2018: Cultural Tourism Year
The General Secretary of Empresa i Coneixement (Company and Knowledge), Pau Villòria, and the Direector General of Turisme (Tourism), Octavi Bono, presented Cultural Tourism Year on the 20th of March before over 650 professionals from the world of tourism and culture. The act took place in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia -MNAC, and was also attended by the General Secretary of Culture, Maria Dolors Portús, and the Director of the Catalan Tourist Agency, Xavier Espasa.
2018 was declared European Year of Cultural Heritage by the European Union. This March, the Catalan Tourism Agency (ACT) decided to proclaim 2018 as Cultural Tourism Year in order to claim the role of culture as a key differentiating and singularising factor in Catalan tourist destinations.
It is, therefore, a bidirectional challenge in which culture boosts the singularity of cultural tourist attractions, and tourism takes on the challenge of appreciating culture and contributing to its social and economic sustainability. In this way, the aim is to claim all cultural heritage, which includes that which is internationally known and the more local and unknown aspects.
Throughout 2018 more than 150 action will be carried out, aimed at both the public and professionals, organised by different companies and entities from the world of tourism and culture.
The Catalan Tourism Agency provides a budget of 2,800,000 euros to promote this theme year in different markets. So, apart from the Catalan market itself, the Catalan Tourism Agency has selected a series of markets to focus its activities on, either because in these markets tourists have a big interest in cultural tourism, or because even though they are important issuing markets, culture is not among the main reasons for the trip and the aim is for it to become so. So the closer markets where the Cultural Tourism Year promotion will be undertaken are France, Germany, Russia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Spain, Belgium and the Nordic countries, while the remote markets selected are the United States and Canada, Australia, China, Japan and Chile.
For more information about Cultural Tourism Year you can consult the web:
