seven chimneys that still scrape the sky

over the municipality of Ceutí and which belonged to old canneries.

The Open Air Museum gathers a series of sculptures and murals mainly by Spanish

artists. Over a hundred works are placed in different public areas. This project started

with the placement of the first sculpture in 1997.

The Open Air Museum is an active museum able to keep a close relationship with the

cultural interests of the citizens, a place where the visitant can get lost in its streets like

if they were the rooms of a museum. Convert Ceutí into the museum as such, favouring

this way, the enjoyment of the tourists as well as the embellishment and attractiveness

of the municipality.

ARTISANS

Handicrafts are one of the truest reflections of a people’s culture. Behind this concept lies not

only a chronicle of human undertakings, but also a means of production that has survived the

changes of the modern world. Handicrafts tell us a great deal about the history of a place, its

customs, its models of organisation and its ways of seeing things as they are. Through objects

and shapes and methods of working with clay, esparto, metal, wood, etc. we can discover

what we were and how we came to be what we are now.

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In Ceutí some of the artisans who participate regularly in the most important fairs in the

Region of Murcia have their workshops.

A street market is held one Sunday every month with live demonstrations of handicrafts.

SITES

Other places of interest are the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, with its beautiful carvings

among the most outstanding are that of the Saint himself, that of Saint Roque and, above all

others, that of the recumbent Christ, which were produced by a sculptor from Francisco

Salzillo’s school, and also the hermitage of St. Roque and the hermitage of St. Joseph the

Worker and St. Mary Magdalene. Also worth visiting is the Arabic Wall, only discovered at the

beginning of the year 2002, which is an Islamic wall made of adobe (sun-dried brick), which

formed part of the entrance to the farmstead a thousand years ago.

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Evaluation of Pilot Action Component 4 - cultural road shows and Participation at the

TECHA Fair Arles 2010

Component 4 “Transnational pilot initiatives to create/promote creative and cultural enterprise

hubs” of CHORD Project foresaw the organisation and implementation of pilot actions for the

promotion of creative and cultural enterprise hubs. More specifically, within the framework of

Component 4, promotional cultural road shows were organised and the CHORD project

participated in the TECHA Fair Arles 2010.

Cultural road shows

The aim of subcomponent 4.3 “Pilot Promotion of cultural partnerships” was for the partners to

develop coordinated and integrated specialist press and marketing materials and to organize

joint targeted road shows in 2 European capital cities, as a pilot initiative for the promotion of

cultural partnerships. These activities are the key in testing the effectiveness of the joint

marketing strategy designed by the partners. All the territories were involved in at least one of

the two initiatives. The partners monitored the effectiveness and impact of the pilot actions

and evaluated its transferability throughout the MED area.

In terms of the use of roadshows as a tool for building a cultural district concept and raising

brand awareness, the logistics of this kind of communication activity require careful

organization and management, including a detailed schedule of events.

To ensure the efficacy of the roadshows, a model was designed to act as a blueprint for

planning a series of events that can be repeated at different times and in different target

markets.

The key stages in organizing and running a roadshow are described below.

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Figure 1 Model for organizing and running roadshows

Destinations Choose cities with international airports that can represent a

cultural model for a very large surrounding area.

Targets

Specialist travel and tourism operators:

- travel agencies and tour operators

- journalists from publications dealing with tourism, culture,

and food and wine.

Objectives:

- create a mailing list of at least 30 operators in order to

ensure at least 15 operators attend

- create a mailing list of at least 30 target editors in order to

ensure at least 15 journalists and representatives of 2

media organizations (press and/or radio/television) attend.

Invitations

- Techniques: e-mail campaign informing invitees of roadshow

programme and follow-up telephone call.

- Timing: send invitations at least one month before the event.

- Request confirmation of attendance: no later than 10 days

before the event.

- Reminder: 3 days before the event.

Format

Use the workshop format as the target is business-related. The

meeting must have a strong business and professional slant and

at the same time offer moments of light entertainment

representative of the area being promoted.

Content - Presentation of the cultural district and initiatives being carried

out in the area (events and incoming tourism organizations

supporting tourists and operators).

- Distribution of promotional material (brochures and

presentation folders).

- Tastings of local products and displays of traditional

handicrafts.

Venue

Centrally located, easily accessible deluxe / luxury conference

centres / hotels offering conference facilities.

Follow-up

- Press conference: hold an in situ press conference illustrating

the results of the roadshow and invite media representatives

from non-specialist radio, TV and press organizations so that

coverage of the event is not confined to the specialist media.

Compile a press review on the roadshow.

- Attendee recall (operators and journalists): by e-mail and

telephone, in order to strengthen contacts.

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The first pilot promotional cultural road show took place in Vienna under the name

“Mediterráneo, the art of living” on 25th of November 2009. The Naples Chamber of

Commerce, together with the CHORD partners and in collaboration with the Italian Tourist

Board in Vienna, held a press conference followed by a presentation and celebration dinner in

the capital city of Austria, at the famous Palais Todesco. The aim of the event was to showcase

to the Austrian public the amazing variety of attractions that the Mediterranean partners has to

offer in terms of art, climate, events, food, and crafts. It was also an invitation to come and

discover these regions, where there is vast choice of things to do, sights to see, and delicious

local specialities to try.

Throughout the dinner different products from Italy, France, Spain and Greece were provided

for tasting. This marketing activity can be described as a unique opportunity to disseminate

the resources of the partners regions, because of the high attendance of tourist operators and

journalists to this event. For instance, it can be pointed out the attendance of one of the most

important wholesalers in this sector, TUI, which has over 3 500 tour operators, 7 airlines, 12

hotel chains, 10 cruise ships and 30 million customers, which can give an idea of the

importance of the event. In addition to the foodstuffs presented, the partners, on the occasion

of this event, took the opportunity to disseminate their region’s cultural and architectonic

heritage, nature and landscape offerings, as well as the festivals and fairs held, by means of

brochures that were provided for tour operators and visitors.

The second pilot road show took place in the German city of Munich on 5 May 2010, organised

by the Province of Benevento, to present the cultural districts set up by the CHORD project.

48 press representatives and opinion makers attended. As an example of the project’s cultural

districts, the Province of Benevento presented the culture and traditions of the city of

Benevento, best known as the “witches’ city”. Its surroundings also offer tourism attractions,

which were duly presented as potential means for regional development, such as the

gastronomy of the Monte Taburno region, the Protected Designation of Origin wines from

Caudina valley, or the production of the unique Melannurca apples. The extensive architectural

and natural heritage of the Sannio region, with landmarks such as Campolattaro lake and the

thermal source of Telesina valley, are the components of a tourist offer that the CHORD project

will help improve and develop in order to promote regional development.

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The third pilot promotional cultural road show took place with the occasion of the celebration of

the International Exhibition on Cultural Heritage, in the ‘Carrousel du Louvre’ in Paris, on the

5th of November 2010. Three of the project’s partners, the Cultural Industries and Heritage

Cluster, the Municipality of Ceuti and ENA Chios S.A., with the support of the Fundación

Comunidad Valenciana-Region Europea, jointly organized a press conference within the

framework of this Exhibition.

Under the title ‘The CHORD project, taking advantage of Mediterranean cultural heritage’, the

event was focused on explaining the aims and objectives of the initiatives, as well as informing

about the main activities developed by the three project partners represented. The president

of the Cultural Heritage and Industries Cluster presented their experience in cooperation in the

region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur; the Major of the Ceuti Town Council explained an

activity addressed to improve local resources with a socio-cultural offer comprising museums,

leisure and art; and a representative of ENA Chios S.A presented best practices in the

promotion of the island giving an example of the transformation of mastic resin in the Greek

island, which is being currently developed by the craftsmen of Chios as sweet delicatessen

labelled as Protected designation of Origin by the EU.

Participation at the TECHA Fair Arles 2010

Region of Macedonia & Thrace attended the TECHA Fair 2010 in Arles, France and presented an

innovative training application to promote its most important tourist sites, which consisted of a

flash jigsaw puzzle containing several pictures of different locations of the Greek region. The

users will have to match all the pieces in order to rebuild the pictures and match them with the

place’s name. This game is aimed at promoting and enhancing the rich cultural heritage of East

Macedonia & Thrace, while at the same time helping to disseminate the CHORD project.

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Figure 1 screenshot of application

The aforementioned application can be found in the following link

http://www.chordmed.eu/userfiles/documents/puzzle/puzzlemenuuk.html and it received great

reviews on the TECHA Fair, as it is one of the few attempts in the Region of Macedonia and

Thrace to incorporate ICT technologies to promotion of Tourism in the area.

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Figure 2 Screenshot of application

Figure 3: Screenshot of application

26

Figure 4: Screenshot of application

The Mancomunitat de la Ribera participated in the Second International Forum Techa as the

aim of showing technological innovation and to disseminate the heritage and cultural

attractions of the participating regions to meet and become familiar with the activities in the

PACA region in promotion of cultural heritage in terms of restoration and tourist development.

The agency through which the Mancomunitat participated was Riberaturisme, a tourism

promotion agency owned by the same organism. The program concluded with the presentation

of the CHORD project and its objectives, in which he stressed the need to develop and test a

common strategy to implement innovative cultural services and promote activities that

increase the attractiveness and economic value of cultural heritage in the area the

Mediterranean.

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Target markets – selection and identification of the target segment

The main segments the clusters intend to aim at have been identified and estimations in

quantitative terms of potential visitor flows are provided below.

Province of Benevento

Based on the analysis of tourism resources available in the Province of Benevento and the

competitive scenario, target visitors can be identified as cultural tourists who may be variously

interested in a broad spectrum of cultural attractions including art, history, food and wine, and

local traditions.

An analysis of the existing and potential target market must also take into account the

distance between the tourist’s point of origin and destination. This factor has a significant

impact on the length of stay and the cost of travel. Two market segments can thus be

identified: long-haul cultural tourism and short-haul cultural tourism.

Long-haul cultural tourism

Includes all target visitors who spend more than ½ day getting to their chosen destination.

For the Province of Benevento this includes:

- international tourists

- domestic tourists living over 300 km away.

Short-haul and indirect cultural tourists

Includes all target tourists who spend less than 4 hours getting to their chosen destination.

For the Province of Benevento this includes:

- domestic tourists living within 300 km

- indirect domestic and international tourists, i.e. long-haul tourists visiting one of the major

attractors in the region who temporarily fall into the category of short-haul tourists.

The distance tourists have to travel significantly influences their choice of destination. Two

completely different competitive scenarios can be mapped out for areas that choose to position

themselves more strongly in one of the two segments.

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Looking in more detail at the buying behaviour of tourists in the two segments described

above, long-haul tourists take holidays lasting at least one week as they have to spend more

than a whole day travelling to and from their destination of choice. Consequently, they plan

their trip well in advance and the appeal of the destination plays a key role. As several market

research studies show, tourists who decide to take a cultural and rural holiday in southern

Europe for the first time generally choose areas such as Tuscany and Provence, which both

have a strong position in the mind of target cultural tourists.

The south of Italy is also well positioned in the mind of long-haul tourists in terms of major

attractors (Naples, Pompeii, Agrigento) and traditional coastal resorts, such as the Amalfi

Coast, Salento and Taormina.

Destinations in inland areas of southern Italy, such as the Province of Benevento, cannot be

considered part of this market. In the future, they could perhaps target repeaters in the long-

haul segment, in other words people who have already spent a holiday in southern Italy and

are returning to the area.

Short-haul cultural tourists fall into two categories. The first category comprises tourists living

within a radius of 300 km from the destination. The second category includes domestic and

international tourists who temporarily happen to be within a distance of 300 km, in this case

mainly tourists visiting major cultural attractors. As far as the Province of Benevento is

concerned, these visitors can be defined as indirect tourists. In this particular target market,

according to the competitive scenario described in the previous section, the Province of

Benevento will be competing against areas in inland Cilento, La Sila, Il Pollino, Matera and Le

Murge, inland Sicily and the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo. While offering a rich and interesting

cultural heritage, these areas do not have a strong brand. The Province of Benevento is thus in

a good position to successfully promote itself as a tourist destination in this market segment.

In the light of the above, if the Province of Benevento is to exploit the opportunities associated

with its proximity to major attractors in Campania and is to avoid direct competition with other

more strongly branded areas, the local tourism system must clearly give priority to the short-

haul cultural tourism segment and especially to indirect domestic and international tourists.

Only in the future will it be possible to target long-haul tourists visiting southern Italy for the

first time, once the province has built up a strong position and a recognized brand on the

tourism market. For the time being, and only as a secondary target, tourism development

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policies can be directed at repeaters, namely long-haul tourists returning to southern Italy

after an estimated period of about five years and looking for new places to explore in this area.

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

The target markets, with regard to the origin are:

Native tourists:

1. From REMTH: The aim is to recruit them from 2-3 hours up to a day on their trails

for rural tourism purposes.

2. From Central Macedonia: The aim is to recruit them for 2-3 days for rural tourism

purposes.

3. From the rest of Greece: The aim is to recruit them for 5-10 days and attract them

to other destinations inside REMTH.

Foreigners:

- From Western Europe: The aim is to attract these markets for a period of 7-10

days, which combined with traditional tourist activities, will benefit the rural

tourism. We are interested not only in preserving them, but especially in developing

these markets.

- From neighboring countries: The challenge is to create those conditions which will

cause a simultaneous and combinatorial activation for tourism purposes.

The aim is to encourage them in order to practice rural tourism alone, for at least 3

days, or in combination with traditional tourism activities, for 7-10 days.

- From Asian countries: The objective is to absorb a significant share of the Asian

market to remain in the region for 7-10 days. It is expected that the role of travel

agencies is important for this process.

Ena Chios S.A.

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It is true that during the last years new trends in the global tourist market have arisen. These

new trends include the preference of tourists in specific and independent kinds of tourism

according to the interests of tourists.

The island of Chios must make use of these new trends by promoting an alternative type of

tourism, the cultural tourism, with the further exploitation of its cultural heritage, in order to

gain a great competitive advantage against other tourist destinations. As well as this it is of

high importance to promote the island of Chios as pole of development and innovative

services.

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The target markets for the province of Seville are both native tourists and foreigners interested

in culture, nature and gastronomy.

Tourists’ objectives when they come to visit the province of Seville primarily are resting and

relaxing, carrying out of cultural activities and enjoying local gastronomy. Secondly, among

their motivations when choosing the province of Seville can be also highlighted the search for

fun and visiting natural areas.

Hospitality, accommodation, catering and gastronomic appeal, quality of life and finally nature

are the most appreciated elements by the tourists visiting the different districts of the province

of Seville. All of them get a score higher than 4.2 points on average on a scale of 1 to 5.

Culture, the monumental and historical attraction and gastronomy are very positively rated

qualities in the districts of Aljarafe and La Campiña. Nature is also a good valued aspect in the

districts of Guadalquivir - Doñana and in Sierra Norte.

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San Severino Lucano

For the Pollino National Park, where the Lead town of the park, San Severino Lucano, is

situated, tourism is one of the key policies for economic development and has been the main

focus of planning tools for both the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 planning cycles. Pollino National

Park’s major strengths are its wealth of outstanding natural and cultural resources as well as

its vast heritage of museums and historic and archaeological sites. In addition, there are

enormous untapped opportunities for tourism, where marketable tourism resources are to a

large extent still underdeveloped.

The Pollino National park’s weaknesses are, in contrast, the strong seasonality of tourist

demand and the high concentration of tourist arrivals in coastal areas around Maratea and

Metaponto.

In this scenario, the inland areas of the Basilicata Region, and consequently the Pollino

National Park, should be considered as a strategic resource for regional tourism. These areas

can relieve the impact of tourism on major coastal resorts and encourage harmonious tourism

development in inland areas.

Actions have already been put in place to promote tourism in these parts of the region and to

position them on domestic and international markets as quality destinations for culinary, eco-

and cultural tourists. Visitors can enjoy the local resources (culture, environment, food and

wine) by utilizing accommodation providers that are strongly embedded in the area, such as

farmhouses, bed & breakfasts and all other types of non-hotel establishments.

The SWOT analysis clearly shows that across the board the Pollino National Park has major

opportunities for tourism development, particularly in the “culture” and “nature” segments of

the market.

However, these opportunities are offset by a number of grey areas. Specific actions will need

to be implemented in order to eliminate structural divides, thereby strengthening the area’s

ability to exploit opportunities associated with tourism development, and at the same time

counteract the threats inherent in the competitive scenario.

Ceuti

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Regarding the target markets, Ceutí has a big experience dealing with different types of target

markets due to Ceutimagina, the former science and art centre in Ceutí.

The Target markets can be divided as follows:

Educational tourism is a big opportunity if you have an offer adapted to them. Teachers choose

the destination depending on price, educational content and fun.

Loyalty is a key factor for sustainability. Normally, when a visit is successful, regarding the

service delivered compared to the price paid, schools repeat the visit the following year, and

teachers recommend the visit to others.

Families with parents in the thirties or forties with university studies and a medium-high

income are usually interested in cultural destination with their children, if there are activities

specifically devoted to them.

Whereas the promotional activities for schools do not need a big budget, much more funds are

needed to attract this type of public, as they are more dispersed. However, the new

technologies offer today a great opportunity of reaching a lot of people, if they are correctly

managed. The use of blogs, websites devoted to families with children

(www.salirconpeques.com, www.viajarenfamilia.net, www.babyviajes.com), social networks

have a multiplying effect, they can be very effective with a low investment.

In the last years, there have been a growing number of resorts being built in the Region of

Murcia due to the demand of foreigners, mainly retired people from other European countries

wanting to live in a place where the weather conditions are much better than in theirs. In

2010, there were 86,002 citizens from other European countries living in the Region of Murcia

of which 21,879 were British, and 327,673 in the Province of Alicante. Thanks to the intense

traffic of low cost airlines in San Javier and Alicante airports, this people use to receive visits

from family and friends. To adapt an offer to them, it can be very profitable, as they have a lot

of time free, and usually a good income.

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Description of the purchasing model for the identified segment

The purchasing behaviour of the segments chosen above is described through the definition of

the following elements, depending on available information:

Age and socio-economic profile and origin

Average length of stay

Average expenditure per stay

When and where the visitor chooses the destination for cultural visits

What communication means have been used to make this choice

Province of Benevento

Going back to the analysis of travel motivations, one of the criteria on which domestic visitors

base their choice of southern Italy as a tourist destination is its proximity to their place of

residence. This makes the south of Italy a valid alternative to longer-haul destinations which

domestic visitors reject because they are afraid of long-distance travel. This consideration

emerges from the Doxa survey into tourism in southern Italy and highlights an opportunity for

the Province of Benevento. A further motivation determining the choice of destination is the

quality of food and wine. In this respect the province is well positioned thanks to its wide range

of high quality locally produced products.

International tourists, and especially German tourists, choose to visit southern Italy because

they want to discover new destinations, because they are attracted by its varied tourism

offering, and because the possibility of travelling with low cost airline companies offers them

financial savings.

The opportunities for tourism development in the Province of Benevento are, however, offset

by a number of threats. Domestic visitors complain that the local artistic and cultural heritage

is poorly preserved and that tourism products in southern Italy are badly communicated.

German visitors complain of inadequate facilities, high prices and transport problems.

The buying behaviour of cultural tourists, with particular reference to target visitors for the

Province of Benevento (primarily indirect tourists visiting major attractors in the Region of

Campania or on holiday in other southern Italian destinations), was analysed using surveys

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carried out with the support of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University

of Naples Federico II.

With regard to the socio-demographic profile of the sample, survey respondents were equally

distributed between the two sexes, aged primarily between 26 and 60, i.e. working age, and

almost all were educated to degree level.

As regards buying motivations, 64% of respondents (71% of overseas visitors) declared that

they had a specific reason for travelling.

As regards travel arrangements, only one visitor in four bought a package deal (24.5%), while

three out of four preferred to make their own arrangements (75.5%). Specifically, 49% were

do-it-yourself travellers and 26% went through a travel agency. As regards booking systems,

only one tourist in ten did not book their trip (9.7%). Nine visitors out of ten booked their stay,

43% from home (telephone or Internet) and 47% through a travel agency or tour operator.

The data confirmed that cultural tourists prefer to make their holiday arrangements

independently rather than buying a package deal, but that they also purchase tourism and

transport services from local outbound travel and tourism providers.

For target visitors, who have a higher than average cultural level and are Internet-users, a

successful tourism distribution model should not exclude travel agencies and tour operators,

even for individual travellers and small groups, as visitors consider them part of the do-it-

yourself experience.

As regards the average daily spend of target visitors, the study revealed that the average

accommodation spend may be a valid indicator of the average spend per stay. The cost of

accommodation varied from a minimum of €27 per night up to a maximum of €188 per night

in higher-category hotels. This indicates that target visitors used the entire spectrum of

accommodation offerings with no particular preference for one type of establishment. A more

detailed analysis of the data does reveal, however, that the majority of respondents chose

three- and four-star hotels, with an average accommodation spend of about €90.

Assuming that accommodation accounts at most for 70% of the average daily spend, excluding

travel, the total value of a three- or four-day stay was estimated to be €400-500, plus

travelling costs.

Lastly, it emerged from the survey that cultural tourists are attentive to issues concerning the

environment and conservation of the local area. In this respect the Province of Benevento is at

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an advantage thanks to its vast natural heritage and its largely unspoilt natural environment

resulting from low anthropic pressure.

In conclusion, cultural tourists eschew types of holidays associated with mass tourism, such as

all inclusive packages and organized trips, preferring to travel independently or in small

groups. Their reasons for travelling are associated with the search for authentic emotions and

experiences, which leads them to explore the distinctive aspects and, in a broader sense, the

cultural traditions of a particular area.

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

To sum up, the main characteristics are the following:

Arrivals and nights of domestic and foreign tourists: The number of arrivals and number

of overnight stays of natives is higher than the corresponding numbers of foreigners.

Across the country: the region is not a particular attraction of domestic tourism. The

commercial visitors have more overnight stays in the region than tourists.

Origin of foreign tourists: The main markets are Germany, England, France, Holland,

Austria and Belgium. Also a large percentage of visitors come from neighboring

countries (Bulgaria and Turkey), as tourists or travelers or both.

More in depth:

Native tourists from REMTH visit destinations within the region up to 3 hours distant,

mainly for business reasons.

Native tourists from Central Macedonia visit destinations for business or weekend trips.

Native tourists from the rest of Greece visit the area on business - or for congress

tourism, especially in traditional destinations such as Thassos.

Foreigners from Western Europe: The main market is located in Germany. It is

encouraging that in these countries, rural tourism is already popular and visitors have

agrotourist education and they don’t seek only for traditional destinations. Instead, they

have high demand for thematic tourism, such as spa, sports, cultural tourism, etc.

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Foreigners from neighbouring countries: The majority of visitors from Bulgaria and

Turkey visit the region on business purposes.

Foreigners from Asian countries: Greece is a popular destination for Asian tourists, who,

however, are attracted mainly by Athens and the Cycladic islands.

As for the motives of the visits, two of the main reasons for visiting a site are business

purposes (eg. conduct a conference) and tourism. There are various tourism topics such as:

Traditional tourism

Spa tourism

Religious tourism

Sports tourism

Cultural tourism

Rural tourism

Rural tourism includes a 'package of activities’ and a variety of subjects that allow two

different motives of visit in the region:

Motivation 1: refers to a combination of the main reason of visiting REMTH by passing

routes or at least visiting places of interest.

Motivation 2: refers to attract visitors - tourists with the primary aim of rural tourism

activity. Indeed, given the complexity of the final product offered, rural tourism can be

entirely the main reason for the visit.

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

According to the Tourist Observatory of the province of Seville, the purchasing behaviour of

the chosen segments can be described through the following elements:

Origin and socio-economic profile

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The analysis of the origin of tourists arrived in the province of Seville during the year 2010,

excluding the capital, shows a higher percentage of travellers residing in Spain. They

represented 86.9% in 2010 and 64.1% in 2009.

This change in the tourist profile, with an important predominance of Spanish residents to

foreigners, has been mainly motivated by a change in the commercial strategy of the Spanish

travel agencies which have concentrated their campaigns of offers and discounts on domestic

destinations as a response to the economic recession in the main international tourist-sending

markets. It can be noted that without having decreased the number of foreign tourists during

2010, their participation in the provincial market was lower in 2010 than in 2009.

With regard to the distribution of foreign tourists by country of origin, there is a majority of

European tourists, especially from Portugal (3.9%) and France (2.1%), followed by travellers

from countries such as Belgium (1.2%) and United Kingdom (1.1%). On the other hand

although the quota of participation of countries of South America is almost 2%, there is no

country that stands out above the others, representing all of them lower than 1%.

Regarding the profile of tourists in the province of Seville, excluding the capital, most are

tourists with University studies, who are currently working, married or living as a couple.

Analyzing the main differences that presents the profile of tourists in the different districts of

Seville, a significant proportion of them has a total monthly income exceeding 3,000 euros.

This group is the dominant segment in the Aljarafe, Guadalquivir-Doñana, La Campiña and Vía

de la Plata districts. However, in the districts of Sierra Norte and Sierra Sur this group has

residual importance, being the most important segment those who have incomes between 900

and 1,200 euros and 1,200 to 1,500 euros.

Average length of stay

On the subject of the average length of stay of tourists arrived to rural areas of the province of

Seville, regardless of the type of establishment where they stayed in, it raised from 2.30

average nights in 2009 until 3.74 nights obtained in 2010. Sierra Sur district has the highest

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average stay (4,82 nights) in the province, but it also has the highest proportion of visitors

hosted at their own residences or at the residences of their family or friends.

On the opposite side, Guadalquivir-Doñana and Sierra Norte districts had the lowest average

length of stay with 3.62 and 2.50 nights respectively.

Average expenditure per stay

It has been estimated that the daily average expenditure of tourists in the province is 71,45

euros, being Aljarafe the district where more money is being spent on average (83,46 € per

day), followed by Guadalquivir-Doñana district. Lastly, Sierra Sur is the district with lowest

tourist expenditure (44,89 €), very similar to that of Sierra Norte district. An intermediate

situation would be the average expenditure in Vía de la Plata and La Campiña districts.

Destination choice

The desire to know new places has motivated the visit of 32.2% of tourists in the province. It

should also be emphasized the importance of the recommendation of friends or relatives

(25.4%), as well as Internet (21.6%) in the choice of the destination. Recommendations in

traditional travel agencies (4.0%), the supply and catalogues of tour operators (2.9%),

reading brochures (2.8%) or advertising in general (1.8%) actually are much less important in

this choice.

Briefly, the total percentage of tourists who use the Internet at any time during the

organization of their trip reaches 54.61%. This percentage is very similar for those who use

the Net to carry out consultations and to get information. The number of passengers making

reservations via this medium is lower (27.39%), while purchasing tourist products using the

Internet, although minority, is performed by a not inconsiderable 9.62% of travellers.

The uses of the Internet relate mostly to the consultation of accommodation (48.1%), the

consultation on the places to visit (32.7%) and for the booking of accommodation (29.4%).

39

Besides, 13.2% uses the Net to look up the supply of catering and 9.7% for the purchase of

accommodation. Other significant uses allude to the booking of tickets to visit places of

interest, the consultation on transport and the consultation on joint programmes of transport

and accommodation.

The use of the Internet is increasingly found not only in the preparation of the trip but also in

the majority use of social networks by travellers, mainly Facebook and Tuenti.

Mancomunitat de la Ribera

The target segment is a profile of a person aged between 25-80 with medium-high cultural

level and more specifically in established categories: families, couples, groups with common

goals: associations of architects, historians, restorers, associations of activities to promote

culture: film, theater, cultural , etc. photographic associations and other kind of entities related

in Cultural Heritage.

According to the study by the Institute of Tourism Studies Area, the area of origin of our target

is firstly Valencia with about 48%. The second market is the United Kingdom, providing 11.9%

and the rest come from Madrid (8.6%), Castilla-La Mancha (3.5%) and France (3.1%).

The time of year in which our market goes to Valencia is during the summer. 44.7% is the

highest percentage of visits in the Valencian community. It is followed the spring season with

30.7%. The winter is the time of year with the least market segment (24.5% according to the

Instituto Estadístico Turístico). The main reason that leads tourists to visit our area is to enjoy

leisure and holidays, mentioned by 76.6% of them, to follow it with personal issues related

reasons (18.0%), work (3.3%).

As far as travel arrangements, there are various methods or means by which management is

carried out of bookings, as specified herein such as these management procedures that are:

with or without tour package. Therefore those booked in Valencia Tourism Agency amounted

to 9.6%, tourists who travel without reservation 8.4%, with direct booking: 9.5%, non-

package tour and package 10.00 and 8.4 %. It is also important to know that 75.7% of

tourists who travel to Valencia do not use tour package, while 23.6% of tourists travel with full

backup.

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Internet is another means of booking management. This is done through web pages for each

service (accommodation, airlines) or through central purchasing these stocks managed by

them. It therefore finds that the internet is still the majority among the tourists who visit Spain

(56.6%). Specifically, the tourists who used the Internet fell by 5.3% versus 10.3% growth

starring those who did use this mean. The proportion of tourists who visited, booked and paid

in this way was similar to previous years, recording all setbacks, although the method that

best dropped from the previous year was the consultation, catching up with the booking form.

The average stay of tourists who purchased travel package was 8.4 days, compared to that for

tourists who did not use these services, 10 days. Among the latter, who came for free, without

making any booking the stay is reduced to 8.4 days, while those who make some kind of

overnight stay about 9.5 days. The average expenditure per stay in 2009 was 84,8 euros,

significantly less than the average for the Region of 155,3 euros (source: Familitur 2010).

In the Comunidad Valenciana the target market share achieved in 2009 is 58.9% according to

the Instituto de Estudios Turisticos Familitur 2009.

There is a trend of shorter stays accommodation in our community and a gradual increase in

domestic tourism.

On the other hand, the number of visitors to the Comunidad Valenciana as travel

arrangements with tour package is a 9.6 % and 90.4% without package (Frontur 2010).

CEUTI

The following target markets have been identified:

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

There are two things to take into account regarding this market segment. Teachers are the

persons who take the decision and select the destination but children are the end users and

who pay the price.

Budget. The available budget of each child is not big, but they normally travel in big

groups, therefore they can be an important income for a museum or an artisan, for

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example. Moreover, they use to have pocket money to spend in a gift shop, so a

museum shop must have articles at a price of 1 or 2 euros in order to have a high

turnover.

Season. This type of public only makes visits during the school year, and normally they

stop them at the end of the course. Therefore they normally start in the middle of

October and finish in May. During the vacation periods like Christmas or Easter there

are no visits.

Word of mouth. As end users, it is important that children enjoy the visit. If they are

happy, they will tell their parents and the whole family (with other brothers and/ or

sisters) will repeat the visit.

FAMILIES

Budget. In families where parents are in the thirties and forties and have university

studies normally both work and they can spend a budget of 20 € in the entry tickets for

a family visit if it is worthwhile. The main problem to charge an entry ticket is the

competition, as regional museums such as La Conservera or Fine Arts Museum in

Murcia usually organise workshops for children at no cost.

Season. As the summer in the Region of Murcia is so hot, families do not usually plan

one day excursion trips in interior areas from June to August. During the week,

activities are normally organised on the weekends. One thing that can make a

difference is to offer activities on Sunday during the whole day, as most museums are

closed on Sunday afternoon.

FOREIGNERS

According to a study carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in the Region of Murcia

for foreigners who visited rural destinations in the Region of Murcia in Summer 2008, we can

extract the following data:

66.7% of the foreign visitors came from the U.K., and 20% from France.

26.7% were between 56 and 65 years old, and 26.7% over 65. Therefore, more than

50% were over 56, whereas 52.9% of Spanish people going to these destinations were

between 26 and 35 years old.

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40% were jubilees, 20% employees and 20% entrepreneurs.

53.3% came with their partner and 26.7% with their family.

26.7% stayed between 8 and 15 days and 40% more than 15 days, whereas the

majority of Spanish people stayed maximum one week.

30% stayed in their own house and 70% in a house lent by family or friends.

60% knew about the offer by family or friends. That’s why it is very important to start

attracting foreign people that already live in the Region of Murcia, as they will tell their

friends.

60% of them chose the Region of Murcia as destination because they had family or

friends already living there.

36.4% decided to visit monuments or museums, whereas the Spaniards only 9.1%;

81.8% decided to do excursion trips and 63.6% to enjoy the natural landscape.

33.3% visited Murcia and Vega Media, where Ceutí is placed.

60% had visited the Region before, half of them more than three times.

Internet was the most effective mean of publicity to attract this type of tourist.

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3. The three year targets

For the defined potential market, on this section will be presented the specific strategies to

follow and the objectives to be achieved in the next three years.

Province of Benevento

In addition to the communication activities described above, a series of investments will be

made during the three-year period to strengthen promotional actions already in place in the

area.

In particular, the Provincial Council of Benevento intends to provide funds to update the “Made

in Sannio” portal so that it can become an effective communication tool targeting the potential

tourist market. The portal will continue to serve as a virtual meeting place for firms and

operators from the local food and traditional crafts sectors of the business community in the

Province of Benevento. Initiatives aimed at extending the business community to encompass

the travel and tourism sector will also be put in place.

In parallel with the development and implementation of the CHORD Project, a brochure in

Italian, English and German will be produced and a website for raising awareness of the

project and promoting tourism in participating areas will be designed. In line with the

international scope of the project, the website will be available in two languages (Italian and

English).

In order to enhance the efficacy of promotional actions set out in the project, the Provincial

Council of Benevento will actively take part in trade fairs and tourism promotional events both

at national and international level in synergy with local authorities and organizations, and in

partnership with other bodies and associations.

Investments needed to carry out the planned actions are closely tied in with activities already

scheduled in the pilot phase funded by the MED programme, which will be integrated with

specific resources as indicated below:

ACTIVITY

COST

Design and printing of 1,000 presentation folders (size A4 closed) and 1,000

note pads (size A4 – 20 sheets), in addition to the information leaflet in

Italian (1,000 copies – size A4 open – 10 x 21 cm folded) already itemized in

the expenditure budget of the CHORD Project.

€ 3,000

CHORD Project brochure in Italian, English and German – 500 copies in € 10,000

44

Italian, 500 copies in English, 500 copies in German – size 15 x 21 cm

closed – 42 pages + cover.

Province of Benevento Cultural District website in Italian and English. € 10,000

Updating of the www.madeinsannio.it portal. € 60,000

Participation in domestic and international trade fairs: Borsa Internazionale

del Turismo (Milan) - Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo (Naples) - ITB (Berlin)

– TTI (Rimini) – Aurea (Foggia) – WTM (London)

€ 60,000

Total investments excluding VAT

€ 143,000

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

Composing the objectives and market segments, and the principles of replacing the tourism

product on the islands of Thassos and Samothrace Islands, individual thematic strategies for

the identified market segments will have to be included in next three-year strategic planning.

Below is a graph of the proposed sub-strategies.

It should also be noted that the following strategies can also be implemented combined for

specific sections of the market which present potential synergies (eg. excursive - Religious

Tourism).

STRATEGY: Health & Well being Tourism

45

The proposed strategy consists of 4 segments: “Well being Tourism”, "Hiking",

"Sanative Tourism” and "Agrotourism".

It is estimated that the segment "Well being Tourism" may contribute to meeting all the

targets, namely the increase of arrivals, increase of length of stay and per capita

expenditure, while the sections "Hiking / Nature Trails" and "Agrotourism" are expected

only to contribute in the increase of arrivals and the average stay. On the contrary

“Sanative Tourism” is expected to help increase the average stay and less the increase

in arrivals.

High standard hotel infrastructure is important for “Well being tourism” development

and for prospective travelers. For this segment it is proposed to support the hoteliers in

the deploying special offers that include well being accommodation packages.

The segment "Hiking / Nature Trails" brings about strong acceptance by the Greek and

Balkan prospective travelers, the relevant infrastructure is considered by them on a par

with other similar destinations, which suggests that visitors from the Balkans are not as

demanding as travelers from the United Kingdom, who are not satisfied.

The segment "Agrotourism" brings significant percentage of preference in the Balkan

and Greek market share in Greece. In fact, the 45-54 age group shows slightly higher

preference.

The segment "Sanative Tourism” also brings considerable percentage preference in the

Balkan and Greek audience. The 55-64 age group shows slightly higher preference.

STRATEGY: Professional Tourism

The strategy brings together two different segments, the Religious Tourism and

excursive Tourism. It is estimated that all the above segments, with the exception of

religious tourism, will not contribute substantially to the goal of increasing per capita

expenditure, but will definitely bring an increase in the number of visitors.

To increase the number of visitors in the social tourism segment it is necessary to

promote it to the Greek and foreign tourist agencies, as well as to cultural educational

associations, such as Labor Social Organizations, Unions such as bank employees,

Educational Institutions. The "Religious Tourism” is the market segment with the best

46

potential, particularly in older age groups. Grow can be accomplished by focusing on

specific groups included in excursive Tourism. Emphasis is proposed to be given on

providing incentives for repeatable visits. An interesting feature is that Religious

Tourism is preferred by the higher socio-economic group.

The expected results, from implementing these strategies, in the goals set by the three year

marketing plan on the growth of tourism in target markets can be viewed in the following

table:

Contribution

Increase in arrivals increase length of

stay

increased per capita

and daily

expenditure

Social Tourism

excursive tourism High low low

Religious tourism medium medium High

Health & Well being Tourism

Well being tourism High High High

Hiking medium High low

Sanative tourism medium medium low

Agrotourism low High low

Ena Chios S.A.

The targets which Chios can set for the next three years are:

The differentiation of its tourist product, through the development of its cultural

heritage

The creation and the improvement of hotel units and generally of tourist infrastructure

according to the needs of specific forms of tourism

Efforts to increase the number of visitors in Chios in the next three years

Reach new customers and encourage them to stay longer

Implementation of investment programmes for the promotion of the cultural hubs of

the island

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The diffusion of the impact of culture in the other sectors of the economy of Chios

Implementation of selected actions in advertisement, promoting material, web-

marketing and organization of special events

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The promotion strategy of the province of Seville for the next three years must be targeted to

increase tourism outside high season, to increase average daily expenditure per tourist and to

achieve a greater homogeneity of activity in the territory of the province.

Tourist supply must be adapted, diversified and differentiated to achieve these objectives but

above all it must be properly communicated.

Tourist marketing should experience a change of mentality, from the definition of segments to

experiences that are generated around a medium or interest. In this way, attracting tourists

must be developed in areas of concentration of travelers rather than in countries, changing

from a generic promotion to a specific one.

The specific objectives to be achieved are the following:

Betting on experiential marketing in a determined way as tourists choose their

destination not only by quality/price ratio, but by the experience that it offers before

the purchase and during their stay.

Supporting the creation of specific tourist supplies in low and middle season and an

impetus to quality management systems.

Intensifying the use and the presence of Seville in social networking sites.

Developing selective marketing through specific campaigns.

To use e-commerce intensively and expanding sales systems.

Incorporating new tourist consumptions.

Boosting repetition of visits and recommendations, taking advantage of relationship

marketing.

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CEUTI

The market share could be divided according to the different types of public:

Scholars. According to the National Institute of Statistics, 232,242 children between 3

and 16 years old lived in the Region of Murcia in 2010. Nowadays, from this age, all

children are schooled.

Tourists. Whereas people stayed as an average in the city of Murcia 1.67 days, those

going to Ricote Valley and the Thermal Baths stayed 4.09 days. Due to the length of the

stay and the proximity, those would be the tourists that could most probably come to

Ceutí.

European citizens other than Spaniards. In 2010, there were 86,002 citizens from other

European countries living in the Region of Murcia and 327,673 in the Province of

Alicante.

In 2012 Ceutí Town Council is expecting to start a new project, creating new tourist itineraries

which will include visits to the Museums, workshops with artisans and cycled routes in the

irrigated area. This first year Ceutí Town Council will concentrate on attracting school trips, as

it needs a lowest investment in publicity and are an important source of word of mouth.

As this offer is new, we expect to attract a group each week, which could represent around

1,400 children, a 0.6% of all scholars.

With reference to tourists, we will make agreements with other nearby destinations, as

Archena Thermal Baths, only 7 Kilometres away, so that they offer a visit to Ceutí as one of

the activities. In the first year we expect to attract 0.4% of them.

During 2013, Ceuti will carry on visitor research.

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The following market shares are forecast:

1% of all scholars.

0.8% of tourists visiting the Ricote Valley and Thermal Baths.

0.2% of families in the Region of Murcia.

0.4% of European citizens other than Spaniards, living in the Region of Murcia.

In 2014, we expect to obtain the following market shares:

1.5% of all scholars.

1% of tourists visiting the Ricote Valley and Thermal Baths.

0.4% of families in the Region of Murcia.

0.6% of European citizens other than Spaniards, living in the Region of Murcia.

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4. Branding and identity

New locations appear on the global market, bringing new possibilities and becoming

competitors. Considering the global competition, it is necessary the management of a

Mediterranean region brand to attract investors and visitors.

The Mediterranean region is a leading touristic destination but Mediterranean countries have

traditionally competed against each other and the tourist strategy has mainly been

concentrated in the coastal areas.

There are certain problems that have to be analyzed when it comes to branding a region:

Every country tends to build its own country brand and because of that considers other

countries its competitors.

Each of these countries offers similar tourism products and attempts to attract the

same target tourism markets.

Nations all over the globe have recognized the importance of collaborative efforts in fighting

the current crisis with joint resources and partnerships. Co-branding strategy decreases

marketing costs and opens up new opportunities for transferring positive images for the whole

region. It can be an opportunity to exploit at the same time MED value and rural

attractiveness.

The common interests and problems of Mediterranean regions would make it easier to reach

and maintain agreements by using the cooperative branding approach. Integration may help

them to confront the challenges posed by the crisis, by allowing them to enlarge markets and

to increase trade flows, investments and joint projects.

At the same time, the different tourist stakeholders should take part in this strategy in each

territory, The definition of partnership is an agreement made between businesses,

organizations, associations, funding agencies and/or government agencies whereby resources

are pooled for the purpose of achieving a mutually beneficial business goal/objective. Each

entity works together yet remains independent.

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Businesses, organizations, associations and government agencies within the hospitality and

tourism industry are facing a challenge: How can an organization reach a specific goal that will

increase their success, when so many elements are challenging them? The answer is: The

organization cannot do this alone. The business environment today is bombarded with

increased competition, global competition, educated consumers, increasing business costs, and

continually evolving technology. Organizations must be proactive, adaptable to change,

opportunity seekers, consumer-oriented and have common sense.

Organizations can overcome these challenges by identifying objectives and developing

strategies to meet the objectives. One strategy that has enabled businesses to become more

effective and successful is through Collaborative Partnerships, where businesses combine their

resources to achieve mutually beneficial goals. Collaboration allows businesses, whether they

are in competition with each other or not, to combine skills, money, information,

products/services, ideas and/or technology to achieve goals that would otherwise be

individually unattainable.

Working as a cluster, its members can benefit from different strategies for cultural heritage

branding and identity like integrated thematic cultural routes, thematic promotion, etc.

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5. Promotion strategies and mix

The scope of the travel and tourism industry is wide ranging. It is an industry comprised of

numerous sub-industries. Transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, amusement,

recreation and services all form the backbone of what is collectively referred to as the Travel

and Tourism industry. Together, this single industry produces over 10% of the world’s GDP.

It is one of the world’s largest private sector employers. In one-way or another, it touches

almost every individual amongst the world’s developed nations. Travel and tourism, along

with telecommunications and information technology, will lead the 21st century economy in

terms of growth and absolute revenue production.

The economic potential of tourism is substantial and each marketing and promotional strategy

must aim at maximising the benefits tourism can generate, within the framework of the further

exploitation of the cultural heritage of a destination. The key objective is to work alongside a

dedicated and professional tourism industry sector to ensure the participating regions maintain

and grow their share of the lucrative tourism market. Key challenges to achieving this include:

Responding strategically and creatively to growing levels of competition

Responding to changing economic and social trends

Increasing tourism dispersal throughout the participating regions

Maximising visitation, yield and visitor satisfaction

Regardless the attractiveness of a tourist destination it is essential for visitors to receive at

least some basic information on it otherwise they are not going to choose it for their holidays.

Therefore, promotion and marketing are critical to the success of any tourism venture. Almost

by definition, tourists are from somewhere other than where the destination is, so marketing

efforts need to be very broadly disseminated in order to reach the target market.

As in any promotional process, in the promotion of tourism, the selection of the tool is crucial.

Nowadays the tourism industry is extremely challenging. Tourism has evolved during the latter

half of the 20th century from a marginal and locally significant activity to a widely dispersed

economic giant. Many aspects of tourism promotion have been developed these last years to

attract new customers.

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A wide range of marketing methods can be employed to influence key markets. These

marketing options continue to expand, driven by new media and technology. The advances

provide an array of tools that must be matched to the needs of individual markets.

The objective of traditional advertising is the maintenance and development of the existed

promotion model and the emergence of an alternative model. Advertising must be

implemented to the professionals in the sectors of culture and tourism, as well as to the

tourists. Advertising to the professionals can be electronically in order to reduce the cost and

to the tourists with a wide promotion of printed and electronic material so as to attract

different target groups. Traditional advertising is composed of articles in newspapers and

magazines in sections related to cultural heritage and tourism. Television spots and radio

advertisements are also among the traditional advertising means.

Web marketing is a tool that can promote tourism destinations / products / services all over

the world, to all possible segment target groups, at respectively low cost and with immediate

results. The problem is that due to the aforementioned amenities web marketing is widely used

and thus the competition for public attention on the Internet is fierce.

Web marketing includes the provision of advertisements and useful information of the

destination on line, using the worldwide web’s features and options in order to attract tourists

of different types.

Participation in Trade Fairs and Events all over the world and especially in countries/sectors

that represent the segment targets of the destination’s tourism policy can be more than

valuable and can contribute in a maximum level. Through the participation in relevant trade

fairs and events, the destination is promoted directly to both professionals of the tourism

sector (tour operators, transportation companies, hospitality enterprises, associations and

others) and possible clients/tourists.

Province of Benevento

Communication is a crucial lever within the framework of marketing policies promoting tourism

products. This is due to the intangibility of this type of good (a typical feature of the service

industry) and to the particular buying process involved. Consumers of tourism products

54

generally evaluate and choose the type of holiday and tourist destination well before they

actually travel.

Target visitors are attentive to quality tourism. For cultural tourists a holiday is an opportunity

to experience a place and to discover the lifestyle of the local people, while respecting local

traditions. In line with this visitor profile, communication activities will not be limited to

providing information or making promises, but will aim at communicating the province

primarily through visuals (photographs and graphics), allowing tourists to explore and enjoy

the area, even if only remotely.

If the geographical location of each resource and each cultural pole can be easily identified,

communication tools can be designed to help potential visitors gather information, particularly

when they are in the process of choosing their destination and arranging their trip.

Grouping and classifying resources both by “location” and “cultural pole” is fundamental for

providing potential visitors with access to the right information and above all making sure that

communication policies and promotional actions to increase tourist arrivals in the Province of

Benevento are effective.

As a communication tool, web marketing is very effective in informing the potential tourist

market. As emerged from the analysis of buying behaviour, 43% of cultural tourists organize

their holiday from home either by telephone or via the Internet. It is therefore crucial to pay

particular attention to the information available to potential tourists on the web. This applies to

both domestic as well as to international tourists, who must be able to access information in at

least the major world languages or the languages spoken in key source countries. The

existence of dedicated websites or information otherwise available on the Internet must also

be appropriately communicated to the target market via e-marketing tactics increasing

exposure in the main international search engines as well as by promoting hardcopy

communication materials about the area and activating link exchange policies among local

tourism operators.

Communication materials, such as brochures illustrating tourist attractions and resources, will

have to be designed and produced as part of a communication strategy in order to raise

awareness of the area across the target market. All communication materials targeting

international tourists, such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and information leaflets, must be produced in

the language spoken by the potential recipients of the message. Communication materials will

be distributed at events promoting tourism at national and international level, thereby

55

performing the dual function of communicating the area within as well as outside the province.

At local level, communication materials can be distributed to travel and tourist operators and

at regional info points located at major tourist attractors in Campania.

Trade fairs and special events are also important communication tools that target two sections

of the public of interest: potential partners in the initiative and target visitors. Possible

partners can also be recruited by organizing seminars, workshops and press conferences

where, in addition to being the focus of information activities, purpose-designed

communication material and brochures can be distributed.

Tools such as information and promotional roadshows are a particularly effective way of

reaching foreign tour operators and opinion leaders. Communication is both focused – it

addresses specific target segments – and effective – the event can be transported to the target

audience. The primary objective of roadshows and in general workshops targeting tourism

operators and press conferences / presentations targeting the media is to raise awareness of

the Province of Benevento Cultural District using the AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire,

Action). Tourism operators and media representatives can then act on potential visitors and

influence the target market.

All the communication actions described above are a fundamental part of the strategy to build

up an area brand that can over the course of time become increasingly strong and

recognizable on the market. Once the brand has been created, tools such as traditional press,

radio, TV and billboard advertising can be used to make it even more well known and

recognized.

In addition, activities promoting the “Province of Benevento” brand on specific target markets

will need to be carried out. Actions must target existing source countries for arrivals that

represent opportunities for growth in the Province of Benevento according to the profile of

target visitors and their reasons for choosing the destination.

Quality project

Looking at the profile of cultural tourists as illustrated in section 8, the concept of “quality” is

clearly a key factor in this type of tourism. It is therefore crucial to focus on actions that can

influence visitors’ decision to purchase and their perception of the experience in the area.

These may include highlighting the emotional aspect, customizing tourism services, “adapting”

56

hospitality to the themes of local traditions and food and wine, and creating entertainment

opportunities linked with local festivals and events.

The aim of cultural tourists is to “experience” their holiday destination and the cultural

commodities it offers, including local traditions, locally produced products, while respecting the

environment.

Enabling visitors to enjoy the area and its cultural resources in line with the concept of quality

they expect requires the direct participation of tourism operators and, at the same time, the

involvement of all the local players in the cultural tourism segment, including local authorities

and trade associations.

This can be achieved by identifying the cultural district concept and defining cultural poles as

thematic areas through which visitors can physically explore the area and its attractions.

In addition, dividing the district into geographical areas can help and guide visitors, especially

first-time visitors, in their enjoyment of the area and the local resources.

The CHORD Project is part of a wider communication strategy promoting the Province of

Benevento put in place several years ago by the Benevento Provincial Council. One initiative

already being promoted by the Council is the "Made in Sannio" community and portal, set up

with the financial support of the Campania Regional Government with funds from the P.L.A.I.T.

Programme (Measure 6.5 for the internationalization of the regional manufacturing system -

P.O.R. Campania 2000/2006) and co-ordinated by I.R.VA.T. (Institute for the Promotion and

Protection of Regional Products). The aim of the “Made in Sannio” Project is to provide a virtual

meeting place where Internet-users can find out more about the Province of Benevento. The

www.madeinsannio.it portal showcases the local business community bringing together nature,

culture, traditions, local food and traditional crafts.

Another initiative already underway is the I-TRACE Project, which proposes a quality

management model for the rural tourism sector. In response to the demand for quality, the

project has put together five tourist itineraries designed and constructed in compliance with a

Quality Protocol, following the drafting and signing of a Quality Declaration by all participating

travel and tourism operators. The aim of the project is to ensure that tourists receive quality

services and at the same time to provide travel and tourism operators from the public and

private sector with a tool to guarantee the quality of their products and create a cycle of

continuous improvement. In order to provide a quality tourism offering, each tourism operator

57

participating in the project must undertake to self-certify and comply with the minimum quality

standards set out in the Declaration.

The CHORD Project is therefore part of a wider ongoing policy of promoting the area in terms

of “quality cultural tourism”, where a systemic approach is required to engage both tourism

operators and resources. Specifically, the project aims to foster the creation of relationships

between local public and private bodies who identify with the Benevento Cultural District

brand, and who can obtain mutual benefit and create synergies from the network and rationale

of co-operation. The Province of Benevento will set out to secure the participation of all the

players who are variously involved in promoting the local cultural heritage in its broadest

sense, from cultural resources themselves to documentary services, cultural activities and

events. At the same time, the project will engage travel and tourism operators from the

private sector, especially hotel, catering and tourism service establishments, as well as

manufacturers of traditional, locally produced products. The advantages for operators

participating in the CHORD Project are primarily associated with area brand visibility and the

positive impacts it will have on businesses directly involved in promotional actions planned

over the three-year period of the project.

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

The proposed communication strategies can be divided, according their priority, into two

categories which include different market segments. The first includes segments that bring the

most promising development and satisfaction of both the specific and individual goals of the

marketing plan over the next three years. The second category includes the peak segments

that are long-term growth and satisfy the objectives of the project.

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HEALTH & WELL-BEING

The specific communication strategy for the health & well-being should focus on age

groups of 35+. These groups decide on their destinations by travel guides lists and

articles in newspapers, magazines, and ads listed in them. In particular the proposed

communication strategy for market segment “health & well-being” is to focus on the

35-44 group, also a target group of the 3-year marketing plan, through entries in

newspapers and magazines and specialized websites.

For the segments "Hiking" and "Sanatory Tourism”, the proposed approach for

communication strategy is to aim at the 55-64 age group, which is also a strategic

objective of the marketing plan. Promoting through travel guides, Invitations to

specialized Journalists and authors of tour guides, Journal entries in local, international

and thematic press are some of the practices that can be implemented. Given the

59

special characteristics of the 55-64 group, Entry level package offers by travel agencies

should be practiced as well.

For the segment "Agrotourism" the preferred communication strategy is to focus on the

45-54 age group. Invitations to journalists and authors of travel guides are strongly

suggested. Accordingly entry level package offers from travel agencies should be

contemplated for 55-64 age groups. Finally, local authorities should participate in

tourism exhibitions, with special emphasis on alternative forms of tourism, in particular

“Agrotourism”.

SOCIAL TOURISM

The communication strategy focuses on almost all age groups. For the market segment

“Religious Tourism” the 55-64 is the proposed target - age group and promoting this

market segment to Greek and Bulgarian travelers through Invitations to specialized

Journalists and authors of tour guides, emphasizing on Christmas and Easter holiday

packages. Also Entry level package offers by travel agencies can be used in order to

promote religious tourism.

Regarding “Excursive tourism”, emphasis should be given on the 55-64 age group

considering that, participation in students trips is expected to be adversely affected

because of the demands formulated by the new rating system in exams in Greek

universities. In light of this assessment, organizations of the wider public sector should

be approached with intend to promote tourism in the region for executives and their

workers. Organizing marketing presentations in critical public bodies (National Labor

Housing Organization), Business and cultural associations (association of bank workers,

etc.) should be deployed in order to contract for the spring and fall period.

Generally, the proposed strategy for social tourism must be supported by subsidizing

local travel agents, organizing theme events with the support of local authorities, local

hoteliers and travel agents. Theme events must focus on the employees and members

of critical public bodies, business and cultural associations respectively.

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Ena Chios S.A.

The communication mix that is used for the promotion of Chios’ cultural hubs is composed of

both traditional and modern means of dissemination:

Support and promotion of the cultural hubs is realised through:

Government bodies, such as Greek National Tourism Organization, competent

Ministries, Municipal Authorities, Regions, Chambers of Commerce and Industry,

Development Companies etc

Individual initiatives, which while trying to promote their own products or services

succeed also the promotion of the destination (eg hotel advertisements, tour operators’

newsletters and traditional products producers)

Communication is succeeded through both traditional and modern means:

Press Releases

Interviews

Workshops

Conferences

Participation to trade fairs / exhibitions / events

Documentaries / Special TV programs

Leaflets / Booklets

Newspapers / Magazines / Radio

Websites, Portals

Websites of social networking

Direct promotion to segment targets

General audiovisual material

Advertisements

Enterprising opportunities

Participation in international tourist forums

Informational brochures

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With regard to the advertising of Chios, every year, publications in national and international

magazines support the promotion campaign and banners with touristic promotional material

are created and placed in strategic points of the island.

The creation and dissemination of printed material is also part of traditional advertising

actions. Flyers and booklets translated in different languages are sent to tour operators and

other tourism organizations all over the world.

The creation of printed and promotional material aims at the attraction of internal and external

tourists and at the emergence of distinctiveness of Chios, with direct results in the emergence

of local areas, cultural heritage, local customs and tradition.

The most popular ways of promoting Chios through the www are:

Uploading relevant spots / articles / photos at local websites

Creation of new portals in the area

Use of existing portals in the area

Inserting advertisements to other tourist/cultural websites and/or portals with links to

local authorities, hotels, transfer services, event calendars etc

Newsletters to tour operators, tourism and culture organizations from other regions and

countries

Inserting links with relevant key words to search engines (eg google)

General information about Chios and about some qualitative characteristics, like rates

of tourist demand and supply, environmental, financial and social rates

Creation of informative audiovisual material of cultural attractions of Chios

Creation on an electronic professional catalogue of the cultural and tourist enterprises

of Chios with useful information

Uploading photos, printed material or other relevant material of forums, conferences or

other social events which took place in the island

On- line advertising of products/services

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The material that can, and must, be used for the communication and the merchandising of the

destination, its infrastructures and provided services, as well as the general promotion of

Chios, towards the goal of sustainable tourism includes:

Marketing infrastructure in Chios

General promotion of the island by newspapers and magazines, press agents, TV

channels and specific programmes, radios, web sites and advertising agencies

Design of special publications of travel guides and maps, as well as printed and audio-

visual material like leaflets, brochures and creation of cd’s and dvd’s with information

about historic monuments, museums, distances between cities and information about

hotel units, rented rooms and tourist agents of the area

Implementation of advertising campaigns of the local tourist products, in order to

attract more tourists from different parts of world

Public relations between Chios and international organizations from the sectors of

tourism and culture for the promotion of the area. This category of actions is of high

importance for the touristic promotion. The principal roles of PR are to convey targeted

messages, to aim a general awareness and interest, away from the point of sale. PR is

often a much more important promotional tool for travel and tourism than for other

categories of consumer products. This is because so much of the subject matter is

intrinsically interesting. Indeed people are very interested in stories about exotic

destinations, glamorous people and their travel habits, and the arts and heritage

generally. A strategy of public relations may depends on the implementation of special

events like conferences for tourism, interviews or other events which enhance the

touristic profile of the destination and public relations with bodies of tourism and

culture. An important factor in this direction is the existence of experienced staff in the

organization of such events

Organisation of trips with national and foreign tourist agents and journalists, in order to

promote alternative forms of tourism, such as cultural tourism

Special tourist features like tourist information centers and interactive exhibitions trails

Cultural events and offers as a means of strategic marketing, which makes Chios an

attractive destination. Cultural events include ceremonial events and festivals where

tourists get acquainted with the local culture and tradition

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Establishment of cultural and artistic meeting points and cultural programmes for

different target groups

Organisation of exhibitions and conferences organized by professional associations, with

positive effects in public relations, communication and in the general economic and

business sector

Organisation of workshops to facilitate the contact and the commercialization between

the interested tourist operators and selected travel intermediaries

Trade Fairs and Tourism Events are held every year all over the world, especially during the

period between November and April. The most popular among these are:

Participation in the “Touristic Panorama” exhibition in Athens

Participation in the “Philoxenia” exhibition in Thessaloniki

Participation in the “International Trade Fair (ITF)” in Thessaloniki

International Exhibition on Cultural Heritage in Paris

Participation in the “World Travel Market” in London

Participation in the “International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) in Israel

Participation in the “International Fair of Tourism Travel and Trips (ATB)” in Syria

Also in Chios numerous events are organised, including traditional local festivals and major

cultural attractions. Some of the main events of touristic interest are listed below:

Rocket-play custom, Vrontados, Annually at Easter time

New year’s model – boats, Chios Municipality, December

Agro tourism festival, Chios Municipality, August

Carnival events: the custom of “Agas”, Mesta, Pirgi, Lithi, Olympi, annually at the

beginning of the Holy Week

Carnival events: Mostra of Thimiana, Thimiana, annually at the beginning of the Holy

Week

Religious festivals (Memory of Holocaust of Psara), Psara, June

Religious festivals (Feast of Association Konstantinos Kanaris), Psara, July

Religious festivals (Barbakeia), Psara, July

Religious festivals (Holily Panigyris), Psara, August

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Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The Provincial Council of Seville, through its company PRODETUR, S.A., among other

competences is in charge of those aimed at the promotion of tourism in the province of Seville

and its rural medium.

Through the creation of products and tourist campaigns, the organization and participation in

events, the provision of infrastructure for municipalities, institutional relations and direct

contacts with companies, professionals of the tourist sector and public in general, Prodetur

promotes knowledge of the province of Seville throughout the world.

Promotional tourist activities are carried out by Prodetur through:

Direct promotion, attending and participating in trade fairs and tourist events,

publicizing the main tourist products of the province at local, provincial, regional,

national and international level.

Reverse promotion, in situ promotion, showing the tourist products of the province on

the field to professionals in the sector and the media.

In addition, different economic support actions through agreements with local

authorities and associations of groups of professionals and institutions in the sector are

carried out, all of this to publicize the richness of the municipalities of the province of

Seville.

In more detail, the following actions could be mentioned as examples:

Self-promotion: Organization of thematic fairs in the provincial capital and attendance

at trade fairs, conferences and professional tourism meetings or Workshops at national

and international level like "Seville are its villages", "Week of Andalusia", "Domestic

Tourism International Fair (Intur)", “Global Meetings & Incentives Exhibition” or "World

Travel Market".

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Coordination, support and implementation of inverse promotional actions as Fam Trips

(familiarization trips) for tourism professionals, Fam Trips for journalists, and other

different receptive actions (congresses, events, visits of interest, etc.).

Development of the program "Meet your province", where the municipalities in the

province move to meet other municipalities in the province.

Development, search and implementation of programmes of international cooperation.

Publications: “Pilgrimage in the province of Seville”, “Wine, liqueurs and anisettes in the

province of Seville Guide”, “There is another Seville where Flamenco will embrace you”,

“Bull territory”, “Holy Week in the province of Seville”, “El Aljarafe gastronomic guide”,

“The Iberico route”, “Oil an table olives route”, “Rice route”.

Viral Marketing actions, social networks use and Internet promotion through the web of

tourism www.turismosevilla.org

The following figures provide information of actions developed by Prodetur in recent years:

Direct promotion: 67 actions (2007), 72 actions (2008), 69 actions (2009), 47 actions

(2010).

Inverse promotion: 49 actions (2007), 66 actions (2008); 45 actions (2009); 33 actions

(2010).

Collaboration agreements with local councils: 42 incentives (2007), 33 incentives

(2008), 47 incentives (2009), 92 incentives (2010).

Mancomunitat de la Ribera Alta

The main idea is to sustain a strong commitment to provide assistance and support necessary

for the promotion of good practice in participation and Heritage theme and also serve as a

perfect basis for achieving long-term project.

The lines of action taken by the Mancomunidad were specifically:

- Management of a study visit: Riberaturisme with hotel trade mark associations and

development in Vienna attended Heritage Roadshow

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in Vienna Roadshow and the Techa fair with the aim of offering a comprehensive view of the

management and direction of events related to cultural heritage and architectural and get

networking, learning and development of new cultural experiences.

- The creation of workshops for different stakeholders Chord Project, using various tools such

as opinion polls, group dynamics, proposing best ideas and search for experts to explain the

mechanisms and legal forms and create a cluster between companies.

This Cluster called RuralXuquer is composed for a culture-based businesses enterprises and

rural based on the same objective: the creation of a club of products that make a group of

competent management and mutual aid in overall improvement theme of several common

factors: management, advertising, synergy of strategic knowledge, business specialization,etc.

- The creation of a comprehensive service and support management information: Organization

of meetings where the project presented their activities and objectives. All based on the

potential of the Cultural Heritage of our country understood as an important source of

income. Basically it is based on the importance of uniting all the actors involved in the

exploitation of our cultural heritage and tourism. Most of them dealt with how to create a

working group to help increase their territory by the number of visits to our area.

- The organization and management of cultural thematic routes based on Architectural

Heritage and more specifically the Route of the Towers and Hermitage to generate influx of

visitors to our area through the Tourism Cluster.

CEUTI

Ceutí Town Council had from 2004 to 2008 a science and art centre with a very strong brand

called Ceutimagina. Ceutimagina brought exhibitions from the most important science centres

in the world and also produced their own exhibitions, above all at the end of this period.

Although Ceutimagina was a successful centre in terms of visitors and image, it was closed in

2008 because of economic and political reasons.

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Ceutimagina gained awareness very quickly. It was associated with fun, education, and

interactivity. It had a very attractive logo compound by the name of the village, “Ceutí”, and

the word “Imagine”, very appropriate for the art creation and scientific thinking. The letter “I”

which united both words was represented by a Chimney of the canned foods industry, a

characteristic of Ceutí landscape.

Therefore, it is very important to find a new brand, attractive, different, easy to remember,

and to deliver a good service, so that the associations made to the brand are all positive.

All leaflets, posters, t-shirts… everything that has the logo on it must have the same style of

design. Ceutimagina used the same image for leaflets, the stand walls in fairs, big posters,

roller banners, CDs with press packages, website: very colourful, recognisable, different to

everything else.

Ceutimagina branding is a good example to look at. However, a new brand related to traditions

has to be developed, and a style of design consequent with our new image: traditions and

values, but also interactivity and education.

1. Promotion strategy and mix

In order to promote Ceutí new product, the following strategies should be used:

TRADITIONAL ADVERSTING

For schools, the best way to communicate the activities is by sending them a leaflet with the

annual programme on it. With this information, they decide which destinations to choose. A

parallel good practice is to offer teachers, who take the decision to make a school trip, to make

a special visit devoted to them, where it will be explained how the visit will be carried out,

which resources such a didactic guides can be delivered and so on.

Leaflets are also very useful in tourist offices, as usually tourists also ask for them.

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There are other useful ways of advertising such a radio, newspapers, banners, but at this time,

they are not included in Ceutí Town Council budget, as they are quite expensive.

WEB MARKETING

Nowadays, a website is the reference that visitors will have of you, before coming to visit you.

Despite of this, there are a lot mediocre websites with a poor design, a lack of up-to-date

information, unclear…

A good website should have a clean design, have all relevant information easy to find such as

timetables, contact details, updated activities, good photographs; texts should be written in an

attractive way, but not be very long, as nobody would read them.

Your information can also appear in other websites:

www.murciaturistica.es: Region of Murcia Tourism Website

www.no-typical.tv: Videos of the Region of Murcia destinations.

In the very last years, social networks have become a very powerful tool of promotion if

correctly managed. Although they need constant time devoted to them, they can be very

profitable.

COMMUNICATION AND MERCHANDISING MATERIAL

Apart from the leaflets mentioned before, merchandising can be a useful tool of promotion in

events where pens, bookmarks, pen drives, magnets… can contain your website or information

about next events.

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For the dissemination of CHORD outcomes, Ceutí Town Council bought 300 pen drives with the

CHORD logo. This is a cheap way, other than printing, to disseminate the project results.

Moreover, there are more chances that people take a look, as a pen drive is a useful tool that

people may keep.

TRADE FAIRS AND EVENTS

As a promotion of CHORD project and activities, Ceutí Town Council participated in TURISMUR,

Tourism and Free Time Exhibition held in Torre Pacheco (Murcia), which received in 2010

around 35,000 visitors. Most exhibitors are municipalities in the Region of Murcia, and visitors

are mainly people living in the Region looking for interesting destinations to do a day trip.

The Ministry of Tourism in Murcia offers municipalities the possibility of being promoted in

FITUR, the International Tourism Fair in Madrid. The Region of Murcia stand is normally divided

in different products: interior and rural tourism, health tourism, sea and beach tourism, and

cultural tourism which includes the main cities Murcia, Cartagena, Caravaca and Murcia. Any

municipality may send leaflets to this stand, and they will be placed in their correspondent

area. For example, Ceutí is normally placed with Ricote Valley in the Interior Tourism space.

The Ministry of Tourism also offers the possibility of booking a desk to carry out interviews

with tour operators and travel agencies.

Another possibility is to send leaflets to other events which receive a lot of visitors in which the

Ministry of Tourism participates with a stand: Murcia September Fair, Los Alcázares

International Week of the Huerta and the Sea, Christmas Handicraft Market in Murcia, as well

as Tourism Fairs in other Spanish Regions.

6. Quality management

The aim of subcomponent 4.1 “IQM Workshops for cultural/creative enterprise hubs” was for

the partners to inform and involve local creative and cultural public and private stakeholders

on optimization and integrated quality management (IQM) for cultural services, in one

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Workshop held in each partner’s territory. These Workshops were designed to benefit from the

commonly-defined analysis and the model developed by the transnational network. IQM

benchmarking and best practices for the Workshops were shared and coordinated, in order to

allow maximum benefit and to provide transnational value. Territorial cultural stakeholders had

the opportunity to profit from peer experience from all the partners as a basis for the

development of creative and cultural enterprise hubs.

Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

Two workshops were held by the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace in Kavala on 29th July ,

on the “ Integrated Quality Management for cultural services” model. During the workshops

many representatives of the local authorities and the cultural stakeholders were present. The

action aimed at providing to the local stakeholders the appropriate methods and tools to

develop an Integrated Management model of their cultural resources in order to develop

creative and cultural heritage hubs. Mr Konstantinos Papakosmas, Deputy Region Governor on

Tourism, officially opened the events and expressed his views.

During the first workshop the following presentations took place:

Scopes and general requirements of the IQM model and the issue of interpreting

marketing from the Development Agency of Rodopi S.A.

Management of Cultural Resources, Concepts, Planning and best practices from Dr.

Olga Tsakiridi, Researcher on Cultural Management, Open Greek University.

During the second workshop, a national seminar was organized, which aimed at the capacity

building of cultural stakeholders in order to develop innovative products and services for

heritage and cultural promotion. For this scope the following presentations were made:

Presentation of project results in the Region of East Macedonia – Thrace from the

Development Agency of Rodopi S.A.

Presentation of project results in Chios from the ENA Chios

Digital Business: the case of cultural industries from George Klimis, Professor in the

Department of Communication, Media and Culture, Panteio University.

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Both events were closed after a fruitful discussion open to the public, with most popular topics

those ones connected with the exploitation of cultural heritage in the midst of difficult

economic times as well as the funding opportunities for cultural stakeholders and bodies.

Ena Chios S.A.

The Partner Level Local Workshop was organized, by ENA Chios S.A., on the 4th of December

2010, in the premises of the Company in Chios. The Workshop was entitled “Contemporary

Methods of Promotion and Exploitation of Cultural Heritage through Information and

Communication Technology”.

The overall objective of the Partner Level Local Workshop was to inform the participants on the

opportunities created, for the promotion and exploitation of cultural heritage, by the use of

new technologies. The aforementioned objective was fully achieved.

Apart from the achievement of the overall objective, the Workshop had the following results:

The participants had the opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices

between them but also with the instructor of the Workshop

The participating stakeholders, through their contact in the Workshop, established an

unofficial network of collaboration, which can lead to a future collaboration or even the

possibility of the creation of cultural cluster

The instructor, using his long lasting experience, managed to transfer very important

information and knowledge to the participants on the thematic units covered during the

Workshop

The participating professionals understood and recognized the importance of the use of

new technologies in the cultural industry

Apart from the networking between all the participants in the Workshop, an important

development was the networking between representatives from the cultural industry

and representatives of the tourism industry and the establishment of collaborations,

which are very important for the promotion both of tourism and of the cultural heritage

of the island

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The organised event managed to contribute to the enhancement of the use of new

technologies in the cultural heritage sector and to waken the participating stakeholders

on the importance of this effort in order to achieve an effective promotion and

exploitation of the cultural heritage of Chios Island.

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Seville organized in April 2011

in cooperation with “Seville Tourism Consortium” an integrated quality management (IQM)

Workshop within the framework of the CHORD project.

Several actions were developed during this IQM workshop that was structured in diverse

sessions:

General presentation of the CHORD project and analysis of future options for business

cooperation working as a cluster.

Informative conference to present an IQM model to be implemented by the companies.

Four training sessions where different modules were presented:

- SICTED module to introduce the Integrated Quality Model in Tourist Destinations

and its objectives.

- Best practices module to explain the different existing guides and their function.

- SICTED platform module to familiarize the companies with the use of this

management platform.

- Improvement planning module to analyze and prioritize the areas to be improved in

the companies and their services.

These actions confirmed the favourable reception of this initiative by all the participant

companies in the workshop.

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Sustainability and Transferability

Marketing Plans must describe the necessary steps for the implementation of the strategy and

for addressing a number of practical questions such as: which organizations will take up which

activities, over what time frame, by what means and with which resources. As the actions have

to be considered on the basis of regional circumstances, there is no standard action plan for

all. However, Action Plans usually include measures in the following fields:

Administration: e.g. promotion of co-operation between sectors and of cross-sectorial

development models; involving local people in drafting tourism policy and decisions

Socio-economical sector: e.g. promoting local purchasing of food and building material;

setting up networks of local producers for better marketing; development of new

products to meet the needs of tourists, etc.

Environment: e.g. improving control and enforcement of environmental standards

(noise, drinking water, bathing water, waste-water treatment, etc.); identification and

protection of endangered habitats

Knowledge: training people involved in cultural tourism about the value of historical

heritage; environmental management; raising awareness among the local population;

introducing a visitors information programme

An analysis of partners’ best practices to identify transferable sustainability models is included

below.

Province of Benevento

The proximity of the Province of Benevento to major transport infrastructures puts the area at

a significant advantage compared to other less accessible inland areas, especially for short-

haul and indirect domestic and international tourists identified as the target market.

However, in addition to promoting the local area on target markets, actions strengthening the

Benevento brand as a cultural district clearly need to be implemented. Based on the province’s

rich cultural system, in other words the existing environmental and socio-cultural fabric of the

area, promotional and communication interventions promoting local identity and supporting

cultural production will therefore have to be put in place. This will lay down the foundations for

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economic development that is both sustainable and compatible with the protection of the

cultural heritage.

The analysis of benchmark cases shows that the effective integration between resources and

players involved in the process of delivering tourism services requires a systemic approach. To

this end, the CHORD Project intends to pursue the objective of integrating cultural resources,

tourism and hospitality services, and the local food and traditional crafts sectors by engaging

local authorities, private hotel and restaurant establishments, manufacturing companies and

tourism service providers, all of which can all play a key role in building the concept and brand

of the Province of Benevento Cultural District.

The success of growth models in which the intangible economy of communication and services

now plays a central role has significantly fostered the development of the business model of

economic clusters. The model of clusters, or districts, has also become more widespread as the

market has expanded from a local to a global arena and international competition has

increased, forcing Western economies to compete with emerging countries.

The concept of «industrial districts» was defined for the first time in Italian legislation with Law

317/1991. As districts, or clusters were considered a form of local development, national

legislation was followed by legislation at regional level regulating industrial-type manufacturing

districts as well as other kinds of districts, introducing cultural districts and more recently rural

districts.

The precise definition of cultural districts is still the subject of debate and numerous models

have been proposed and studied: industrial, museum, tourist and metropolitan.

A cultural district can be described as an organized group of local authorities, networks of

associations and firms that provide an integrated offering of quality cultural goods and services

associated with the local area.

An area must have the following characteristics:

well-defined identity

high concentration of prestigious environmental and cultural resources

cohesive local community in terms of cultural traditions.

The area’s opportunities need to be supported by ideas and projects to assist communities in

defining objectives of shared and culturally sustainable development which does more than

simply market local sites and traditions. What is otherwise just a random collection of cultural

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resources can be transformed into a tourism product “concept”, namely an organized set of

tourism products making up an offering that is able to establish its own position on the market.

Adopting the rationale of “cultural districts” means that branding polices can be implemented.

Using an umbrella branding strategy means that the destination brand can embrace the

cultural district concept.

In the case of the Province of Benevento, creating a province-wide cultural district and its

concept, represented by the five cultural poles and their wealth of resources, as well as

designing integrated thematic itineraries are essential pre-requisites for putting actions in

place to create knowledge and awareness of the brand.

Looking at the profile of cultural tourists as illustrated in section 8, the concept of “quality” is

clearly a key factor in this type of tourism. It is therefore crucial to focus on actions that can

influence visitors’ decision to purchase and their perception of the experience in the area.

These may include highlighting the emotional aspect, customizing tourism services, “adapting”

hospitality to the themes of local traditions and food and wine, and creating entertainment

opportunities linked with local festivals and events.

The aim of cultural tourists is to “experience” their holiday destination and the cultural

commodities it offers, including local traditions, locally produced products, while respecting the

environment.

Enabling visitors to enjoy the area and its cultural resources in line with the concept of quality

they expect requires the direct participation of tourism operators and, at the same time, the

involvement of all the local players in the cultural tourism segment, including local authorities

and trade associations.

This can be achieved by identifying the cultural district concept and defining cultural poles as

thematic areas through which visitors can physically explore the area and its attractions.

In addition, dividing the district into geographical areas can help and guide visitors, especially

first-time visitors, in their enjoyment of the area and the local resources.

The CHORD Project is part of a wider communication strategy promoting the Province of

Benevento put in place several years ago by the Benevento Provincial Council. One initiative

already being promoted by the Council is the "Made in Sannio" community and portal, set up

with the financial support of the Campania Regional Government with funds from the P.L.A.I.T.

Programme (Measure 6.5 for the internationalization of the regional manufacturing system -

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P.O.R. Campania 2000/2006) and co-ordinated by I.R.VA.T. (Institute for the Promotion and

Protection of Regional Products). The aim of the “Made in Sannio” Project is to provide a virtual

meeting place where Internet-users can find out more about the Province of Benevento. The

www.madeinsannio.it portal showcases the local business community bringing together nature,

culture, traditions, local food and traditional crafts.

Another initiative already underway is the I-TRACE Project, which proposes a quality

management model for the rural tourism sector. In response to the demand for quality, the

project has put together five tourist itineraries designed and constructed in compliance with a

Quality Protocol, following the drafting and signing of a Quality Declaration by all participating

travel and tourism operators. The aim of the project is to ensure that tourists receive quality

services and at the same time to provide travel and tourism operators from the public and

private sector with a tool to guarantee the quality of their products and create a cycle of

continuous improvement. In order to provide a quality tourism offering, each tourism operator

participating in the project must undertake to self-certify and comply with the minimum quality

standards set out in the Declaration.

The CHORD Project is therefore part of a wider ongoing policy of promoting the area in terms

of “quality cultural tourism”, where a systemic approach is required to engage both tourism

operators and resources. Specifically, the project aims to foster the creation of relationships

between local public and private bodies who identify with the Benevento Cultural District

brand, and who can obtain mutual benefit and create synergies from the network and rationale

of co-operation. The Province of Benevento will set out to secure the participation of all the

players who are variously involved in promoting the local cultural heritage in its broadest

sense, from cultural resources themselves to documentary services, cultural activities and

events. At the same time, the project will engage travel and tourism operators from the

private sector, especially hotel, catering and tourism service establishments, as well as

manufacturers of traditional, locally produced products. The advantages for operators

participating in the CHORD Project are primarily associated with area brand visibility and the

positive impacts it will have on businesses directly involved in promotional actions planned

over the three-year period of the project.

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Region of East Macedonia & Thrace

The case study area of this section is the National park of Dadia lefkimi Forest, situated on the

southeastern end of the mountain range of Rodopi, in the Prefecture of Evros. It constitutes

the geophysical space where many species of flora and fauna of the Balkan Peninsula, Asia and

Europe thrive. The current situation in the area of National Park concerning touristic activity

follows.

In the village of Dadia a visitor information center is situated with a small conference room, a

cafe-bar and also souvenirs and local products shops. On the information center, visitors are

transported by bus to the municipal "enterprise Dadia observatory”, where they have the

opportunity to watch birds with telescopes at the feeder. For the energetic there are specially

engraved and signed paths, where visitors may enjoy the trails of extraordinary beauty.

Area attractions include Dadia Monastery (built in 1727), the two churches, the beautiful

churches, a recreation area "Katratzidon (with sports facilities and playground) and the

beautiful area of the Three Fountains, the Soufli municipality and the local silk museum. The

traditional products (sweets, pasta, silk products etc.) made with care by the women's

cooperative "Gerakines" are ideal souvenirs.

The potential of the National Park Area can be summarized in the following S.W.O.T. analysis

table

Strengths Weaknesses

Relatively small area, Easily accessible

and controlled

Massification of commercial impact

due to limited areas of interest

Experienced human personnel ,Easy

implementation of good practices

Small Profit margin

Small need for funding Untapped adjacent Tourism

resources

Small managing overhead Stagnation, no future view for

expansion

Traditional settlements Small private contribution in

investments in the area

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Small social-economic inputs for the

local population

Small degree of penetration but to

social economic status in the area

Limited potential and economic

development resources.

Opportunities Threats

Financing frame which gives priority in the

particular type of interventions

The delay of completion of

infrastructures interventions

International tendency for change of

preferences in the regions of tourist destination The residents’ attitude

Legal framework The transfer of tourist interest to

Balkan

Implementation of Development programs Intense domestic and international

competitive environment

New financial tools The lack of social and cultural

infrastructures

Program of rural reconstruction of Greece Axe

3

Incomplete access in markets and

public services

The technological changes that allow

revaluation of the importance of principles such

as the economies of scale and the economies of

concentration, regarding the space management

and the productive process (new technologies in

the communications and the information)

Small scale and dissemination of human

activities

The rest technological changes

(Renewable Sources of Energy, transportation),

which limit the consequences of isolation

Limited availability of productive

resources

The changes regarding the human

objectives in favor of qualitative goals

Big seasonal fluctuations in Human

Resources and financial activities

The continuously increasing gravity that

have in economic sector the leisure time and the

activities that are connected with it

Financial Crisis

The contiguity with Balkan and Black Sea

countries

Unstable financial circumstances of

Balkan countries

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Financial Crisis Degradation of Vultures population

Poor law enforcement

The number of visitors has increased by 80% over the previous four years (Approximately

about 50.000 per year). The growth in the tourism industry in the protected area of the

national Park of Dadia Lefkimi Soufli Forest has been a moderate successful example of

alternative economic activity in the East Macedonia and Thrace region. But the model followed

in the 90’s and 00’s reached its limitation, regarding the aforementioned points of interest and

the protection of the ecosystem and the economic growth. In order to achieve further benefits

in the area a new model of economic development must be applied, with respect to the

environment. The existing legal framework is satisfactory, so the efforts must focus in

prolonging the tourism period, the duration of stay and introducing new points of interest in

the peripheral zone of the National park and finally improving the quality of services. So the

new goals set are:

Preserve and improve natural resources

Increase the number of tourist

Prolong the duration of stay

Improve the quality of services

These goals can be accomplished through:

Targeted Promotion Strategies for identified market – Integration of the area in tourist

packages in the wider area

Providing incentives in low season - Introducing new points of interest in the peripheral

zone of the National park

Changing the Local business mentality

Providing sufficient information and adaptation of Interpretive Marketing

Improving existing infrastructure in the area surrounding the Park

Building & offering health & well being staying packages by local hoteliers

Training of existing personnel

Special tax policy in the region

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In order to achieve these promotional strategies certain actions must be implemented:

Embracing and implement a new tourism model with emphasis in new peripheral points

of interest (except the core “vulture” areas).

Organizing closely monitored tour-guides of the National park area by certified guides.

Use of the local human resources.

Upgrading the facilities and quality of services of the ecotouristic center of Dadia.

Promoting regulated hunting tourism - cooperation and synergy with the all ready

existing structures.

Clustering with the adjacent Municipalities in tourism products - Giving to the

Management Operator coordinating Burdon.

Ena Chios S.A.

ENA CHIOS S.A. proposes a model for promotion of cultural initiatives that could include:

Free information and tour to important sites, flexible enough to meet the different

needs of the targeted groups of people

A network of cooperation, with the other project partners aiming at the promotion of

tourism in the participating areas

A website that will offer attractive tourist packages for visiting the most important sites

of the island

Participation in cultural tourist events and conferences and promotion of Chian products

Promotion of Chian cultural heritage by radio and TV broadcasts, articles in newspapers

and brochures given from travel agencies

Contacts of local tour operators with other tour operators in Europe, offering attractive

packages that include islands in the MED area with common cultural interests

Chamber of Commerce of Seville

The Province of Seville is spectacularly attractive to tourists and has qualities that show its

comprehensive, varied enticements capable of satisfying the most demanding of visitors.

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Seville’s major strengths are the fusion of cultures between peoples (Tartessians, Iberians,

Arabs and Christians) and the heritage of monuments in its towns that is the richest in

Andalusia, with nearly 300 monuments declared as Assets of Cultural Interest.

Among the different districts of the province of Seville, should be emphasized the tourist

importance of La Campiña, as it is home to most of these almost 300 monuments declared as

Assets of Cultural Interest.

The enhancement of these historical and cultural resources has made possible that these

municipalities, through their councils, have give a boost to the development of a tourist supply

able to serve as a complement to an economy based on activities related to rural settings.

Aware of this potential, the Provincial Council of Seville has not ceased to promote initiatives in

the field of cultural tourism, by implementing various programs and initiatives. This is the case

of the revitalization plan "Campiña Turística" promoted by the provincial Corporation and with

the support of the Regional Ministry of Tourism.

The aims of the Tourist Development Plan for the Sevillian “Campiña” is to create and put into

use some infrastructures for tourism, to adapt the natural and urban environment for its

tourist use and to develop strategies to strengthen the management system.

Management

Agreement of collaboration among different promoters and partners: Consejería de

Turismo, Comercio y Deporte (Regional Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Sport),

Diputación Provincial de Sevilla (Provincial Council of Seville), Confederación

Empresarial Sevillana (Business Confederation of Seville) and Prodetur.

Actions taken

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The different actions taken have been addressed to the promotion and marketing of the

tourist destination, to awareness campaigns to foster the quality of the supply, the

restoration of the historical heritage, the creation of new museums or the training and

professional development of the people working in the tourism sector.

Key results or outputs

Restoration and improvement of the historical heritage, creation of new museums and

professional development.

SWOT analysis summary

Strengths Weaknesses

The province of Seville is close to the seacoast.

Limited financial resources.

Every town and village has festivities that could be used to attract tourism.

Little cohesion among the towns within the province.

Good tourist infrastructure. Poor service due to the low qualification of

the staff.

Good transport network and accessibility. Difficulties to adapt to the quick

technological advances related to this sector.

Important historical and artistic resources. Business is obsolete because it is not

properly planned and managers are reticent about new projects.

Gastronomy as a tourist appeal. Managers and trademen are not very prone

to changes.

Towns and villages are located in important natural surroundings.

Limited qualification and sensitization to quality aspects.

There are many tourist itineraries in the province.

Not very go-ahead local population.

High quality of life and relaxing environment.

Migratory movement of young people to big towns.

There is a plan to foster sustainable tourism

in the district. Tourism is not given importance by local population. Hotel industry has raised its offer both in

quantity and quality.

Opportunities Threats

Promotion of local gastronomy. Competition of new tourist markets.

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Opportunities Threats

Possibility of setting up more routes or itineraries.

Low budget to improve the tourist projection.

Possibility of fostering local festivities (there is one in each village).

Average customers do not consider rural

areas as a visit complementary to that of big cities like Seville.

Changes in the demand mean that rural tourism is being increasingly requested.

More funding is required from public institutions.

The fact that the Guadalquivir river runs through 17 different municipalities has not

been exploited for tourism yet.

Big department stores are monopolizing

the demand.

Boom of the residential, cultural and leisure time tourism.

The lack of suitable job opportunities could

mean the loss of highly qualified staff (graduates).

The weather is good for tourism throughout the whole year.

Unfavourable economic situation and increasing unemployment.

There is a wide margin to improve and increase the leisure time offer, both in the public and private sectors. Alternative product sales are rising (sun

and beach tourism). Proximity to big international tourist areas

(Seville and Cordoba).

Mancomunitat of the Ribera Alta

To carry out a model of good practice transferable to related public profile cultural heritage it is

necessary to create a field study. The objective of the creation of this model aims to promote

exchange and updating of knowledge generated as a reference and reflection.

The case study that would make for a portability model would be based on several factors:

- The Mancomunitat of the Ribera Alta through Riberaturisme carries out some lines of actions.

This body consist of both public and private: Consorcio de la Ribera, Mancomunitat de la

Ribera Baixa, La Camara de Comercio de Valencia, Confederació Empresarial Valenciana (CEV),

Federació d’Agrupacions Locals de Comerç, Indústria i Serveis de les Riberes (Fedalcis),

Asociació Empresarial d’Hosteleria de Cullera i la seua Comarca i la Associació Empresarial

Alzira.

The purpose of the organization is planning joint actions for promotion of tourism of The Ribera

based on local resources such as cultural, architectural, gastronomic and natural and focuses

its activities on 3 main objectives:

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Configuration of a product based on its own food, common element of all the reinforced by

culture, nature and ethnology; Strategic management of tourism.

and the Specialization of destination. It is based on the particular configuration, and promote

product GOURMET, reinforced by culture, nature and ethnology.Creating brand image,

marketing and disseminating tourism of the Ribera.

Analysis of the role of public institutions to support cultural heritage centers.

To achieve efficient project we had the help of public and private institutions.

These are divided into different levels:

The councils of all The Ribera (47 municipalities) that form the Associations which are

associations of municipalities that combines all services, in this through Riberaturisme: A joint

tourism promotion department at the county level.

Other levels:

Regional Ministry: Tourism, culture and sports:

Dissemination and promotion of tourism, tourism management, increase in quality. and

Infrastructure.

Ministries of Industry, Tourism and Trade: public and private asociation of tourism promotion.

Deputation of Valencia Tourist Promotion and dissemination through the helpdesk and cultural

resources (SARC): Tour Routes and cultural map of cultural offerings.

Identification of future funding options:

The future identification programs carried out through subsidies granted by public agencies

and private:

- Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports

- Conselleria de Agricultura

- IMPIVA.

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Summary of future actions 2012-14

There are strong historical, cultural and religious themes and folk traditions that should be

developed into marketing themes or branding concepts to interpret its rich heritage.

Some indicative actions for the next years are:

Work closely with stakeholders that are "packaging" tours and events for the regions to

include heritage and cultural sites and venues

Expand and upgrade existing sites, which are generally under-promoted, under-

leveraged and under-protected

- Identify, analyze, and prioritize current sites, their needs and their benefit to the

overall program

- Explore options for assistance to upgrade sites including advocacy for the

appropriate local, state, or national protection measures

- Create a marketing and promotion strategy for individual sites and for regional

campaigns. "Packaging" sites will continue to be critical to success

- Work closely with state agencies to provide support for high priority sites and to

create the appropriate collateral materials, or include the sites in existing state or

regional materials

- Work closely with existing regional tourism entities to create broader support

- Use local resources to strengthen the heritage packages

Conclusions

Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage makes considerable contributions to make the

European knowledge society competitive in sustainable economic growth and employment and

a good place to invest, live and work based on a high quality of life (Lisbon Agenda). Cultural

landscapes, historic towns, museums, monuments and other heritage sites benefit the

European tourism sector, heritage sites and museums show considerable multiplier effects in

employment (one job in cultural heritage generating between five and nine in related sectors),

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they drive citizens’ cultural learning and enjoyment, and also they contribute in many other

ways to the quality of life and regeneration of European regions and towns.

Concluding, the marketing of a destination and its tourism products consists of a group of

actions in different levels and of different perspectives, which come to meet the varying tourist

target groups of the destination and attract them adequately according to the destination’s

tourist policy and resources.

In other words, the marketing mix that is decided to be followed will combine the trends of the

global tourist market, the demand’s needs and expectations and the supply’s features.

The marketing plan aims at the better administration of the cultural resources for the tourist

promotion of the territories, through the implementation of strategic actions. The improvement

of effectiveness of this promotion can be obtained through the specialization of the whole

strategic frame of tourist promotion.

Between the goals of the promotion of territories of the CHORD project are the enhancement

of the quality of the tourism products and services, the maximization of the impact of

promotion and the increase of the expenditure of tourists, by providing a wide gamma of

activities and experiences. Moreover, it is very important to attract visitors from new markets

and to extend the tourism season.

It is very important that all the public and private bodies, which are involved in the tourism

and culture industries, must collaborate harmonically for the better promotion of the

territories’ tourism products.

Finally, to implement the above proposals will require the activation of a monitor mechanism

for the implementation of the marketing plan. The proposed mechanism will be responsible for

the coding of the proposed interventions, planning, implementation and monitoring of project

implementation. Furthermore, the proposed scheme will make the necessary corrective actions

during implementation.

To monitor the implementation and the effectiveness of the proposed marketing plan, a

monitoring mechanism needs to be issued. This mechanism consists of measuring efficiency

indicators which are divided into three categories:

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Monitoring Indicators

Output Indicators

Impact Indicators

The development of the indicator system will require the finalization of targeting quantification

standards by the monitor Organization, after finalizing the marketing plan (promotional

campaigns) for the target market.