The Toural project was disseminated at the regional conference “THALASSA 2024” organized by the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), which took place on May 28th and 29th in Larnaca, Cyprus. The purpose of the conference is to serve as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences, bringing together experts and stakeholders from academia, research institutes, industry, NGOs, and the public sector.
Mr. Angelos Manglis from Atlantis Consulting presented the Toural project project in the Session 5 ‘’Marine Cultural Heritage’’ about the “Integrated approaches fostering capacity building, protection, preservation, and sustainable valorization of Underwater Cultural and Natural Heritage.” He emphasized the need to present a model to support sustainable tourism development in rural areas, with tourism as a driving force for the economic development of rural and remote areas, enhancing rural strengths. Additionally, he focused on the purpose of Tural, which is a participatory model targeting sustainable tourism development (business models, tourism products) and the creation of smart, multi-destination and multi-dimensional tourism offerings, specifically involving 3 regions from the Adriatic-Ionian Sea (Greece, Italy, Croatia) and 3 regions from the Black Sea (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine).
The goal is to raise awareness of the cultural and socioeconomic value of UCH and address the challenges of the marine environment through capacity building at the regional level, support of scientific research, use of blue culture technologies, and active involvement of actors and citizens. These interdisciplinary approaches are based on a variety of corroborating models and technological approaches, adaptable and replicable to the needs of areas and characteristics of the UCH sites.