Promoting cultural tourism through on-line access: MICHAEL and the Italian Cultural Portal The MICHAEL Project is funded under the European Commission eTEN Programme Rossella Caffo - MiBAC Coordinator of the MICHAEL project

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Table of contents Definition of cultural tourism Whats up in Italy MICHAEL

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Past & present While tourism has traditionally been viewed with a strictly economic lens, tourism policies today take a wider view, including its social, cultural and ecological dimensions.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo And also… Knowledge and leisure are nowadays the fundamental needs to be satisfied while travelling. New vision of tourism: not only SUN, SEA and SAND, but also LANDSCAPE, LEISURE and LEARNING.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Cultural tourism: a definition World Tourism Organization (WTO) Narrow definition: "Movements of persons for essentially cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts, and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other cultural events, visits to sites and monuments. Broad definition: "All movements of persons might be included in the definition because they satisfy the human need for diversity, tending to raise the cultural level of the individual and giving rise to new knowledge, experience and encounters.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Other reflections ICCROM and UNESCO: Developing Tourism and Protecting Cultural Heritage: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century (Rome - 5, 6 September 2005) Cultural heritage plays an important role in the expansion of tourism Tourism can have negative impacts on the environment The philosophy of "Sustainable Tourism" encourages a development but does not pay enough attention to the detrimental impact on the conservation of cultural heritage by an uncontrolled mass tourism. More than ever tourists must be aware that cultural heritage is fragile and they can contribute significantly to its preservation.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo UNESCO and ICCROM recommendations Developing information for tourists on the cultural heritage, including interpretation of its significance and meanings, and that it is irreplaceable when destroyed or damaged It was recognized that: tourism industry impacts cultural heritage (negative as well as positive) tourists are ready to understand and to be made aware on cultural heritage issues, if they are given the opportunity to be appropriately informed the link between tangible and intangible cultural heritage is a basic element of understanding and interpreting cultural heritage and should not be dissociated in an awareness raising action on the fragility of cultural heritage

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo ICOM: Proposal for a Charter of Principles for Museums and Cultural Tourism PRINCIPLE No. 1 Museums constitute an important resource for Cultural Tourism for… their conditions of multiplicity, uniqueness, freedom, flexibility and creative potentiality. PRINCIPLE No. 2 The interaction between tourism and museums is a relationship that can affect the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. PRINCIPLE No. 3 In regards to cultural tourism, museums should encourage the active participation of the local communities in the planning of both heritage management and the operations of tourist venues. PRINCIPLE No. 4 A harmonious relationship between museums and cultural tourism should address all constituent aspects of the museum. PRINCIPLE No. 5 From an economic point of view, commercialisation of cultural tourism based on heritage resources should include profitability in its economic, social and environmental dimensions.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo In a few words Cultural tourism is a way to know, improve, preserve and exploit the cultural resources, landscape, architecture, artistic activities and unique character of a particular place.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Accessibility, visibility and services are the key words of cultural tourism

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo An overview of the Italian situation Cultural heritage distributed widespread in the territory Tourists have a wrong perception of the CH: only the great monuments and museums are visible (the Colosseo, the Uffizi Gallery etc) How to exploit the lesser known CH?

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo A catalogue of the Italian cultural heritage It integrates the Italian culture in a European and worldwide context, through the creation of digital resources according to the international standards The Portal is an integrated access point, promoted and validated by MiBAC to facilitate discovery and interconnection of the resources of the Italian cultural heritage and activities The Italian Portal of Culture

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo The Italian Portal of Culture will make use of digitised content: to bring to an even wider public both the well known and the lesser known Italian CH to create new and customised tourism services and itineraries across Italy Goal of the the Italian Portal of Culture

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo The Italian Touring Club-TCI The TCI, thanks to an agreement, will make available a data-base for the Portal with the cultural information from 65 guides to the Italian regions and towns.

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15 November 2005Rossella Caffo The prototype of the Portal is being tested. The first core will be published on the internet in June Current status

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo User profiles Many possible users, among whom…

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Scenario 1: a foreign tourist Available services: Language selection > Spanish Multi-layers map of the area chosen > layers museums of the Veneto region > Venice museums Save and print of the map > possibility of printing additional information on specific museums (I.e. Peggy Guggenheim museum, Correr museum etc) Registration form > creation of personal folders The Spanish tourist together with his family chose museums to visit, comes back to his folders and checks the opening hours of the Correr museum, the ticket price and the availability of didactic services e-booking > the tickets can be booked or bought by the internet > purchase with credit card > print the voucher

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Scenario 2: the art student Free search through the Portal > generic research about Caravaggios painting > hundreds of results results: SBN records, SIGEC records, temporary exhibition > web site of the exhibition Caravaggio: lultimo tempo organised by MiBAC: Caravaggios digitised painting from all over Europe. The art student decides to focus his research on the similar collections of Caravaggios paintings elaborated in Europe Interaction with MICHAEL > discovery of the European digital collections about Caravaggio produced in Europe > many information about the The supper at Emmaus kept at the National Gallery > the student chooses to go visiting the Caravaggios paintings at the National Gallery during his summer stay in London

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Tour itineraries The Italian Culture Portal will have a specific section devoted to the tourist itineraries: Geographical search > creation of a customised map Typological search (fountains of Rome, roman amphitheatres in Campania etc) Recommended itineraries

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Internet Culturale The Italian Digital Library Portal and the Tourist and Cultural Network elaborated by the DG for libraries of MiBAC An integrated access to the digital resources of libraries and archives Services: Bibliographical research Access to the digital collections Cultural itineraries

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Scegli Italia: the goals The Italian Portal of Culture will supply the cultural information to Scegli Italia, the national Portal of Toursim. Scegli Italias goals: To strengthen the Italia brand To make the promotion more effective To valorise the Italian tourism offer To improve the services connected to tourism

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Scegli Italia A governmental initiative Involvement of the Regions, 7 Ministries, and the Italian National Bodies for Tourism (ENIT) 3 core content providers: Public administrations Specialised bodies Tourist operators

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo The Italian galaxy SCEGLI ITALIA the portal of the Italian tourism MICHAEL CULTURAITALIA The Portal of the Italian Culture Internet Culturale

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo The trans-European gate The MICHAEL project aims to create inventories and to provide online multilingual access to cultural digital collections through out Europe. MICHAEL and the Italian Cultural Portal are fully interoperable.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo Opportunities within the European dimension bringing together national, regional and local initiatives in Italy, to create a national service integrated with the other national services of EU countries; increasing the world-wide visibility of the different national cultural heritage; fostering tourism in Europe by integrating the MICHAEL discovery service with other travellers support services.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo More services Wider access and increased knowledge of the cultural heritage lead to the creation of services related to culture in the different economic and social sectors. MICHAEL will be a goldmine of cultural material for exploitation and re-use: By a larger and larger number of national cultural portals By the cultural tourism applications For educational purposes For e-commerce purposes By creative SMEs …

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo MICHAEL and the Portal of the Italian Culture Integrated projects Both based on MINERVA guidelines MICHAEL-IT will be part of the Portal Through MICHAEL the records of the Italian Portal will be visible at international level

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo MICHAEL and promotion of cultural tourism Italian experience: shared approaches, integration, interoperability with the other main national instruments for promoting Italy as cultural tourism destination: Culturaitalia and Internet Culturale. The lesson learnt: –MICHAEL is a powerful way to access the European cultural digital collections, but this must be complemented with other targeted services. –It is necessary that MICHAEL is inserted into national contexts in order to get the maximum benefits.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo In the end… The digital collections and the digitised cultural objects are like a magnifying glass for the cultural heritage, supporting exploitation and promotion of the cultural heritage.

15 November 2005Rossella Caffo