Promotion and development of natural and cultural heritage of Bulgarian – Greek cross-border region through smart and digital tools

Common challenges tackled by the project consist in development & pilot testing of innovative techniques for preservation & promotion of cultural & natiral heritage, traditional culinary & wine of CB region Haskovo - Evros & for knowledge transfer for preservation of traditional culinary & wine as part of CB cultural heritage.

Project overall objective is to promote & develop cultural & natural heritage, gastronomy & wine in CB area Haskovo-Evros for tourist purposes.To achieve the main objective the project provides: assesment of natural & cultural heritage sites & traditional culinary & wine which are of high importance for Haskovo-Evros region & therefore for the establishment of adequate smart & digital tolls for promotion of the natural & cultural resources in the CB region & on European level as regions advantages.The project provides knowledge transfer related to preserving traditional culinary & wine of CB region.

Main outputs enhanced by joint project management & coordination are: information measures; developed integrated eTOURIST methodology for cultural & natural sites & for traditional culinary & wine which will support preserving, presenting & promoting cultural & natural resources of CB region in a uniform way; eTOURIST package providing access to cultural & natural heritage & to traditional culinary & wine in an innovative way through smart application & through digital sources on the Internet; knowledge transfer in Cb region related to traditional culinary & wines; promotion of cultural & natural heritage sites & of traditional culinary & wine of Haskovo - Evros CB region on the international tourism market.

Target groups who will benefit from the outputs: Citizens of target CB area; Tourist organizations; Cultural institutions; Tourists in target CB area; Chefs, Local & regional media. In order to address these common challenges the project approach is focused mainly on actions that support the better interpretation of natural & cultural heritage (including ICT applications) & on actions that support events promoting cultural identity, gastronomy & wine as cultural resources & enhancing the awareness of targeted CB area cultural & natural heritage including knowledge transfer.

The new solutions that will be developed during the project are: 1) development of application for smart devices - eTOURIST, which will provide detailed information for cultural, natural sites, gastronomy & wine of the target CB region to tourists, incl. photos, text, web-site, inclusion of tourist routes, location, etc.

The project approach consists in CB cooperation for better interpretation of natural & cultural heritage (ICT applications), events promoting & enhancing awareness of CB area cultural identity. The added value is the increased attractiveness of CB cultural & natural assets for visitors which will in turn lead to increased tourist traffic in target CB area.