TRANSROMANICA has been firmly anchored in the state of Saxony-Anhalt as the “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe” since 2007. The cultural and historical heritage along the “Route of the Romanesque” as a regional network member was very successfully integrated into the association’s Europe-wide activities right from the start, so that over the years the state of Saxony-Anhalt has been widely regarded at the European level as an excellent example of how to deal with its cultural heritage and whose tourist valorization was and is perceived.
The certification as a “Council of Europe Cultural Route”, which TRANSROMANICA successfully defends every three years, confirms the network’s extremely high quality of its work in the field of cultural heritage management. It is also a seal of quality for sophisticated cultural tourism that TRANSROMANICA promotes in all of its member regions.
In recent years, the Council of Europe’s cultural routes program has grown steadily and has recognized additional networks that meet the strict criteria for certification. In total there are currently (as of January 1, 2024) 47 certified “Council of Europe Cultural Routes”. 26 of these 47 routes have active members in Germany. As part of the German Presidency of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and beyond, the Federal Foreign Office implemented numerous activities to promote the awareness of the cultural routes in Germany. This includes presentations at the ITB, the creation of a German-language website, the production of a German-language brochure and other promotional materials.
Actors from Saxony-Anhalt are currently involved in eight “Council of Europe Cultural Routes”. Further cultural routes are in discussions with potential members in the country. All of these networks meet the Council of Europe’s demanding criteria and promote high-quality and sustainable cultural tourism in their member regions.
The present project aims to achieve the following specific goals:
- Development of a network of regionally represented European cultural routes and pooling of forces
- Development of a joint and coordinated presentation of the cultural route networks
- Announcement of the “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe” represented in Saxony-Anhalt
Achieving the stated goals has the following effects on regional development, image and networking in Saxony-Anhalt:
By bringing cultural route networks together, identifying interfaces between routes and jointly developing a coordinated marketing concept, information and activities are bundled within the framework of cultural tourism marketing. This ensures a more uniform appearance of the cultural routes at the state level and at the same time increases the appeal of the promotion of individual culturally and historically relevant locations in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Each of the cultural routes running through the country already contributes its part to the implementation of regionally typical tourism by making the local and regional cultural heritage, which is the basis for the country’s important cultural tourism, alive and tangible.
The work of actors certified by the Council of Europe for their excellence in the areas of research and development, improving historical memory and perception of history and European heritage, cultural and educational exchanges for young Europeans, contemporary cultural and artistic practice, and cultural tourism and sustainable Cultural development also contributes specifically to the high quality of sophisticated tourism. In the present project, by bundling the many individual efforts in this area, the potential of the cultural routes to make an important contribution to the development and stabilization of the cultural and nature tourism typical of Saxony-Anhalt should be used much better.
The announcement of the cultural routes in Saxony-Anhalt has a positive impact on tourism in the state in two dimensions. On the one hand, by presenting the networks at numerous locations, the country’s residents are made aware of the wealth of cultural and natural heritage in their home region. In the spirit of promoting the image, the aim is to strengthen the population’s pride in living in a region with great importance in German and, above all, European history and in finding a great treasure of cultural and natural heritage of Europe-wide importance right on their doorstep.
Furthermore, the cultural route actors in the state of Saxony-Anhalt are also considered ambassadors for their home region and carry the enthusiasm for “their” cultural and natural heritage to other European regions via their Europe-wide cultural route networks. Due to the complexity and large extent of each individual “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe”, activities in the country can be spread very widely and a multiplication of communication effects in the area of tourism marketing can be achieved.
The content of the project was divided into the following specific activities that led to the achievement of the project goals:
- Contact cultural routes representatives in Saxony-Anhalt
The networking of the cultural routes down to the regional and local level is a desired activity that is supported by the cultural routes as a whole in order to promote the liveliness of the routes, which, as grassroots initiatives, thrive on commitment at the local level.
- Organization and implementation of a first exchange and networking meeting
At a first network meeting, which took place as a web conference, all the cultural routes in Saxony-Anhalt were presented to all participants. This created a uniform knowledge base for further collaboration. The meeting was organized and moderated by the TRANSROMANICA. The group of participants consisted of representatives from all cultural routes with heritage sites in Saxony-Anahlt.
- Organization and implementation of two working group meetings to develop promotional materials
Two working group meetings were held to develop promotional materials to increase awareness of the European cultural routes in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Carrying out face-to-face events should, on the one hand, promote networking among cultural route actors and, on the other hand, increase creativity in joint work. At the first working group meeting, the design of an overview map of the cultural routes in Saxony-Anhalt was discussed and how to display them in detail. In the second working group meeting, the structure of the brochure and the presentation modules for the cultural routes’ representatives were developed.
- Print of a German-language roll-up exhibition about the “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe”
On behalf of the Foreign Office, the European Culture and Information Center Thuringia developed a German-language roll-up exhibition about the “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe”. In order to utilize synergies and save costs, this roll-up set was reproduced based on the existing print data. The printing of new roll-ups should enable their use in outdoor and indoor areas and ensure the unrestricted availability of the exhibition for activities in Saxony-Anhalt. 28 roll-ups with the respective dimensions of 1.0 m (width) x 2.0 m (height) were produced.
- Design of an overview map for the “Council of Europe Cultural Routes” in Saxony-Anhalt
The idea developed in working meeting 1 for displaying the cultural routes in Saxony-Anhalt on a common overview map was implemented with the help of a graphics agency into a professional design that can be used for both digital and printed materials.
- Design and printing of a bilingual brochure about the “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe” in Saxony-Anhalt
The idea developed in working meeting 2 and the content subsequently prepared for a bilingual brochure were transferred to a professional design and printed in a circulation of 10,000 copies. The map display developed was integrated into the brochure. The brochures can then be found at all cultural route locations in Saxony-Anhalt in both printed and digital form in order to draw attention to the network across the country.
- Development of a common presentation template
The concept for joint presentation modules developed in the 2nd working group meeting was transferred to a PowerPoint presentation and made available to all cultural route actors in Saxony-Anhalt.
- Presentation of the roll-up exhibition at five locations in Saxony-Anhalt
To further publicize the “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe” in Saxony-Anhalt, the materials mentioned and produced above were presented to the public. The roll-up exhibition traveled to 5 locations in Saxony-Anhalt and thus attracted attention for the network. The exhibition was shown at one location for a period of four to six weeks. Due to the uncertain development of the coronavirus, events could not be planned specifically during this phase. The project therefore relied on a contactless presentation of the roll-ups without the presence of a promotion team. Depending on the current pandemic situation, locations were selected that could be visited by visitors while adhering to all distance and hygiene rules and were correspondingly well frequented under the given circumstances.