Approdi Project

The University of Teramo is the Coordinator Partner of the APPRODI Project as beneficiary of contribution from The Interreg V-B Adriatic-Ionian programme, ADRION, Adrion 2014-2020, Priority Axis 2: Sustainable region.

The APPRODI (From Ancient Maritime Routes to eco-touristic destinations) Project

Involved territories are characterized for having hosted in the past ancient harbors who have been always considered marginal to cities’ development, thus scarcely attractive for visitors. The common territorial challenge faced by the project is then that ancient harbor sites have a high but unused potential for economic growth as ecotourism destinations, especially off-season and are also characterized by an insufficient involvement of community actors in cultural heritage valorization.

APPRODI main objective is to promote and valorize cultural heritages in ADRION area by enhancing management and promotion of ancient harbors sites as touristic destinations and by improving the involvement of local communities. 5 pilot sites will be valorised as new potential destinations by applying innovative techniques, such as geo-archeological investigations (Ortona, Durazzo, Dubrovnik) whose findings will be exposed in Museums exhibitions or zero impact and zero infrastructures solutions for an innovative coastal and lagoon archaeological park (Torcello, Venice).

Awareness raising actions and thematic events will be implemented inviting commercial operators and key stakeholders to promote new destinations and to include them in existing touristic circuits. In addition to the 5 small scale investments pilot tests, project main outputs will include: a joint strategic plan for the promotion of valorised touristic destinations, training to professionals of the touristic sector and unemployed young people as an encouragement of business and trade development based on cultural heritage, the network of “ANCIENT ADRION PORTS City” to strengthen the relations amongst the involved cities through a consolidated community that will be enlarged to other existing ancient harbors located in the ADRION area.

APPRODI aims then at a qualitative change in the nature of tourism demand with a transnational approach and at increasing visibility of the valorised new destinations.

The Project Coordinator is Professor Nico Bortoletto, Faculty of Communication Science.

APPRODI PLUS is an improvement and extension of APPRODI and its overall aim is to enhance and enlarge the impact of the closed APPRODI. APPRODI PLUS approach is based on a multimodal integration of innovative approaches:

• Virtualisation: the new planning models for post-covid forms of tourism cannot disregard the creation of scenario maps linked to the overall conditions of logistical access to places, even in terms of health care and formal requirements.
• Artificial Intelligence: Tourism planning approaches linked to the widespread application of artificial intelligence models (e.g., YUI website) could be a further asset for new forms of local development linked to (slow) tourism.
• Inter-Sectorization: new forms of tourism planning cannot be detached from a more accurate integration with traditional and innovative sectors: Utilities, Services, Agriculture, Food, Recreation, Accommodation.

Three aspects, already developed within the APPRODI project, will be further developed and valorized within the current project: 

• The network of the harbours signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding of the harbours which willingly adopt and implement its provision. The MoU and its network had already been developed during the APPRODI project. In APPRODI PLUS the contents of the MoU will be further enriched with the inputs deriving by a survey on the pandemic on the tourism activities of the harbours and solutions adopted to face and mitigate the negative effects. It is expected to enlarge the APPRODI network and 15 harbours will sign the MoU, thus enlarging the number of the harbours included in the project network.
• The Interactive Map of Adriatic Historical Harbours. The map will provide focal points and hypertexts that makes the instrument attractive for the user and easy to use. Meetings and workshops will be implemented with the historical harbours to stress the tourism potentialities that can be improved; the impact of the Covid19 on the tourism and the solutions identified; historical, geographic and cultural aspects. The Interactive Map will be free accessible at a server of the LP. 
• The third aspect is the improvement of the perception of the historical harbours as a cultural economic asset of the territory. In each country, public events will be implemented, addressing the tourism chain audience, such as SMEs, Local Authorities, universities and research centres, interested experts and people. In parallel, on-line training will be implemented, addressing those operators of the historical harbours administrations engaged with the economic and tourism development. The contents of the training will include the role of the European Territorial Cooperation, cultural/historical, economic and financial elements During the implementation of the project partners will establish a collaboration with its National Contact Point.