The Republic of Moldova and the touristic offer in our country will be promoted internationally along with UNESCO tourist destinations with SIGNIFICANCE in the Black Sea Basin. It is possible in the framework of the international project „HERIPRENEURSHIP – Establishing long-lasting partnerships to upgrade heritage-based offers and create new investment opportunities in tourism and the cultural and creative industries at UNESCO designated areas in the Black Sea basin.”
The project aims to connect tourism companies and stakeholders around selected UNESCO sites in the Black Sea Basin – Moldova, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, to create and manage an attractive and innovative tourism product, based on experience and creativity. In Moldova, we focus on the traditional craftsmanship of wall carpets Complexul de Meşteşuguri “Artă Rustică” and on satellite areas of cultural, historical, religious and other interests.
As a partner of the project, Moldova is represented by the National Association for Inbound and Domestic Tourism Association of Moldova (ANTRIM), which organized the study visit between 16 and 17 May 2022, for the project partners in order to present the designated locations with cultural significance.
The first destination on the agenda of the visit was the “Arta Rustica” Crafts Complex, which houses the manufacture and the rich collection of traditional carpets with national elements included in the UNESCO heritage.
Within the HERIPRENEURSHIP project, resilient cultural tourism offers are created in destinations with heritage-based products and services, addressing actors from different administrative and social levels, so as to strengthen their capacity to effectively manage the heritage for tourism and to activate the skilled workforce for sustainable development.
The 10 touristic and cultural objectives on the territory of Moldova that will be integrated into the cross-border business project in the tourism sector were presented during the study visit.
This project is an important one from the perspective of capitalizing on the common cultural heritage and promoting as much as possible the national tourism offer. For this reason, the Ministry of Culture together with ANTRIM Moldova develop not only certain activities to promote tourism but also policies in the field of support and development of the national tourism product. We are working on a Tourism Development Program in the Republic of Moldova, and the cultural heritage component is a key one in the elaboration and promotion of this program.
Since its foundation until now, ANTRIM’s mission is to support the development of inbound and domestic tourism in Moldova. That is why we have worked for our country to be part of the HERIPRENEURSHIP project, which aims to promote Moldova as a tourist destination internationally, by increasing the element of visibility, but also by promoting business and entrepreneurship by diversifying the touristic and cultural sector within the Black Sea basin.
The Republic of Moldova is the third destination out of the 6 partner countries, which was visited by representatives of specialized institutions from Romania, Greece, Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria.
The purpose of the visit is to see the 10 locations within the project and to understand how well they fit into that program. We are sure that we will have a remarkable result. These 10 locations are part of a group of 60 geolocations from 6 partner countries of the project in the Black Sea basin. Through these projects and programs, Moldova becomes part of the networking of cultural routes in the Black Sea and throughout Europe. Such a project promotes the cultural potential of a country and helps to develop and promote countries and their integration into the EU. To sum up, we are proud to have arrived here and we hope to come back a lot to see each other again.
Through this project, I realized that we are so similar but very different. I enjoy this experience very much, and I have learned a lot, and I hope that through this project we will open ways of communication between us, but also from a tourist point of view, a thriving business chain on tourism development.
Within the HERIPRENEURSHIP project, several eBooks and iBooks will be made for the selected destinations, which can be accessed on the app store and google play platform and, at the same time, a game (Heritage Game) will be created, which will emphasize the cultural importance of the local heritage. And in order to attract the attention of potential visitors, video histories will be created meant to convey the cultural value of each of the 10 objectives on the territory of Moldova.
At the same time, tourism packages will be developed to promote the geolocations within the project, which will later be integrated into the touristic offer of various local agents.
The program, which aims to promote in a joint offer to businesses in the tourism and culture sector has a total budget of over one million euros.