Digital Agenda for New Tourism Approach in European Rural and Mountain Areas
The objective of DANTE is to improve the effectiveness of the regional policies in the area of Innovation, by enhancing the key enabling role that Information Society can play in the tourism economy of rural and mountain areas.
In line with the growth strategy of the Lisbon Agenda, DANTE aims to promote a new regional policy approach to design a knowledge-based plan for the tourism economy of the rural and mountain territories. The DANTE network will optimise nine innovative good practices already existing at regional level, demonstrating the benefits of Information Society for the competitiveness of the tourism sector in disadvantaged areas. Through an interregional cooperation framework, DANTE will promote a knowledge sharing process that will:
 Exchange the knowledge gained by more advanced regions in the development of regional ICT projects for rural and mountain areas through learning instruments dedicated to the consortium;
 Support eight European Regional and Local Governments and Agencies to define an effective plan able to address the challenges of the tourism economy in their rural and mountain areas, thanks to the adoption of ICT tools and methodologies;
 Demonstrate the feasibility of the transfer process, through a light pilot action in a rural or mountain area, able to support the regional and local authorities in the design of their strategies, thus ensuring the sustainability of the eight implementation plans.
 Spread the benefits achieved among the consortium to external organisations, by addressing all the relevant stakeholders in Europe, from the policy and decision makers to the tourism operators and the mountain and rural associations.
DANTE network will involve 14 partners covering a wide geographic area of INTERREG IV C: 6 partners are representing the IP-South Area (Italy, Spain and Greece), 1 is representing the IP-North Area (Germany), 4 are representing the IP-East area (Poland and Slovenia) and 3 are representing the IP-WEST area (France and Netherlands). Moreover the partnership composition reflects the willingness of matching less and more advanced partners with regard to Information Society policies: DANTE involves 5 ICT experienced partners at regional level and 7 local/regional bodies involved in the tourism strategy of rural and mountain territories; in addition 2 organisations will ensure a wide promotion of DANTE results at EU level. Through the implementation of a 30 months interregional cooperation, DANTE will contribute to the competiveness of the rural and mountain territories of Europe, better integrating ICT policies into the tourism strategies defined at regional level.