Interregional Partnership “Virtual and Smart Cultural Tourism”

Time Machine Organization was authorized by the state of Thuringia/DE to answer the “Call for expression of interest for Covid-19 Response and Recovery Partnerships – Pilot Action for Interregional Innovation” and to submit a partnership application in the area “sustainable and digital tourism” that was selected for funding in January 2021.

In this one-year Pilot Action the following 7 European regions will join forces:

• Thuringia, Germany (lead) – represented by Sander Münster (FSU Jena) + Heiko Kahl (Digitalagentur Thüringen) regional starting advisor
• Saxony, Germany – represented by Georg Fertig (U. Halle / Computer Genealogy Assoc. / Leipzig Time Machine) & Thomas Köhler (TU Dresden)
• Lower Austria – represented by Thomas Aigner (ICARUS)
• Cyprus – represented by Ioannides Marinos (Cyprus University of Technology CUT)
• Paris, France – represented by Valerie Gouet-Brunet (National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN))
• Greater Amsterdam, Netherlands – represented by Julia Noordegraaf (University of Amsterdam)
• Galicia, Spain – represented by Juan Castro (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC))

The interregional cooperation intends to develop advisory and support structures for research institutions, companies, regional authorities and cultural institutions such as museums or heritage sites to get advice and help in establishing new digital formats.

Business cases emerging from the regions will be supported through concrete actions including co-investment models, IP and certification support, business coaching and consultancy, linked with EU funding instruments.

NEXT STEPS

The partnership has set up a Survey (open from March until June 2021) to map and identify possible business cases, services and service providers on regional and EU level, as well as barriers against successful commercialisation and innovation uptake and specific needs for support.

The aim of this survey is to gather stakeholder input for designing and implementing interregional structures and support mechanisms for successful innovations, scale-ups and commercialisation of business cases in the field of Virtual and Smart Cultural Tourism. The project sees Virtual and Smart Tourism as the application of digital technologies to learn, discover, experience and consume cultural attractions in a tourism destination.

Submissions can be made focussing on the following fields of interest:

• Propose a business case: the partnership will select a set of 4-8 business cases for intensive support and consultancy (e.g. on financing, business planning, marketing etc.) towards realization.

• Nominate demands: the partnership will shape a toolkit of services on EU/regional scale to support stakeholders in the regions to overcome bottlenecks (e.g. access to funding, legal support, IPR) of digital cultural tourism.

• Advise EU/regional development: the partnership examines the current state of digital and sustainable tourism in the regions in order to advise EU and regional authorities in shaping targeted actions.

• Open your services/ expertise for new users: the partnership will shape a toolkit based on services/expertise on EU/regional/local scale to be included in the consultancy offers for stakeholders in the regions.

Additionally, regional stakeholder workshops will be organised in cooperation with partnering regions to bring together researchers, innovators, business support agencies, regional public authorities and investors etc. to work on joint business and use cases.

After the start-up phase, supported by the European Commission, the partnership is to be expanded to other European regions, in particular from the network of TMO, where the growing amount of Local Time Machine Projects build an easily accessible and valuable stock of potential use cases.

For more information, please visit the Time Machine.