Cultural Heritage: exploiting Opportunities for Rural Development
The final aim of CHORD is to develop and experiment a common strategy to implement innovative cultural services and promote initiatives that can increase the attractiveness and economic value of the cultural heritage of the MED area. Many inland Med areas have significant cultural heritage and resources that could be exploited for specific sectors of the tourism market, thereby benefiting their economic growth. In many cases, local communities are not aware of the economic potential of their cultural heritage and this has led to migratory phenomena and a loss in Mediterranean identity. This cultural heritage can be an extremely successful engine for growth and a balanced polycentric development if correctly harnessed and incorporated into a strategic system. The project will identify and develop innovative, solutions for balanced actions and marketing plans to promote sustainable creative and cultural enterprise hubs. A key output will be the joint development of an innovative transferable model for a cluster marketing strategy, providing cultural services and guaranteeing information and access. This requires a holistic view of development and management, addressing shortcomings and constraints and exploiting local heritage and local strengths. The mix of partners between territorial authorities and public bodies representing the business community is key to ensure capacity building and enable the implementation and eventual capitalisation of the project outputs.