Fostering Sustainable Development Through Cultural and Creative Tourism in Rural and Remote Areas

The European Union (EU) recognizes the unique challenges and opportunities presented by its rural and remote areas. To address these, the European Commission has published a “Long Term Vision for Rural Areas” and a Rural Action Plan, highlighting the importance of diversifying economic activities beyond traditional sectors, like agriculture, farming, and forestry. Tourism has emerged as a promising catalyst for sustainable development in these regions. The TOURAL project aligns with this vision by focusing on cultural and creative tourism as drivers for sustainable growth, promoting smart multi-destination and multi-dimensional tourism offerings, empowered by macro-regional tourism cooperation and integrated local value chains. TOURAL proposes a novel model to support touristic development in rural regions, striking a balance between the growth of their urban clusters and the untapped potential of their remote and rural areas. This multi-dimensional approach encompasses complementary tourism verticals/niche sectors (underwater cultural and nature heritage tourism, cultural and creative tourism, science tourism, silver tourism), participatory co-design of policy pathways and tourism offerings/services, co-creation of business models and tourism products, and co-validation of small-scale tourism services implementations. TOURAL’s scope encompasses three regions from the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region (Italy, Croatia, Greece) and three regions from the Black Sea Basin (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine).