Kohesio: discover EU projects in your region

project info
Start date: 1 September 2018
End date: 31 August 2021
funding
Fund: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Total budget: 1 909 037,33 €
EU contribution: 1 622 681,73 € (85%)
programme
Programming period: 2014-2021
Managing authority: Υπηρεσία Διαχείρισης Προγραμμάτων του στόχου Ευρωπαϊκής Εδαφικής Συνεργασίας, του Υπουργείου Οικονομίας, Υποδομών, Ναυτιλίας και Τουρισμού
intervention field
n/a

Promotion and dissemination of cultural and natural heritage through the development and institutional strengthening of Religious Tourism in the island region of Greece and Cyprus

Religious tourism is the most growing sector of the tourism — travel industry. The World Tourism Organisation estimates that 300 million tourists visit major religious monuments of the world every year (a quarter of all international tourist arrivals) and that 600 million national and international religious tourism trips take place every year. There are no statistics in Greece and Cyprus. This increase brings an unprecedented possibility to promote the sustainable development of the cross-border area by allowing investments in projects and applications for protection, increasing the carrying capacity, highlighting and promoting the cultural heritage of the intervention area.The main objective of the project is the promotion, promotion and joint promotion of religious cultural heritage through the development of coordinated and joint planning of actions and applications for the promotion and promotion of religious cultural heritage that will lead to the development of Religious Tourism in the cross-border area of Greece and Cyprus. Both areas are also endowed with a beautiful natural landscape, and therefore the combination of nature with the high cultural and architectural value of temples and monasteries, as well as the specificity of religious and cultural events, can offer enormous potential for the development of alternative forms of tourism. In targeting the project, the strengthening of cross-border cooperation between Greece and Cyprus in the fields of arts and culture will play a central role through the use of technology. Joint actions are planned, resulting from a continuous and widest possible dialogue for the exchange of know-how concerning the preservation and promotion of our religious, material and intangible cultural heritage. The project will be a joint and coordinated effort for the study, registration and promotion of religious cultural heritage and the promotion of religious — Pilgrimage tourism through the cross-border cooperation between Greece and Cyprus. To this end, the programme will build on recent developments in information and communication technologies to create innovative tools that facilitate the understanding, study and promotion of this common heritage and enhance the development of religious tourism through and through the expansion of the tourist season for the cross-border region. As part of the project, new technologies will be used with the development of a cultural and tourist portal, which will host an online museum of digitised religious cultural heritage elements and an electronic library as well as the creation of a corresponding mobile application that can be available to each user. Finally, development tools will be produced, such as the elaboration of surveys and mapping of the Religious Monuments of the Intervention Areas, the development of an Alternative Religious Cultural Tourism Development Plan beyond the summer period, while the training of tourism professionals and local bodies on the provision of services for organising, implementing and supporting trips — excursions and routes with pilgrimage, religious and cultural interest will be promoted. The milestone deliverables under the project concern the creation of 2 digitisation workshops in Greece and Cyprus as well as a Cyprus-based Joint Religious Tourism Observatory. The aim is to guide those involved in the creation of an integrated tourism product through the promotion of the material and intangible religious cultural heritage of Greece and Cyprus that will be addressed to Greek, Cypriot and foreign pilgrims, research tourists and admirers of Art, through religious — Pilgrimage tours and culturally “traveling”, the streets that have carved religions, peoples and cultures during the long history of the island intervention areas of Greece and all of Cyprus.

Flag of Cyprus  Cyprus, Cyprus