Project Reports

Joint Action Plan for ICH Tourism Development in the Atlantic Area

- Ireland


Image | Cork-Gaeltacht

Action 5.1
WORK PACKAGE 5: STIMULATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ICH TOURISM INDUSTRY CAPACITY

This project arose from the recognition across all partner regions that there was a cultural decline across the AA, which has become a common problem due to numerous factors including globalisation, demographic changes and agricultural intensification. These factors have led to less rural employment opportunities for younger generations and ultimately an erosion of cultural identity.

Various projects have focused on the tangible cultural heritage and its exploitation within European regions, but there has been very little development with regards to the ‘intangible’ that has been passed on by generations and has had a significant impact on the overall culture of a region and its identity. ACS seeks to support sustainable rural economic development through the enhancement of the tourism offering within each region. The tourism offer is focused on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and creating unique authentic experiences based on the different regional cultures. It is this type of culture that will ultimately attract cultural tourists to a region and will also help to promote and strengthen cultural identity within the local community.

In order for this to happen, Atlantic Culture Scape aims to support collaboration between ICH stakeholders both within each region and transnationally, through the exchange of experiences and sharing of best practice. Best practice study visits are on going to each partner region, which is enabling increased cultural awareness and promotion across the AA. In addition to this, the ACS project has a number of key activities that will help each partner with the development of their tourism offer. Thus far the partners have conducted research into previous relevant Interreg projects, created a common inventory of ICH for the AA and produced seven ecosystem reports which include details of the sociocultural, economic and geographical information of each region. All of this information will be used to inform the actions that need to be taken by each partner within the ACS project to further develop their regional tourism offering.

The aim of the action plan is to outline the steps to be taken by each region in order to achieve the goals set out by the ACS project and bring sustainable economic and cultural benefits to each region.

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