About the Project

AuthentiKK ‘Authentic Cultural Heritage Preservation and Smart Tourism Development in Korça and Kastoria’ is a two-year project awarded by Interreg IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme ‘Greece-Albania 2014-2020’. The implementing partners include Municipality of Korça as Lead Partner, in partnership with Creative Business Solutions (CBS) in Tirana, and Kastoria Municipality in Greece.

The main objective of this project is to preserve and celebrate authentic heritage offered by the two regions through smart and innovative tourism solutions meant to bring the two regions – Korçë and Kastoria – closer together. 

The aim is to promote and revitalize the unique cultural assets of each area by using new means and by creating new trends in order to attract more domestic and international tourists who will select the area for their stay. The project is developed with the aim to restore and preserve selected cultural and natural heritage sites and upgrading them with sustainable tourism and digital innovation at the core of the efforts and then by packaging the two regions into one Single Tourism offer. 

These two regions that have so much in common. Especially in terms of the authentic experiences that they offer, Korca and Kastoria are going to be working together to create an AuthentiKK Tourism Product (Single AuthentiKK Destination) that will encourage the visitors coming to each individual region to explore its “sister” region and get a taste of two regions that are unique in some ways but also similar in others; it would offer new business opportunities due to radical increase in overnight stays and a tourist inflow both of which could be instrumental in tackling unemployment problems and the continuous ‘brain drain’ that the two regions face.

What’s the project for?

Both Korce and Kastoria regions are incredibly rich in cultural and natural heritage. Yet, the areas fail when it comes to the strategic management and promotion of their tourism offer. The goal is to promote and revitalize the unique cultural assets of each area by using new means and by creating new trends in order to attract more domestic and international tourists who will select the CB area for their stay. A properly managed preservation and promotion of cultural and natural heritage sites will help improve the image of Albania and Greece abroad and influence the development of sustainable tourism, by attracting expats and foreigners to visit the two regions and have a chance to re-discover the rich and diverse authentic heritage that will become more accessible and attractive thanks to the intervention. 

Furthermore, the unsteady nature of the tourist industry in both regions, including the relatively small number of visitors and overnight stays at the hotel means that the sector often is unattractive to the young people and the regions overall suffer from high unemployment rates and ‘brain drain’. 

The main tangible solutions to be developed in the framework of AuthentiKK project are the following:

1) Small scale improvement and repair works 2) Joint cross-border cultural activities – a Music Festival and a Paragliding Competition Event; 3) Delivering a Comprehensive Management Tourism Plan and Sustainability Strategy Documents for the selected sites; 4) Innovative technological solutions. 
 For more info please click the Components section

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