Tourism, culture, creation and eagerness to innovate have been the key to the success of TraCEs Co-Creation TLabs. 5 workshops in 5 European cities have welcomed the new initiative of Culture is Capital, a meeting point between professionals in the tourism sector and the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) of each city to generate new tourism experiences. A pilot event that opens the door to an interesting path for the creation of new transformative travel experiences.
The Tlabs took place in January and February at Rijeka (Croatia), Gelsenkirchen (Germany), Burgos (Spain), Matera (Italy), and there is still one more Tlab to be celebrated in the city of Košice (Slovakia) from 10th to 12th of March. All of them aimed at improving the skills of local communities in the ECoC framework to boost tourism by designing and delivering innovative (life-changing) transformative tourism activities and experiences.
In particular, each TLab was split into two, a theoretical part with the presentation of best practices and guidelines for these new travel experiences, and a workshop in which the participants worked together on the new product design.
Simona Polli, expert in travel product development, destination marketing and tourism management, led the Tlabs as a trainer: “I was pleased to see new ideas born from the cooperation of people with very different backgrounds not only from the tourism sector but also art, design and culture, as well as private and public sector sitting together to actively work on their destination. I found this mixture of stakeholders a crucial feature to develop innovative travel experiences”.
The initiative focused on transformative tourism but also on the new ideas born from the cooperation of the participants. Cultour is Capital partners open now a new chapter where 5 of these ideas will come to life with the help of local agents. They are willing to prove their viability and their positive impact on both local people and tourists.