PROJECT ENHANCEMENTS – FACTS & FIGURES

CALL FOR EXPERTS

A call for experts has been launched as part of the ALECTOR project. Experts of any kind operating in the cultural heritage domain are invited to join the Black Sea Heritage Observatory – the project legacy upon completion. The project partners jointly published the call inviting experts from the partner territories having 3 years of proven experience in heritage management, communication, interpretation, culture and the arts or other. It is foreseen a Black Sea pool of more than 180 experts to be attracted as available resources to the Black Sea Heritage Observatory who can actively contribute and cooperate within thematic spheres of culture heritage interpretation and promotion. The call is published in the official project site, partners’ websites as well as many other partnering communication tools. More information can be found at: www.alector.org.

e-Survey

The project partners started surveying the local state of the art on heritage consumption in the partner territories. The aim is to identify the local situation for culture heritage assets promotion, dissemination and to assess the attitude of the local communities for generating additional products and services in the domain concerned so as to cope supply and demand side. The e-survey shall result in creation of culture heritage place image of each pilot area and attraction of economic activities with regards to tourism development and promotion, new businesses establishment, etc. It will target local communities, residents and people on random basis thus identifying the demand side of culture heritage tourism assets. The quali-survey aims to collect local attitude and apprehension of the local stakeholders for the demand side concerning availability of products and services. It is expected around 30 locals to be accessed by the e- and quali-survey in each of the ninth partner territories which will results in 24 guidelines for the accessibility of heritage resources and 48 recommendations for the creation of accessible heritage tourism products and services.

BLACK SEA HERITAGE OBSERVATORY
The legacy by the project completion will be managed by the Black Sea Heritage Observatory which will be established according to the Bulgarian law as NGO in Varna, Bulgaria. This legacy is of substantial value for enhancing local competitiveness in the project area by creation of collaborative networks and strategic partnerships at local and regional level. The Black Sea Heritage Observatory will attract as members at least 180 multilevel actors bound to it by non-statutory co-operation agreements. These actors from the 3 spheres of the society will have access to project results and to praxis validated planning and management tools. They will facilitate post project operations and ensure viability of project results inspiring similar future actions and follow-up projects in the cooperation area. The Black Sea Heritage Observatory is to be launched during the International Scientific Conference in Istanbul, Turkey scheduled for the last months of the project.

COOPERATION AGREEMENTS
Cooperation Agreements will be the main medium among project partners and interested bodies. Such agreements are signed during the seminars and round tables organized in the partner territories, having non-statutory character thus forming the tangible aspect of the dedicated involvement of different social and economic partners to the project goals. 180 signed agreements have to be collected by the partners within the project timespan and thus will present the project database of multilevel actors to be involved in future partnerships.

LOCAL EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THE PROJECT PARTNERS
During the period March-May 2015 several trainings and round tables were organized by the project partners for better promotion of the pilot projects thusactivating their significance at the local and regional level. So far, more than 150 people participated in the local seminars and 180 stakeholders took part in the round tables organized in the partner territories. People mainly coming from local and regional authorities, state authorities, sector entrepreneurship companies, tour guides and operators, universities, hotel and restaurant managers gathered and discussed the local and regional incentives on better culture heritage and promotion. Many of them received qualitative training for better apprehension and feasibility of assets provided by the local state of the art.

E-COURSE
The HERISCOUT e-course is a five module distance and onsite course in heritage tourism as part of the ALECTOR. It is dedicated to explore the potential of heritage places providing to local developments and offer quality experiences to visitors. HERISCOUT is designed to support self-directed-learning and produce individuals with capacities in the field of heritage tourism. The teaching modules are spread over the project duration starting from November 2014 and the last month is dedicated to the completions of the dissertation connected to the ENPI and IPA heritage plans /local pilot projects/. Upon completion the e-course participants shall be issued Certificates of attendance as well as European Qualification Framework Certificate for the novel professional profile of the heritage counselor. To date 49 participants are currently attending the e-course and will optionally get a certificate upon completion will be based on a specific dissertation reflecting the description of the pilot project of the area concerned.

VOLUNTEERING
Volunteering is a charitable, socially oriented, non-profit activity providing aid to people for various needs. Volunteers’ engagement in tourism in countries with uncertain economic, social and political situation is specifically important as they might provide significant contribution for the local and regional development.

Within ALECTOR project a Strategy on activating the voluntary sector is in progress targeting towards organizations which intend to apply volunteering work. The overall goal of the Strategy is to promote voluntary movement to develop heritage tourism at 7 partner countries, develop a comprehensive program for the volunteers engagement at heritage tourism projects/NGOs. It is a guide for the stakeholders on how volunteering could bring substantial results to implemented projects. In line with the project, a valuable experience and understanding on the nature of origin, traditions and culture and exchange of national identities can be ensured.

Alector Volunteer e-Forum has been created to gather people who want to share experience, ideas and initiatives, to propose solutions and examples and to develop joint projects. Those interested to join can register free of charge at: http://alectorproject.forum2x2.net/ and provide own contribution to the relevant topics.

A project blog has been created for the partner teams with the aim to enrich visibility of outcomes. It is foreseen 48 bloggers to be activated in the project area.