Creative History Balkans Tour (CHBT) is a project that aims to develop and promote the tour based on four historical fortresses in four Balkans’ countries: Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia; Citadela Fortress Old City of Budva, Montenegro; Kastel Fortress in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Skadar Fortress in Rozefa, Albania. The significance of all these proposed locations and fortifications is that they each symbolise periods, type of architecture and design, and occasions for their built or creation. Balkan has been known as a turbulent region and for this reason cultural heritage, which is very rich, is important as it helps learning about each other and building bridges between people and communities, as well as between past and future. The project will encourage and support increased youth mobility through the region, fostering close social interaction with host populations, which will contribute towards “tourism for peace” value. The tour will be developed on innovative way appealing to new generations using the creative industries approach (creative industry appealing content creation and storytelling, super design, digital promotion and PR, modern IT tools and etc) which will give new life and attractiveness to old cultural heritage of the Balkans.
About
During the period of six months, between 30thOctober 2018 and 30thMay 2019, Foundation EXIT will provide following results:
Specialised internet portal Creative History Balkans Tour– is a web site that will be developed and put on air in and with all modern elements known and attractive to the new generation, especially young tourists from the region, Europe and Worldwide. The portal will contain interesting stories, histories, myths, and legends put together in modern and attractive storytelling for the youth. For the creation of the portal benefit will go to historians, art historians, culturists, tourism experts, copywriters, art directors and designers – their participation in this project is vital and includes research of four targeted destinations and putting together all these interesting elements to create package in the most attractive manner to the target groups. According to the latest relevant researches, more than 90% of young travelers search for travel information using the internet, therefore most of the promotion of this product will be web site and digital based. In addition, local and international tour operators and tourist agencies will have material to create and offer new package in their portfolios. Using already confirmed and well managed international and online based channels of the EXIT festival, there is no doubt in product’s visibility.
Youth travel has become one of the fastest growing segments of international tourism. It represents about 23% of the one billion tourists travelling internationally each year, thus representing great socioeconomic opportunities for local communities. Increase in influx of tourists will have a positive effect on local economies, especially micro and small business offering different services such as accommodation, catering, transport, etc, but also for planned events that will happen in targeted venues will need services like hiring technical equipment, stage set up, props, translators, security and many more.
Popularization for the targeted venues will include popularization of other creative contents and facilities through extensive online and digital campaign. These contents include art galleries, art studios, legendary catering facilities, historical landmarks, academies and other events happening on and around fortresses. Promotion of the cultural heritage will complement to the promotion of small businesses and service providers, as already mentioned above, in these targeted areas.
Success of the EXIT festival is greatly based on the involvement of the local community. During four days of the festival, the whole city – government, communal services, local business, academic institutions, citizens and media – is dedicated to offer the memorable experience for its visitors. In return, EXIT visitors leave more than €15 million to local tourism industry. Such a successful model will be used to create similar partnerships in each destination within the regional route. Improving tourism attractions in targeted areas, it will improve economic indicators of the municipality area. For this reason, it is important to stimulate cooperation between public and private sector.
