Description
Description (EN): MileSTONES II: Encouraging tourism development through the preservation and promotion of the cross border cultural and natural resources is a follow-up of the successful project MileSTONES, approved under the 2nd Call of the IPA Cross-Border (CB) Programme "Greece-Albania 2007-2013". The initial objective was to protect and preserve the two ancient theatres by tackling any potential threats and risks. Despite the total success of the original project, the CB region faces additional challenges. In the demanding economic environment of the recent years the CB area, particularly Finiq and Dodoni, face difficulties to link their cultural assets with tourism development, in the benefit of local and regional sustainable economic growth. The majority of the visitors view the CB cultural monuments as day visitor attractions spending only a few hours on these sites. However, the two archaeological sites of Finiq and Dodoni are in the worlds top leading cultural monuments, setting a great impact on the ancient history and theatre. In fact, The Acropolis Museum hosted for a semester in 2016 a temporary exhibition about the archaeological site of Dodoni, proving that there is a great but also rare opportunity for Dodoni to attract a global-wide audience and promote CB cultural tourism. MileSTONES II appears as an essence; a connection between the additional protection & preservation of the cultural CB assets and their promotion through sustainable tourism, utilizing existing assets, infrastructures & networks and applying innovative tools and techniques beyond current practices. The Project emphasises on Finiq and Dodoni with small scale interventions such as the preservation of two Byzantine Churches and the establishment of two Innovation Cultural Promotion Spaces applying innovative tools and platforms within a result-oriented strategy to successfully promote the CB area, leveraging tourism development and driving sustainable economic growth. MileSTONES II fully corresponds to the Programme area Strengths and opportunities being the important cultural heritage & the common cultural characteristics, and provides solutions to the current weaknesses concerning the inadequate planning for mild types of tourism and the lack of a common action plan for tourist development. Recognizing as key-actors all the local and international stakeholders involved in the sectors of culture and tourism such as public/private organisations, archaeologists, entrepreneurs, tour operators, tour guides, as well as native population, students, youth etc., the projects main approach is to capitalise on the outputs of the initial project as inputs for the designed MileSTONES II activities, maximising the investment value. Thus, the project will create area-wide effects in the benefit of the cultural heritage and the CB population, setting a great example and unlocking the potential of other areas to enhance and promote their cultural assets.
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Website: https://2014-2020.greece-albania.eu/
Expected Results (EN): According to the result indicator of the Programmes SO 2.1, the aim is to increase the annual overnight tourist stays of the cross border area. This is actually the main challenge that both Finiq and Dodoni confront each year. Despite the cultural importance of these monuments in the CB area, most tourists view these points as day visitor attractions. In other words, the two sites are falsely considered as a stopover of a few hours rather than a destination. However, the 2 sites and especially the Archaeological Site of Dodoni are two of the worlds leading cultural monuments, holding a great impact on the history of theatre. MileSTONES II will work towards their connection with the Byzantine Churches and other points of cultural interest, promoting CB area as an independent cultural destination.All things considered, the success of the project will clearly contribute to this indicator, resulting to an increase in both the annual overnight tourist stays in the CB area and in the average days spent on the CB area in the long-term. The direct and immediate results from the implementation of the project are the: Preservation, protection and promotion of the cultural assets of the CB area;Enhancement of the sustainable use of cultural assets of CB area; Promotion of the cultural similarities between the two countries; tourism trend towards CB culture, through the activation and familiarisation of key actors with the CB culture; Increase of the annual visits and duration (overnights) of tourists in the CB area;Transfer of knowledge and exchange of good practices and lessons learned among the partners in the field of cultural heritage; Expansion of the CB network between organisations and authorities involved in the cultural management, sharing impacts and best practices. The results are absolutely measurable, achievable, realistic and time based within the life of the project. As a long-term result is the support of private & public tourism investments in the CB area.
Read more Expected Outputs (EN): The projects main outputs are the means to achieve all of the specific objectives (SO), as cited on section B.1.2. In view of the programme priority SO, the projects main output is the preservation/enhancement of the CB cultural heritage as the means to promote sustainable tourism, corresponding exactly to the core of the SO. In doing so, the implementation of soft actions promoting the two ancient theatres will achieve the further enhancement of the ancient theatres over time (SOa), preserving their global uniqueness and magnitude. The Renovation of two buildings in Dodoni and Finiq, and their establishment as Innovation Cultural Promotion Spaces (ICPS) of the local and CB culture, links to the SO(d) by expanding the cultural chain of attractions in the CB area, leading to increasing numbers in annual visits and overnights in the CB area. The Preservation of the Byzantine Church of Taxiarchon (PB3) and the Byzantine Church St. Nikolaos of Mesopotamos in Finiq (PB4), are the means to achieve SO(c) the enrichment of cultural assets, specifically the Byzantine heritage sites. The place branding study (LB1), the cultural toolkit (PB3) and the cultural heritage inventory (PB4), as well as the training seminars for tourist professionals (PB4) are the means to achieve SO(e). Besides the outputs related to infrastructure, there is a complete set of promotional outputs that link directly to the SO(b)&(f) and fulfil the overall objective of the project being the protection, preservation and development of the cultural heritage of the CB area emphasising on Finiq and Dodoni, promoting sustainable tourism and boosting economic growth. This set includes: a 3-day Familiarisation Trip with the participation of journalists & bloggers; the production of multilingual information material (brochures, information kits and leaflets); a Press Conference; two Closing conferences; and a multilingual web portal for the promotion of the project and the digital thematic route.
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Partners (4)
Lead Partner:
Municipality of Dodoni
Address:
Agia Kiriaki Theriakisiou, Dodoni, 45500 Agia Kiriaki, Greece
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.dodoni.gr
Total budget:
EUR 291 437.45
IPA2 budget:
EUR 247 721.83
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Municipality of Finiq
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Name:
Municipality of Finiq
Address:
Finiq - DelvineFiniq, Albania
Legal status:
public
Total budget:
EUR 132 433.00
IPA2 budget:
EUR 112 568.05
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Ministry of Culture and Sports - Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina
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Name:
Ministry of Culture and Sports - Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina
Address:
Plateia 25 Martiou 6, 45221 Ioannina, Greece
Legal status:
public
Website (not verified):
http://www.yppo.gr
Total budget:
EUR 177 131.80
IPA2 budget:
EUR 150 562.03
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Regional Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Vlora)
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Name:
Regional Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Vlora)
Address:
Lagjia Hajro Cakerri, Rr. Sulejman Delvina, Nr. 56,Vlore, Albania
Legal status:
public
Total budget:
EUR 95 080.20
IPA2 budget:
EUR 80 818.17
