REHIO project covers Dolj, Olt and Mehedinţi counties in
Romania and Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse districts
in Bulgaria. These counties are characterized by plenty of highly
valuable monastries and churches located on the both sides, some of
them dating from mid-centuries, and by intangible religious
heritage, having huge potential for tourism develpment. Nevertheless,
religious tourism is underdeveloped in the area and foremost unevenly distributed
between the Black Sea and the whole rest of the region.
Overall objective and expected change to the
current situation:
The overall objective of REHIO project is to promote the
cross-border region, covered by the
project, as a destination for religious tourism. The achievement of this
objective will mark the religious tourism as new brand in cross-border tourism
marketing and moreover, will create a conditions to increase the number of
overnights in the both areas.
Programme output the project contributes to:
REHIO project will contribute to the achievement of specific objective 1.2. Cross-border tourisitic product, more
concretely for the achievement of I9 – Number of integrated tourism
products/services created and I10 – Number of common strategies, policies or
management plans for valorising (including raising awareness)
the cultural and natural heritage through its restoration and promotion for
sustainable economic uses. It suggests common strategy to promote religious
heritage (both tanglibe and intangible) along the Danube river in the both
countries, and a new joint cross-border touristic products, i.e. e-guide,
online platform and mobile application for religious routes, presenting the
religious heritage, places for accommodation and leisure activities, in
the cross border region. REHIO project objective contributes to the fulfilment
of the programme objectives by addressing common challenges and needs that
are shared across the border and cannot be sufficiently addressed by one side
alone (irrespective of the national level involved). This is the common
religious tangible and intangible heritage of a territory along the Danube
river, which cannot be tackled separately due to the joint
historical development of the Christian church regions during the
last few centuries. The project expected outputs add values because not only
the religious sites and monuments will be promoted, but also the common
hirstorical non-tangible heritage,
including religious feasts, traditions and practices, which
has gone hand by hand from early centuries to present, remaining remarkable
trace on their presence today and on the expression of the similarity of the
both cultures.
The proposed project foresees the implementation of the following activities:
1) Project management
2) Two field studies (1 in Bulgaria and 1 in Romania) to analyse the religious
sites and intangible Chrisian heritage (common Christian feasts,
practices and customs in the counties, covered by the project), but also places
for accommodation/and leisure activities around the identified sites;
3) Workshops for the target groups from the border areas (Bulgaria and in
Romania) to present and discuss the outcomes of the studies and to outline the
strategy.
4) A joint strategy for promotion of
the religious tourism development and for diversification of
religious heritage (tangible and intangible) in the two regions;
5) On-line guide to present religious
heritage (tangible and intangible) of the regions, covered by the
study, places of accommodation in monasteries and guest houses,
and hotels around the monasteries, including leasures activities and
maps of religous sites, from the both sides of the border;
6) E-platform for pilgrims/tourists
interested in religious tourism, indicating religious sites; intangible
heritage – joint feasts, customs, practices and/or traditions; places for
accommodation (monasteries and guest houses/hotels); leisure activities and map
of the religious sites of the cross border area, covered by the project;
7) Publicity and information, i.e.
advertasing campaign to promote the project, its results and outputs,
including four pressconferences; brochures and leaflets; documentary
film to promote the religious heritage (tangible and intangible).; tematic
publications for local media; two short TV ads to promote the cross-border
potential for religious tourism, broadcasted on local TV channels.
7) A mobile application for smart devices – will be created to indicate the
religious sites/routes, developed by the project.
What is new in the project are the proposed strategy for religious tourism
development, the on-line guide and e-platform, and the mobile application,
which will interactively present the identified religious sites, but also
intangible religious heritage – common customs, feast and common
history of the cross border regions. The suggested tourism products will be for
the first time presented as new brand in cross border tourism marketing.
The indicative budget
(total contribution) is 394 500 EUR for
the both partners. It is in line with the activities and demonstrate coherence
with the results, respecting the price ceilings presented in the call.
REHIO project proposes new approach and innovative methods,
such as elaboration of strategy for promotion of the religious heritage of the
areas, covered by the project, suggesting religous tourism routes in
an on-line tools such as e-platform, e-guide and mobile application,
including also an intensive promotion of the e-products. The proposed solutions
of the problems tackled by the project create a ground for establishing of a
new brand for tourism and for increasing of the number of the overnights in the
both regions.
Considering the favorable location of the regions, covered by the
project, next to the Danube River, we believe that building a common and
effective marketing strategy and innovative tourist’s products to promote the
religious heritage goes beyond the existing practice to promote tourism,
suggesting new brand, that will be added to the tourism marketing and will
substantially increase and improve tourism sector in project areas, which in
turn may effectively lead to increase of the number of the overnights and for
improvement of the living standards in the regions.
The religious heritage of the cross border region is one of
the tourists’ sectors with huge potential for development, offering new
opportunities in the border region. However, the Danube-centred
sustainable tourism is still emerging and evolves in a totally different
market (quantitatively and qualitatively) than the Black Sea seasonal mass
tourism. This feature and its divergence from the evolution of the other
counties/districts is indicative of the development of a sustainable tourism in
these areas. The current condition shows a discrepancy between the religious
tourism potential and undeveloped tourism. Some major weaknesses and
constraints are related to the low popularity of religious sites, and
intangible religious heriatege of the both regions, leading to
insufficient number of nights (also in monasteries, which offers places for
accomodation) realized in some border districts (Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven
and Veliko Tarnovo in BG and Olt, Dolj, Mehedinți counties in Romania), some of
them facing the lowest share of tourist visits. In addition to this, local tour
operators and church workers are yet not well aware and has no capacity
or knowledge to promote the full potential of religious sites.
The project tackles the following common territorial challenges: 1) The
perception of Olt, Dolj, Mehedinți counties and Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven,
Tarnovo and Ruse districts as religious tourists’ destinations is
still unclear; the religious tourists sector still has a small contribution to
the total revenue of the regions. They don’t have a reputation as destination
for religious tourism bona fide opportunity, which is caused mainly by:
destination marketing deficiencies; lack of government support in tourism,
unprofessional practices in the tourism business, low standards of services for
visitors, poor tourism infrastructure, and merely inexistent facilities for
leisure time. 2) Some of the monasteries in the cross border region offer
also accomodation, but their accommodation facilities are not being fully
exploited. 3) The fact that a significant part of companies involved in the
tourism sector register low profit is due to the lack of stable tourist
flowsand low solvency of the population. There is poor presentation of the
religious sites, but also of the intangible religious heritage; inadequate
planning of pilgrimage tourist routes, and lack of established and promoted
religious tourists attractions. Moreover, tour operators rearly sugges
trips for pilgrims in those regions. Summarizing all problems, it can be stated
that the main problem is the low popularity of the religious heritage among
tourists.