The BOOST5 project deals with the valorisation of cultural, industrial and natural heritage, with the aim of capitalising on the results of five already completed projects. These are respectively: Made In-Land, Atlas, Underwatermuse, and two projects of the City of Rijeka, Tempus and Revival. The first day of the meeting was organised in the premises of the Science and Technology Park Tecnopolis, also the lead partner of the BOOST5 project in Valenzano near Bari, while the second day of the meeting was held in the premises of the Civic Museum in Barivecchia, as an example of the use of historical heritage and as a multipurpose space.

Kick-off meeting of the EU project BOOST5 in Bari

The project will last overall 13 months, from 1 June 2022 to 30 June 2023.

In short, the BOOST5 project is aimed at the valorisation and preservation of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Adriatic Croatia and Italy, while at the same time supporting economic growth through the sustainable use of heritage. Through focused work on the challenges of unevenly developed tourist destinations and abandoned heritage, the project will create innovative tourist solutions. Dynamic cooperation with private and public stakeholders will encourage the creation of original ideas and the creation of new tourist products, thus enriching the tourist and cultural offer of the Adriatic region.

The pandemic has shown that tourism is an economic driver for the Italy-Croatia Programme areas, but it has also shown the fragility of the sector, with an offer that is still highly fragmented and of low digital intensity, resulting in an unbalanced tourism landscape.

Hence the need to promote synergies between public and private actors and relevant stakeholders such as tourism operators, cultural and creative enterprises, cultural operators, creators of cultural and tourism policies, for the joint adoption of sustainable development policies and the creation of new cultural routes in Croatia and Italy, aimed at accessibility, sustainability and delocalization of tourist flows towards lesser-known attractions.

This one-year cooperation will result in the creation of innovative cultural routes that valorise natural and cultural heritage in Italy and Croatia, in order to open up new market opportunities for inland and coastal tourism with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Free thematic educations, as well as design thinking workshops, for project stakeholders will contribute to this, and the best practices will be translated into Guidelines for designing innovative cultural and tourism solutions, which will be available to everyone in their regions who wants to create new tourism products based on heritage valorisation.

Further information on the project is available on the website of the Interreg IT-HR programme: https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/boost5