Start Date: 01/01/2021
End Date: 30/06/2024

TExTOUR, is an innovation action funded within the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project is set to design innovative and sustainable cultural tourism strategies to reinforce the socio-economic territorial development of less known areas in Europe and beyond.

TExTOUR will analyse and demonstrate new strategies for improving the socio-economic development of less known areas, but which have much cultural value. The project will co-design, validate and upscale cultural tourism policies and sustainable strategies. To do this, it will work with eight Cultural Tourism Labs located in different EU and non-EU areas and involving various societal players and stakeholders with a relevant role in the in the Cultural Tourism sector.

The selected pilots have diverse and complementary characteristics, which will enable the project’s experts to develop a wide range of scenarios for continental and coastal areas, rural and urban, deprived remote or peripheral areas, facing multiple social, economic and environmental challenges. The project’s acquired knowledge will be made available on the TExTOUR innovative open access platform for policy makers, practitioners and local communities. This will allow them to assess cultural tourism strategies and services.

The platform’s design will draw on Smart strategies for valorisation, investment & Europeanisation, Pilots and CT-Labs to meet the specific needs of the cultural tourism industry. Other European and non-European cultural sites and ecosystems will have access to the platform so that they can benefit from the project’s achievements too.