The TraCEs – Cultour Is Capital project has one aim: to put European Cultural Capitals to the forefront in an EU project based on transformative tourism.
Funded by European Commission, under COSME program, TraCEs seeks to lay the foundations of a cultural and sustainable tourism model in European Capitals of Culture that pivots around their heritage, creative and cultural industries and ways of living.
8 partners from (Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain, Germany and Holland) have come together to spread the word of the beauty of their countries and, above all, the potential of their culture capitals from a local, innovative approach. That is what transformative tourism is about: linking communities so that visitors tap into regional cultures and meaningfully interact with locals, reinforcing the concept of the tourist as a temporary citizen rather than a holidaymaker. TraCEs brings all this together by putting forward a new way of traveling to European Capitals of Culture.
The project will actively involve tourism and creative industries operators invited to interact into laboratories where local resources – previously mapped and clustered – are used to shape an innovative thematic tourist product. Synergies between tourism and CCIs are used at the outset of the overall project development process. A unique opportunity for tourism to develop innovative products and creative industries to cross-fertilize other economic sectors.