CROCUS aims to address socio-economic challenges faced by rural and remote areas through the promotion of cultural and creative tourism.
Rural and remote areas are rich in cultural heritage, yet many suffer from socio-economic issues such as an ageing population, out-migration, and low incomes. Cultural and creative tourism has the potential to alleviate these challenges by creating sustainable jobs and investment opportunities.
Challenges
Cultural and creative tourism activities need to be tailored to the specific challenges faced by local areas, business models must be place-specific and benefit local communities, and policies at different scales should facilitate cooperation within and between rural and remote areas.
This requires new knowledge about three things:
Place-Specific Business Models: Different types of cultural heritage and community needs require tailored business models.
Balanced and Sustainable Tourism Development: Tourism growth must be managed to ensure it is sustainable and benefits local communities.
Supportive Policies: Policies at different scales should facilitate cooperation between rural and remote areas.
Mission
CROCUS aims to tackle these challenges by:
Generating knowledge about suitable cultural and creative tourism business models for different types of heritage and rural areas.
Establishing eight cross-border living labs to prototype sustainable cultural and creative tourism business models.
Developing macro-regional and cross-border policy scenarios for four EU macro-regions.
Synthesizing knowledge and experience to create tools and resources for rural and remote areas across Europe.
Design and collaboration
The project features a multi-scalar research design, innovative cross-border living labs, and participatory processes for sustainable business model prototyping. The consortium includes leading scholars and practitioners with extensive experience in cross-border tourism development, stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis.
Crocus is the first systematic exploration of the potential of cross-border cooperation around cultural and tourism in European rural and remote areas.
CROCUS is coordinated by Aalborg University and involves partners from across Europe:
- Denmark (Aalborg University, Group NAO),
- Italy (University of Bergamo),
- The Netherlands (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education),
- Slovenia (University of Maribor),
- Finland (University of Oulu),
- Bulgaria (Zangandor Research Institute),
- Croatia (University of Rijeka),
- Estonia (Tallinn University),
- Hungary (University of Pannonia).
Together the CROCUS consortium cover the four EU macro-regions, from the Baltic in the north, via the Alps and the Danube, to the Ionic and Adriatic in the south.
