- The Ateneo Mercantil of Valencia will host the MEET UP SPAIN of CulturalDeTour, ‘Opportunities to boost Cultural Tourism’ on Monday 17 June.
- Organised by the Finnova Foundation, partner of the project, the event is part of the cycle of national workshops designed by CulturalDeTour (CDT) and which, in turn, are part of the resources offered by the Acceleration Programme ‘CDT BOOST’.
The European project CulturalDeTour, funded by the Creative Europe programme with 200,000 euros, presents the MEET UP ‘Opportunities to boost Cultural Tourism’, an event that aims to promote collaboration and funding opportunities for projects and initiatives in the cultural tourism sector. The meeting, organised by the Finnova Foundation, partner of the project, will be held on Monday 17 June, from 11:00 to 14:00, in the Sorolla Hall of the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (Pl. de l’Ajuntament, 18, 46002 València, Spain) and it can be followed in person or online.
A total of around 11 speakers, leaders and experts from the cultural tourism industry will gather to present, debate and share experiences within the sector. In a first block, the CEO of Finnova, Juanma Revuelta, and the Office Coordinator of Creative Europe, Monica Comas, will explain the existing funding opportunities in relation to tourism, culture and entrepreneurship. This will be followed by a panel of speakers in which the Director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia, Begoña Poza Falset and other experts from the sector will present their experiences within the cultural tourism ecosystem, focusing mainly on the opportunities it offers.
To move the workshop forward, the ‘Demoday CDT Acceleration Programme’ will be introduced, with a presentation of the CulturalDeTour project by representatives of Envolve and Arctur, project partners, and an investor. To add value to the DemoDay, several participants of the CD BOOST Acceleration Programme from Slovenia, Greece and Spain will give a pitch, presenting the entrepreneurial ideas they have accelerated and expanded thanks to the initiative.
CulturalDeTour Accelerator Programme ‘CDT Boost’.
The MEET UP is part of the cycle of national workshops designed by the CulturalDeTour project, which, in turn, are part of the resources offered by the CulturalDeTour Accelerator Programme (CDTA), one of the main actions of this project. The 6-month acceleration initiative offers an unprecedented opportunity for sustainable cultural tourism businesses from Greece, Slovenia and Spain to gain valuable insights and develop essential skills, growing and expanding their businesses through digitisation, technology and sustainability using the Earth-Centered Design Methodology.
The CDTA Programme seeks to drive innovation, sustainability and business creation in the tourism sector through a design-driven process. To this end, it has selected 30 innovative teams, SMEs and early-stage sustainable cultural tourism enterprises based in Greece, Spain and Slovenia, operating within the cultural tourism sector, to grow and learn, expand their business, explore new models and improve sustainability practices.
About the CulturalDeTour project
The project aims to use design-driven innovation and sustainability mainstreaming to drive collaboration and entrepreneurship in the cultural tourism sector, and to create a strong cross-sectoral and transnational innovation network to improve economic resilience during the recovery phase of COVID-19.
CulturalDeTour is the product of a unique collaboration between three heterogeneous but complementary partners from across the European Union: Envolve Entrepreneurship (Greece), Finnova (Spain) and Arctur (Slovenia).
Emphasising new business models, the programme will provide participants with the necessary competences to thrive in the sustainable cultural tourism industry.
About the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia
The Ateneo Mercantil was founded on 23 March 1879 to ‘attend to the cultural needs and training needs, in their profession, of those employed in commerce’ – Its statutes were formalised in 1879. Quoting the II Marquis of Turia, who was President of the entity: ‘In the Athenaeum everything has been promoted, from the Trade Schools to the Stock Exchange, from the Chamber of Commerce to the university progress, from the Language Schools to the Trade Fairs, from the water transfer to the preservation of monuments, from the South Solution for the defence of the city to the work of the Port’. The Ateneo also gave birth to works as diverse as the Sociedad Valenciana de Tranvías, the first radio station in the city, the Madrid-Cuenca railway connection, the transfer of the Church of St. Catherine of Siena or the Valencian Association of Charity.
In 1960 the City Council of Valencia awarded the Ateneo with the Gold Medal of the city. In 1970, the Council of Ministers declared it a Public Utility Entity. The Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia continues to maintain its registered office at Plaza del Ayuntamiento number 18, in Valencia. It is currently chaired by Doña Carmen de Rosa Torner and has around four thousand members.
Link for face-to-face signing up: https://lc.cx/Fv0NJY
Link for online signing up: https://lc.cx/rx2MOz