Page 28 - Social_Sustainability of Culture

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- Sharing heritage and engaging with cultural heritage in new and bold ways is a creative process which
encourages new ways of expressing, interpreting, and presenting cultural heri- tage in new locations and
contexts.

QUOTE from the Youth Summit in Berlin “The future is heritage”- here a video to get inspired

An interesting program, in which the most “creative” aspect of the sector is valued, in particular in its
digital sense, is COSME

It is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
running from 2014 - 2020 with a planned budget of EUR 2.3 billion. SMEs are the backbone of Europe’s
economy, providing 85% of all new jobs. The European Commission aims to promote entrepreneurship and
improve the business environment for SMEs to allow them to realise their full potential in today’s global
economy.

COSME aims to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access finance in all
phases of their lifecycle – creation, expansion, or business transfer. Thanks to EU support, businesses have
easier access to guarantees, loans and equity capital. EU ‘financial instruments’ are channelled through
local financial institutions in EU countries. COSME helps businesses to access markets in the EU and
beyond. It funds the Enterprise Europe Network that helps SMEs find business and technology partners,
and understand EU legislation; the Your Europe Business portal that provides practical information on
doing business within Europe.

It also finances a number of IPR (intellectual property rights) SME Helpdesks. 1

The TraCEs Cultour Is Capital EcoC aims to put European Cultural Capitals to the forefront in an EU project
based on transformative tourism. Funded by European Commission, under the COSME program, TraCEs
seeks to lay the foundations of a cultural and sustainable tourism model in European Capitals of Culture
that pivots around their heritage, creative and cultural industries and ways of living. The project will
actively involve tourism and creative industries operators invited to interact into laboratories where local
resources – previously mapped and clustered – are used to shape an innovative thematic tourist product.
Synergies between tourism and CCIs are used at the outset of the overall project development process.
A unique opportunity for tourism to develop innovative products and creative industries to cross-fertilize
other economic sectors.

The mission of the European Network for Accessible Tourism is to make European tourism destinations,
products and services accessible to all travellers and to promote accessible tourism around the world. It is
possible to be member of the network and check all the projects

IMPACTOUR project aims to create an innovative and easy-to-use methodology and tool to measure and
assess the impact of Cultural Tourism (CT) on European economic and social development and to improve
Europe’s policies and practices on CT, strengthening its role as a sustainable driving force in the growth and
economic development of European regions.

Tips for sustainable tourism, this is a guide to be a Responsible Traveller

1 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/cosme_en