Stakeholders of the cultural tourism sector in Europe are invited to join the Final Conference of the EU-funded project SmartCulTour on May 24 in Brussels. The event will bring together international experts to explore emerging tourism trends and identify priorities to redefine cultural tourism for sustainable destinations.

The conference will tackle the importance of harnessing the power of culture and local values to redefine the visitor experience. CIHEAM Zaragoza, responsible for the organization of the international gathering, will participate in the event as one of the partners within the SmartCulTour project’s consortium. Alun Jones, head of the Projects Unit of CIHEAM Zaragoza, will moderate the event’s round table entitled ‘The future of rural cultural tourism and its potential to promote rural development’.

The lineup of confirmed speakers includes experts from the European Union, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), universities, the business sector and representatives from SmartCulTour and other European projects currently working on cultural tourism.

Since SmartCulTour started in January 2020, the 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). The project’s tools and the different experiences of the SmartCulTour Living Labs with key target audiences will be shared during the closing conference of the project.

► For more information, download the SmartCulTour Final Conference programme