Cult-CreaTE

ISSUE ADDRESSED Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) refer to cultural heritage, design, crafts, digital products, performing and visual arts, film, video, music, TV and radio, festivals, advertising, architecture, fashion, archives and libraries, audio-visual, multimedia, publishing, museums and galleries, R&D, software, toys and games, video games and high-end products (which rely on a strong cultural and creative input such as design and manufacturing of fashion materials and goods and their distribution, in particular high-end fashion, jewellery and watches, accessories, leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, furniture and household appliances, cars, boats, as well as gastronomy, hotels and leisure). The EC Communication ‘Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU’ (COM(2012) 537 final) acknowledged that “Culture and creativity have also direct impacts on sectors such as tourism” and invited Member States, involving all relevant public and private stakeholders, to: “Reinforce cooperation across CCS and with other sectors such as ICT, tourism etc".  Although a lot of attention has been given to CCIs in various EU initiatives (eg INTERREG IVC and Creative Europe programmes), the contribution of CCIs to cultural and creative tourism has not been given the attention it deserves to date. Cultural tourism needs CCIs to partially reinvent itself and attract the new generations. CCIs are also an indispensable source of innovation for other types of sustainable tourism, typically ‘Creative Tourism’.  Creative Tourism is considered a new generation of cultural tourism by involving the tourists themselves and the locals in the creation of the tourist products (co-creation). The Creative Tourism concept is defined as: ‘‘Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses, cultural and learning experiences, which are characteristic of their holiday destination.” CCIs offer many experiences the cultural and creative tourists are eager to live when they travel. This new way of discovering another culture by experiencing it has been growing increasingly during the last decade.  CCIs are in a strategic position to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in all EU regions and cities, and thus contribute fully to the Europe 2020 Strategy and beyond, through their deployment for Cultural and Creative Tourism (CCT).  While some EU regions have been very good at tapping into this extraordinary potential as a way to promote socio-economic development - including through the use of EU Structural Funds -, it, however, appears that many others have not been making most of this potential.  Synergies between sustainable tourism and CCIs can enhance the visibility and promotion of CCT. These synergies can contribute to the promotion of sustainable tourism destinations, an attraction of new investment and creation of new employment opportunities, particularly for youth and in lagging regions.  The present Cult-CreaTE project aims to redeploy CCIs in developing new CCT products & services for Growth & Jobs, with innovations, policy change & capacity building. Interregional cooperation is highly required to achieve this aim, given that various regions and destinations are at different level of development regarding CCT based on CCIs. Thus a large partnership with wide geographical range and partner type is required indeed for the exchange of experience & policy learning process. The interregional cooperation involves 2 SF ROPs (Veneto IT, Kujawsko-Pomorskie PL), 3 city authorities (Cork IE; Dundee, Scotland UK; Naoussa EL) and 3 DMOs (Vidzeme LV, Pecs HU, Nicosia CY), thus including all territorial and institutional types for most effective experience exchange, policy change & capacity building, also facilitated by a pan-European Network based in Brussels (ECTN BE) with 29 members in 19 countries & experienced in interregional cooperation, as advisory partner. INNOVATIVE CHARACTER Innovative character lies in the effective contribution of CCIs to CCT development and delivery, by exploiting CCI/CCT synergies, as added value to previous initiatives. There are also important EU policies and other pan-European initiatives, for added value with innovations, viz: - The EC Communication ‘Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU’ (COM(2012) 537 final): “Culture and creativity have also direct impacts on sectors such as tourism; Reinforce cooperation across CCS and with other sectors such as ICT, tourism etc., inc. joint initiatives to developing a more open, innovative and entrepreneurial mind-set in the economy” - Cultural Heritage counts for Europe, Europa Nostra - European Heritage Alliance 3.3 (EHA) with ECTN as an active member - Tourism Manifesto for Growth & Jobs, led by ETC, ECTN a signatory - European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, ECTN is selected by EC DG EAC as a Stakeholder.