Overview

Despite the richness of the cultural heritage in the Adriatic-Ionian (AI) area and its bustling social&cultural life, the tourism offer potential remains still largely unexpressed.Mass tourism schemes, strong seasonalization and concentration of flows in main destinations jeopardize a sustainable development and the undisclosed potential of creativity. Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) play an important role in fostering economic growth, job creation and innovation but are still poorly valued in their economic impact. This is partially due to the lack of strong key competences and the weakness of local ecosystems. CCI4TOURISM fixed a clear and ambitious objective: making CCIs key players of the tourism sector and a distinctive factor of growth in the AI macro-region. To achieve this goal new, unconventional approaches to tourism management strategies are needed, where a disruptive mind thinking matters. We want to dedicate the best of our business support services for the success of the cultural&creative sector, hardly working on a)entrepreneurial discovery and talent mobilization; b)empowerment of entrepreneurial skills; c)hybridization between cultural, creative and tourist businesses, for the creation of new companies and for the design of new products. The main expected result is the enhancement of the entrepreneurial mindset of CCIs bringing them at the heart of a radical change in territorial development and sustainability strategies where cultural heritage is no more an option, but the main point.Main outputs: 1)Transnational Strategy for the strengthening CCIs skills and competences; 2)setting up of a Creative Hubs network for the heritage valorization as the lighthouses of a renewed concept of creativity and culture where digital make the difference; 3)Transnational action plan for a “Cultural tourism 4.0” offer across the AI area. Transnational approach is crucial to meet and develop successful strategies based that are key for tourism sector growth.