• The initiative launches with a pilot tour that highlights the city’s hidden heritage through inclusive experiences
• People at risk of social exclusion participate in workshops and routes to promote self-employment through culture and sustainable tourism
Seville has served as the starting point for a series of workshops aimed at showcasing the city’s heritage through Mystery Routes – Social Economy and Sustainability, a pioneering project that combines themed tourism, social entrepreneurship, and inclusion. Led by the Finnova Foundation, the Sustainable Tourism Cluster of Aragon, and Play and Go Experiences S.L., the program seeks to restore the transformative potential of cultural heritage through guided tours and educational workshops led by women, youth, and vulnerable communities.
On Monday, June 23, the project’s first pilot meeting took place in Seville: an experimental route designed to test and present the program’s future urban itineraries. The activity led participants through spaces rich in symbolism and history, uncovering hidden legends and giving voice to untold narratives. The route began at the statue of Saint John Bosco, near the Salesianos de la Santísima Trinidad school, and explored how memory and urban space can become tools for social participation and the development of sustainable self-employment initiatives.
On Thursday, June 26, the project continued with an in-person workshop aimed at participants interested in developing new forms of entrepreneurship linked to culture-based tourism. The session focused on designing alternative urban experiences and using storytelling as a tool for collective empowerment. Women interested in entrepreneurship or reorienting their professional paths actively participated, sharing ideas and reflecting on the creation of tourism proposals with social impact—led by those who are often excluded from such processes.
As part of the project’s broader development, a series of activities has been scheduled throughout 2025, including itineraries, meetings, and training sessions in different regions of Spain. These initiatives aim to test diverse route models, activate social innovation processes, and build collaborative networks among local actors, third-sector organizations, and individuals with backgrounds of exclusion or precarity who are seeking to create new forms of collective employment.
The Mystery Routes – Social Economy and Sustainability project is funded under the 2024–2025 Comprehensive Plan to Boost the Social Economy, as part of the PERTE for the Social and Care Economy. Its goal is to promote a vision of tourism as a driver of territorial cohesion, economic revitalization, and cultural transformation, through experiences that revalue heritage from an inclusive and sustainable perspective.