Successful completion of a European project entitled “EduTourism – Promotion of educational tourism for the promotion of natural and cultural heritage”
Around the end of November 2023, the project entitled “EduTourism – Promotion of educational tourism for the promotion of natural and cultural heritage” was successfully completed. This project, also known by the acronym “EduTourism”, began its implementation in June 2021 by a corporate scheme of partners in Greece and Cyprus, including Nicosia Tourism Board as follows: National Youth Council (Greece), Four Elements (Greece) , Hellenic Mediterranean University (Greece), Municipality of Archana – Asterousia (Greece) and Development Company of Larnaca (Cyprus). The total budget of the project is €1,711,672.00 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by National Resources of Greece and Cyprus. The operation is implemented within the framework of the Cross-Border Cooperation Program Interreg V-A Greece-Cyprus 2014-2020.
The EduTourism act aims to promote the natural and cultural heritage, through the development and creation of an integrated educational tourism product that on the one hand will strengthen the cultural profile and natural heritage of the two destinations, and on the other hand aims to achieve specific educational results. Based on these goals, many results have been achieved for Greece and Cyprus, as a collective effort for joint development between the two countries. Important results for this act are the following:
- Thematic routes: Through relevant research, thematic tourism themed routes have been developed in Crete, Larnaca and Nicosia, as well as cross-border routes of Greece and Cyprus through which important destinations are analyzed in terms of each thematic route. For example, for the region of Nicosia, three themed routes have been developed with the themes “GASTRONOMY – WINE GASTRONOMY”, “TRADITION – ENVIRONMENT – RELIGIOUS HERITAGE” and “CULTURAL”. Each destination is assigned important information of that destination. Information regarding all thematic routes is provided via the project website.
- Digital educational tourism platform: Educational material was developed with the aim of training trainers, teachers and tourism professionals. This material has been integrated into a digital educational tourism platform with the aim of asynchronous education of interested members regarding educational tourism and the thematic units that distinguish it. For those who are interested or wish to have access to the educational material or to watch it online in their own time, they can find it at the link https://edutourismproject-vle.eu/ by requesting a password to info@aspon.com.cy
- Trainings: Through the project, trainings have been carried out for trainers, teachers and tourism professionals in Greece and Cyprus regarding the educational material that has been developed. These trainings took place online as well as in person and included on-site visits to points of interest in Greece and Cyprus
In the framework of the project, in addition to the above-mentioned outputs, many actions have been carried out such as for example informative material (newsletters, videos, articles) as well as meetings between the partners and events in Greece and Cyprus. All material related to these actions is available via the link https://edutourism-project.eu/.
As this project has been completed, we would like to thank everyone who supported this implementation and we hope that the results of this project will be able to support more interested parties in Greece and Cyprus to discover the benefits of educational tourism.
