EU Programme
(Interreg VI-A) Italy- Croatia

Lead Partner
Municipality of Macerata (Italy)Municipality of Macerata (Italy)

Other Partners
Archaeological Park of Sepino (Italy)
Municipality of Omišalj (Croatia)
Kastela City (Croatia)
ETT S.p.a. (Italy)
University of Macerata (Italy)
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula (Croatia)
Forum of the Adriatic and Ionian Chambers of Commerce

Associated organizations
International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACUDIT) (Greece)
Direzione Regionale Musei Marche (Italy)
Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika (Croatia)

Duration of the project
30 months
1st February 2024 – July 2026

Role of Forum AIC:
Partner

Total budget of the project:
€ 2,418,585.20

Budget of Forum AIC:
€ 188,130.00

Project Website: 
coming soon 

Background and Objectives

Croatia and Italy are rich of archaeological sites of priceless historical and cultural value, sometimes located near seaside destinations, more often in inland areas. In both countries, this heritage shares an extraordinary potential to generate significant tourism flows, nevertheless exploited in a very limited way. Indeed, current ways of preservation and valorisation still rely on elitist practices, able to attract essentially archaeology lovers and school classes, thus excluding many categories of potential visitors. ARCHAEODIGIT will respond to the need of modernising current management practices, by producing an innovative and effective Methodology of preservation, interpretation and valorisation of archaeological areas. The Methodology envisages an integrated strategy – involving all stakeholders from the territorial tourism ecosystem – to attract new visitors: online promotion of off-season itineraries with on-site interactive exhibits and applications; use of appealing interactive and immersive technologies (e.g Metaverse, AR); creation of digital cultural path combining archaeological goods with intangible assets and tourist information. The project also foresees activities providing (future) cultural and touristic operators with the advanced skills needed to effectively use the Methodology and the other main project outputs (digital Platform and Joint Strategy). The adoption of the new Methodology will lead to the growth of visitors to archaeological areas, fostering cross-border archaeological itineraries, thus contributing to: 1) enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the tourism sector; 2) sustain its recovery from the Pandemic; 3) mitigate the high seasonality pressure characterizing the coastal tourist areas, diverting tourism flows to neighboring inland areas and promoting off-season itineraries. Cross-border collaboration and co-creation approach ensures immediate applicability and replicability of outputs in other territories. 

The overall aim is to enhance the capacity of preserving, interpreting and valorizing the archaeological heritage of the Programme Area, also in terms of opportunities for a sustainable tourism. This will be achieved by developing an innovative Methodology and an integrated Strategy for managing archaeological areas (also relying on interactive and immersive technologies) and by providing (future) cultural and touristic operators with the advanced skills needed to effectively use these tools.

Activities and Target group:

The project will exchange information, experiences and good practices on archaeological heritage management and its integration in touristic ecosystems. It will also define a joint common Methodology for preservation, interpretation and valorization of archaeological areas within a touristic ecosystem, and develop the ARCHAEODIGIT digital Platform and innovative digital tools to increase the capacity of the stakeholders of the touristic sector.

The project targets:

  • Local public authorities
  • Regional public authorities
  • National public authorities
  • Micro enterprises and SMEs in the tourism sector
  • Micro enterprises and SMEs in the cultural and creative sector
  • Local chambers of commerce and chambers of trade and crafts;
  • Local associations of companies working in the cultural and tourism sectors
  • citizens belonging to audiences that archaeological areas are not usually able to attract:
    – the elderly
    -young people
    -families with children
    -people with disability

 

Contacts: 

Forum AIC Secretariat – tel. +39 071 5898249 – E-mail address: segreteria.forum@marche.camcom.it