Heritage Interpretation through Digital Storytelling for Experiential Tourism Development in Rural Areas

The INHERIT project was inspired by the partners’ work with people living in 4 rural areas - the local communities in the Devetaki plateau, BG, in Hont region, SK, in Pallars Jussà, ES, and in Kato Drys village, CY. The local tourism entrepreneurs, regional tourism organizations, community councils in hese remote regions struggle with depopulation and ageing, rising unemployment rates, low education levels and poor access to training. The project addressed these challenges by developing a continuing vocational training programme, tailored to their needs. By creating new training opportunities, the project was to improve outreach to people living in rural and remote areas, thus contributing to the Erasmus+ priority “Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sport”. In addition, the project was about learning new practices: creating a digital portfolio of heritage interpretation stories, “heritage trails” and “thematic quests” that can be experienced in the rural areas. This way, INHERIT aimed at founding a basis of experiential tourism products of the 4 destinations, reinforced promotion instruments, hence – improved tourism and economic development.

The overall objective of our project is to enhance capacity of micro and small tourism enterprises and entrepreneurs in rural areas to create and promote new experiential tourism products based on local heritage interpretation by digital technologies and tools. The specific objectives were: - To develop a 2-credit continuing vocational training course in the cross-fields of experiential tourism product development and digital marketing, heritage interpretation and digital storytelling - To develop knowledge and skills of owners and managers of micro and small tourism enterprises and entrepreneurs in rural areas needed to engage in the process of experiential tourism product development, valorising local natural and cultural heritage and using digital technologies and tools - To create a digital portfolio of heritage interpretation stories, “heritage trails” and “thematic quests” that could be experienced in the partners’ rural areas, forming a basis of experiential tourism products of the given destinations - To promote wide dissemination and exploitation of the project results for enhancing travellers’ experience and supporting sustainable development of tourism in natural and rural destinations.

The project consisted of 5 WPs: one for the coordination and management, and four - for the project activities: WP2 Training course development A2.1 Syllabus of the course A2.2 Stakeholder consultation meetings A2.3 Learning modules A2.4 Training toolkit for VET providers A2.5 Internal peer-review, fine-tuning, translations A2.6 Online course WP3 Training implementation A3.1 Transnational train the trainer workshop (BG) A3.2 Training course piloting: in-class activities; and A3.3 Training course piloting: experiential tourism projects A3.4 Training course piloting: marketing strategy A3.5 Reflection, feedback & course content fine-tuning WP4 Digital portfolio of heritage interpretation stories, heritage trails and thematic quests A4.1 Conceptual model A4.2 Digital heritage interpretation stories A4.3 Digital maps and heritage trails A4.4 Thematic quests: scenarios A4.5 Internal peer review, fine-tuning and translations WP5 Project dissemination and exploitation A5.1 Dissemination plan & ongoing dissemination activities A5.2 Project visual identity, website and platform

The following tangible results were produced: - A 2-credit/ 50-hour C-VET course, incl. a Syllabus, 6 Learning Modules with lectures, activities, self assessment tests, and a Training Toolkit. All materials are available online on the project’s platform in open access. - Transnational 3-day, 1-credit/ 25-hour Train the Trainer workshop held with 13 C-VET trainers from the partner organisations. Pilot implementation of the INHERIT course with 53 participants (3 one-day face-to-face sessions, 24 hours, and individual learning, 26 hours); - Digital resources representing the heritage of the rural destinations involved in the project: 41 digital heritage stories, 13 interactive trails, and 23 thematic quests, all marked on digital maps. - Project’s Dissemination and Exploitation Plan, visual identity, website and platform containing all project’s outputs, and final dissemination conferences in BG, CY, ES & SK gathering 245 participants. The intangible results include: enhanced awareness of the natural and cultural heritage of the local destinations; sense of cultural identity, belonging and pride for the local area; digital literacy, collaborative and autonomous learning skills.