Preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency.
Protecting and promoting natural and cultural resources
The overall objective of the project was to increase the visibility and tourist attractiveness of the cross-border region through integrated sustainable models. These models promote the creation of innovative tourism products that revalorise and exploit in new and innovative ways the cultural heritage of castles, manor houses and villas – these exceptional and deliberately constructed landscapes and their marketing – in a sustainable way, using green technologies.
The cross-border project MerlinCV has contributed to raising the profile of the cross-border tourism region. Based on the evaluation of the untapped potentials of cultural and natural heritage and gastronomy, we have developed innovative, integrated thematic and sustainable tourism products in the Slovenian-Italian cross-border area. In response to environmental challenges, the project offered innovative solutions relevant to the whole of Europe, aiming towards the development of sustainable thematic tourism. To this end, a number of activities were organised in the field of design of new tourism products and training key stakeholders. The project activities were designed on the basis of a study and the transfer of good practices from comparable environments.
Tools to increase the visibility of the region
More than 100 km of three cross-border routes have been created, linking the villas and castles of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Istria, Karst, region of Gorica and Pivka. In the municipalities of Pivka, Tolmin (more specifically Kozlov Rob) and the area of Collinare dei Friuli, the cycling and thematic routes are also equipped with multilingual signs and markings. The cycling routes, the Kozlov Rob thematic educational trail, the trail between historical buildings, parks and the marked cycling route in Pivka “The Castle Trail” are presented on:
The https://merlincv.zrs-kp.si/en platform, available in three languages (Slovenian, English and Italian), serves as a virtual and content guide to the cultural and natural heritage of the castles and villas. It also includes gpx routes for a further 80 km of cycling routes in the Vipava Valley and Istria, as well as information on the local tourist activities and sights. The online platform also serves as a tool for visitors to plan their tourist itineraries. It provides presentations of cultural heritage and information on the available activities of a given location (info points, bicycle rental and other services), area and region. All points are shown on a map, allowing the visitor to clearly design an itinerary according to his/her own preferences and interests.
Innovative presentations of cultural heritage
Well-developed, innovative and user-friendly ways of digitally presenting heritage can improve the user experience, promote the destination remotely, personalise the user experience and attract new target groups of users.
Innovative, interactive and digital heritage presentations include:
Other innovative presentations of cultural heritage:
Pilot projects on heritage revitalisation, innovative approaches to heritage management and integration of the tourism offer:
Events and publications aimed towards enhancing the attractiveness of cultural heritage sites:
Lead Partner
Project partner 1
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Project partner 7
1. Improving the offer and competitiveness of cross-border tourism with the use of cultural heritage through the creation of innovative tourism products:
Project partners will promote a broader dialogue involving various stakeholders. New tourist products will be created based on examples and the transfer of good practices, as well as new innovative valorizations and re-uses of cultural and natural heritage. New products will be connected through attractive ways of telling different stories. Our objective is to design pilot new tourism products based on swot analysis of statistical and other processing of large databases, as well as innovative ways of direct interaction between different sectors. Moreover, we will rely on examples of good practice in the project, which integrate regional specificities between cultural and natural heritage.
2. Increasing the capacity of tourism providers for innovative and creative creation and improvement of tourism products:
We will establish mechanisms for the creation of innovative integrated tourism products, concepts and products of sustainable planning that connect natural and cultural heritage for the full experience of the natural and cultural environment. These new products will be implemented through the preparation of educational materials for existing SMEs in the cross-border region and the organization of workshops published online, special package organizers and a web application to create personal experiences and analysis of visitor habits. A special form of tourism organization is also the pilot model of so-called Linkman as a kind of mediator of products and market adaptation.
3. Greater recognition of family tourism as green, active, and attractive: the project will prepare several innovative marketing models of tourist products with various stakeholders, where special attention will be paid to the most visited web formats and extended networks of modern media, including obtaining feedback.
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
