Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Programme 2014 - 2020 Black Sea Basin ENI CBC

Date of latest update: 2025-06-17

Description

Description (EN):

Tourism and hospitality contribute substantially to the economic growth and employment in the Black Sea Basin due to a favourable mix of rich natural and cultural recourses, skilled labour and competitive prices. It is, however, affected by the main common regional challenges such as climate change, rapid overexploitation of the resources and increasing workforce shortage. In addition, with their needs and behaviour, the modern tourists go beyond the traditional standard mass sea and mountain holiday tourism and increasingly understand travelling as occasion for enrichment and discovery. The so-called “experiential tourism”is associated with the development of many new activities and business models that alleviate the overexploitation of resources and local communities in the destinations. Experiential tourism is almost non-recognised as an area of business activity in the BSB despite its growth potential. PRO EXTOUR aims to promote experiential tourism as a sustainable development pathway for tourism business in the BSB by valorising the potential of the indigenous heritage and culture, innovative solutions and cross-border cooperation. The project is a joint initiative of 3 HEIs with established applied research expertise in tourism – VUM (BG), YSU (AR) and AUTh (GR), a cultural networking organisation – GACC (GR), and regional hospitality cluster – CAHA (BG). The complementary expertise and target-group outreach of PRO EXTOUR partners is to guarantee the achievement of the project targets and the delivery of sustainable outcomes, which include:* Regional Needs Assessment Report for the development of experiential tourism, * Regional Action Plan for encouraging the heritage and culture-based experiential tourism in the BSB, * Inventory of Business Models for experiential tourism, * Pilot Inventories of heritage and culture activities and events & On-line Repository of resources and tools; * International events related to experiential tourism; * cross-border network of Black Sea Hubs on Experiential Tourism, In this way, PRO EXTOUR contributes to the increase of cross-border links for joint promotion of business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors - priority 1.1 of the JOP BSB. The outputs shall bring benefits to SMEs in tourism, tourism professionals, business sectoral organisations, interest groups (NGOs), higher education and research institutions. The transnational cooperation has a high added value since it mobilises the capacity of the regional actors and leads to tailor-made solutions, economic and social viability in tourism and hospitality.

Achievements (EN):

As part of the project Promoting Cultural and Heritage-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin, the partners have compiled a compendium of 40 cultural and heritage activities and events that could be used to create authentic tourist experiences throughout the region. There are ten exemplary activities and events in each of the four countries participating in PRO EXTOUR, which are Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Greece. These activities and events fall into the categories of traditions and celebrations, historic sites, reenactments, festivals, cultural events, and natural heritage. Preference has been given to those activities that combine features of shared culture and heritage in the Black Sea Basin area, and are representative of heritage, history and culture at the same time. The detailed descriptions of the activities and events as pilot Inventories, including details on the locations, time schedules, video materials and pictures materials, are presented in an online repository at https://repo.proextour.eu/categories/activities/all. The Inventories serve as a tool for promoting the value-generation potential of experiential tourism for the Black Sea Basin and to incite entrepreneurial cooperation for the valorisation of heritage and culture as experience drivers.

Website: http://blacksea-cbc.net/

Expected Results (EN): R 1.1 Strength of cross-border business opportunities in the tourism and cultural sectors

Expected Outputs (EN):

PRO EXTOUR brings about results and outputs that represent the achievement of its overall and specific objectives. Results: 1. Elaborated tools and services for promoting the value-generation potential of experiential tourism for the BSB. 2. Increased knowledge and awareness on the new development trends in tourism as well as their implications for the BSB. 3. Identified opportunities for new tourism services and business models in the BSB. 4. Sustained networking among education institutions and business for utilisation of the development opportunities of experiential economy. 5. Applied innovative solutions enhancing cross-border opportunities in experiential tourism. Outputs: 1. A Regional Needs Assessment Report for the development of experiential tourism, 2. A Regional Action Plan for encouraging the heritage and culture-based experiential tourism in the BSB, 3. An Inventory of Business Models for experiential tourism, 4. An International business conference on experiential tourism, 5. Pilot Inventories of heritage and culture activities and events, 6. An On-line Repository of resources and tools for experiential tourism, 7. An International Conference on Digital Technologies for Experiential Tourism. 8. A cross-border network of Black Sea Hubs on Experiential Tourism, 9. An International Fair on Heritage and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the BSB. Each project Group of Activities is designed to deliver particular results and outputs, and to achieve concrete specific objectives. PRO EXTOUR results and outputs contribute particularly to. - R. 1.1 Strength of cross-border business opportunities in the tourism and the cultural sectors: all project results and outputs 2,3,4,5,6,7, 8 and 9. - PSOI. 1. 1. 1. Number of strategies and products developed jointly to promote tourism: outputs 1,2,3,5,6,7. - PSOI. 1. 1. 2. Number of cross-border tourism and cultural events organised using ENI support: outputs 4,7,8 and. 9.

Thematic information

Cultural heritage and arts Tourism

Thematic Objective: Business and SME development

Partners (6)

Lead Partner: Varna University of Management

Address: Oborishte str. 13A, 9000 Varna, Bulgaria

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.vum.eu

Total budget: EUR 43 153.50

ხელოვნების საერთაშორისო ცენტრი

Name: ხელოვნების საერთაშორისო ცენტრი

Address: Niko Nikoladze str., 7, 0108 Tbilisi, Georgia

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.gaccgeorgia.org

Total budget: EUR 80 924.10

Yerevan State University

Name: Yerevan State University

Department: Service (Organization of Service Activities and Sustainable tourism)

Address: Alex Manoogian 1, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ysu.am

Total budget: EUR 28 436.81

Culinary Arts and Hospitality Association

Name: Culinary Arts and Hospitality Association

Address: Bulgaria 3, 9300 Dobrich, Bulgaria

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.culinary-arts.bg

Total budget: EUR 36 572.34

Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης – Ειδικός Λογαριασμός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας

Name: Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης – Ειδικός Λογαριασμός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας

Address: University Campus, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.auth.gr

Total budget: EUR 64 686.12

Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης - Ειδικός Λογαριασμός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας

Name: Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης - Ειδικός Λογαριασμός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας

Address: University Campus, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.auth.gr

Total budget: EUR 64 686.12

ENI budget: EUR 181 805.80

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Georgian Arts and Culture Center

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Partners and Projects info

Yerevan State University

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Partners and Projects info

Culinary Arts and Hospitality Association

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Partners and Projects info

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Department of Civil Engineering

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Partners and Projects info

Varna University of Management

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Partners and Projects info

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Special Account for Research Funds (partner from 01 January 2018)

Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Project acronym: PRO EXTOUR

Project start date: 2020-06-01

Project end date: 2023-01-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 253 772.87

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 233 471.03

Co-financing sources:

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Reports

Potential of the Development of Experiential Tourism in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey within the Black Sea Basin

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Regional Action Plans for encouraging the heritage and culture-based experiential tourism in the BSB

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-03-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Regional Needs Assessment Reports for the development of experiential tourism in the PRO EXTOUR countries and BSB

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Studies / surveys

Compendium of Best Practices of business models for experiential tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-05-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Potential of the Development of Experiential Tourism in Bulgaria

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Regional Needs Assessment Analysis: Georgia

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Regional Needs Assessment: Armenia

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Regional Needs Assessment: Greece

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://proextour.eu/

Publication date: 2024-08-13

Document date: 2021-01-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 Black Sea Basin ENI CBC

Latest month of project-partner-call data publication

2025-12

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

57 / 57 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

290 / 290 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme on 2025-03-10 and on 2025-12-29. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://blacksea-cbc.net/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2024-02-01, except for projects with acronyms AGREEN, BeECO, BRIDGES, BSB ECO MONITORING, BSB Smart Farming, CRoCuS, EXCELTOUR, LeNetEco 2, LOC-FOOD, SILC, THC (in these cases, the information was provided by the Programme).

The financial data featured in keep.eu for this programme, it's projects and its partners is not exact and should be taken as a reference only.

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Promoting Heritage- and Culture-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin

Description

Thematic information

Partners (6)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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