Over 80 participants from 15 countries, including stakeholders, practitioners and decision-makers from the cultural tourism sector in Europe, joined on 24 May 2023 the Final Conference of the EU-funded project SmartCulTour in Brussels, Belgium. The event brought together national and international experts to explore emerging tourism trends and identify priorities to shape sustainable cultural tourism destinations.

Under the theme “Culture as Catalyst: Redefining Cultural Tourism for Sustainable Destinations”, the conference tackled the importance of harnessing the power of culture and local values to redefine the visitor experience. As one of the partners within the SmartCulTour consortium, CIHEAM Zaragoza was responsible for the organization of the international gathering, where it moderated and chaired a session focused on the future of rural cultural tourism and its potential to promote rural development.

At the CIHEAM Zaragoza-led session, moderator and chairman Alun Jones presented the results from a new report by UNWTO on rural tourism. He highlighted that “only 20%” of the UNWTO Member States worldwide have specific policies and support systems for rural tourism, and added that one of the main challenges ahead according to the report is the improvement of infrastructures in rural areas. How to balance this development and growth with sustainability was one of the key issues addressed by the panelists during this round table, where the experience of the SmartCulTour Living Lab in the province of Huesca, in Spain, was presented.

For Jones, cultural tourism has a high potential to stimulate growth in rural areas: “There are cultural assets in every rural area in Spain and Europe that we have to enhance and use as a growth point for the local economy. CIHEAM Zaragoza continues to work on this topic as we believe that it is of primary importance for rural development, and more and more for developing countries”.

Cultural tourism plays an important role in the European economy, estimated to represent 37% of the total tourism sector. According to Bart Neuts (KU Leuven, Belgium), SmartCulTour Project Coordinator: “While tourism encourages access to and appreciation for the extensive collection of European cultural heritage, there are important current and future challenges and opportunities to account for, such as overtourism, digital transitions, green transitions, workforce shortages, or accessibility, among others. Our aim through the SmartCulTour Final Conference has been to explore potential trends and needs from the point of view of visitors, industry, and policy in order to help provide a roadmap for sustainable cultural tourism development.”

Since its launch in January 2020, the SmartCulTour project has supported the development of European regions by providing them with a set of strategies to engage with stakeholders and co-create sustainable cultural tourism experiences. The project has been deployed through six living labs across Europe (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain).