Promoting cultural tourism through on-line access: MICHAEL and the Italian Cultural Portal The MICHAEL Project is funded under the European Commission.

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 - MiBACCoordinator of the MICHAEL project

15 November 2005 Rossella Caffo

Table of contents

• Definition of cultural tourism

• What’s up in Italy

• MICHAEL

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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.

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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.

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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.“

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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.

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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

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ICOM: Proposal for a Charter of Principles for Museums and

Cultural TourismPRINCIPLE 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.

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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.

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Accessibility, visibility and services are the key words

of cultural tourism

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An overview ofthe 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?

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• 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 ItalianPortal of Culture

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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 ItalianPortal of Culture

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The ItalianTouring 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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The prototype of the Portal is being tested.

The first core will be published on the internet in June 2006.

Current status

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User profiles

Many possible users,

among whom…

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Scenario 1:a foreign tourist

Available services:

Language selection > SpanishMulti-layers map of the area chosen > layers museums of the Veneto region >

Venice museumsSave 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

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Scenario 2:the art student

Free search through the Portal > generic research about Caravaggio’s painting > hundreds of results results: SBN records, SIGEC records, temporary exhibition > web site of the exhibition “Caravaggio: l’ultimo tempo” organised by MiBAC: Caravaggio’s digitised painting from all over Europe.

The art student decides to focus his research on the similar collections of Caravaggio’s 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 Caravaggio’s paintings at the National Gallery during his summer stay in London

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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

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Internet Culturale

• The Italian Digital Library Portal and the Tourist and Cultural Network elaborated by the DG for libraries of MiBAC http://www.internetculturale.it/

• An integrated access to the digital resources of libraries and archives

• Services: Bibliographical research Access to the digital collections Cultural itineraries

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Scegli Italia: the goals

The Italian Portal of Culture will supply the cultural information to Scegli Italia, the national Portal of Toursim.

Scegli Italia’s 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

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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

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The Italian “galaxy”

SCEGLI ITALIAthe portal of the Italian tourism

MICHAELCULTURAITALIA

The Portal ofthe Italian Culture

Internet Culturale

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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.

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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.

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More servicesWider 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• …

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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

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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.

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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.

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www.michael-culture.org