SOS Culture was presented in the UN World Tourism Conference

22.10.2012 16:13

A conference on “Universal Values and Cultural Diversity in the 21st Century: How Can Tourism Make a Difference?” took place in Yerevan, Armenia on 18-19 of October, 2012. On October 18th the conference had a special focus on “Tourism and Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites”. In this frame, the EU funded SOS Culture Project was introduced to the international audience as an example of how to involve young people in remote border villages in the preservation of their local monuments.

The aim of the conference was to discuss and present ways to harness tourism for promoting intercultural dialogue, tolerance and understanding, and at the same time to preserve and take care of cultural values despite cultural differences. The SOS culture project was introduced by Barbara Siebert, GIZ CIM-Expert/ FPWC Program Director.

With an overall duration of 24 months, SOS Culture is funded by the European Union within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Culture Program and is implemented by FPWC in cooperation with the dvv international – Georgia Country office and Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation.

SOS Culture relies on the active involvement of youth (age 14-23) from different national and ethnic origins living in the target areas of Armenia and Georgia. Besides cultural education the project fosters the development of sustainable village based tourism. Enabling young people to take care and to raise public awareness for neglected, but nevertheless highly attractive and valuable monuments in the vicinity of their communities, is an important tool to attract also tourists. Moreover by creating an online database of the cultural assets as well as by setting up signboards for tourists, developing information leaflets and offering tours SOS Culture intends to trigger economic development of the remote border regions. All these touristic information will also be disseminated via the new website www.sosculture.eu. This website will be maintained beyond the project duration of 24 months thus becoming a sustainable tool to promote the cultural heritage in the Armenian/Georgian border regions and to raise interest for this heritage among visitors of the region.

The WTO conference was an excellent opportunity for SOS Culture to find additional partners and to network with other projects related to culture preservation and tourism development. In the long-term, strong networks are vital for the sustainability the SOS Culture approach beyond the 24 months project duration.