Cultural Routes for Sustainable Social and economic Development in Mediterranean
There is a need for building up an area of peace and stability in the Mediterranean, reducing disparities, increasing opportunities for decent life and jobs for all, promoting dialogue and understanding for peaceful coexistence. The CROSSDEV project proposes a way to address these challenges through the exploitation of local culture and heritage to be turned into assets for socio-economic local development. CROSSDEV expects to increase tourism competitiveness and attractiveness of less known destinations and rural areas, enhancing the Cultural Routes experiences such as those of the Council of Europe (e.g. Phoenicians Route and IterVitis), Palestine (Abraham Path) and Jordan (Jordan Trail). To achieve this goal, the project will set up a cross-border tourism framework to enhance sustainable tourism policies, to promote tourism-related business and to develop community-led action plans. CROSSDEV will enable to increase skills and knowledge, contributing to better tourism practices which benefit socio-economic development and the protection of the environment and cultural heritage.