Every June the European Association of the Via Francigena Ways participates in the annual Council of Europe Training Academy for the Cultural Routes to share its best practices and know-how with cultural routes managers and learn new tendencies in cultural management and sustainable tourism.
This year’s edition of the Training Academy takes place in Visby, Sweden on June 4 – 7 2019 and is organised in close collaboration with the Hansa Cultural Route.
The Training Academy aims to provide training on specific current issues in the field of cultural heritage management and tourism promotion to Cultural Routes operators. The Training Academy offers hands-on approaches to the selected topic through the participation of academic or professional experts with whom the Cultural Routes operators can have some exchanges of views.
This Training Academy 2019 focuses on the topics of financing and the youth participation, underlining the importance of sustainable management and functioning of the route and engagement of the young people – the future of our planet.
The European Association of the Via Francigena Ways will share its best practices and exchange opinions about the future strategies of the cultural routes. The Via Francigena will make a presentation about its latest collaboration with the Toulouse School of Tourism, Hospitality Management and Food Studies of the University of Toulouse ISTHIA – Jean Jaures.
The project, which lasted during the academic year 2018 – 2019 was focused on the research on the impact of the Via Francigena in France and beyond.
The students produced an intermediate analysis (presented in December 2018), qualitative and quantitative research, with project proposals, methodology for studies applied to slow tourism, data collection and a final dossier for the development of the Via Francigena in France. Two aspects were at the centre of their analysis: social-cultural and economic impact of the route in France (900km) and access and use of cultural heritage along the Via.
The study confirmed that a part of the French route is still unknown and unused by French and international pilgrims, thus emerged the necessity to broaden the network of territorial entities involved in the development of the route. On the other hand, an extraordinary potential has been revealed for the Via Francigena for the development of the Via Francigena, especially considering that 90% of the French section is in rural areas.
The EAVF and the University of Toulouse will continue collaboration in the future to work together on development of sustainable tourism and engage the youth.
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