Interreg Creative@hubs: 2 workshops regarding the Cultural Tourism, in Aetoloakarnania Greece.

The Chamber of Aetoloakarnania organized 2 more training workshops: “AI-SYMIOS-The Intangible Cultural Heritage as a Factor of Sustainable Cultural Tourism” & “DIEXODOS – Tool for the Promotion and Development of Cultural Tourism of the Municipality of the Sacred Town of Messolonghi”, within Creative@Hubs project.

During the first seminar, held in the Sacred City of Mesolonghi on June 11th, was made a reference to the purpose of the workshop which is to promote this mystical event and the ways in which it can be a factor and lever of development local cultural tourism. More than 45 people attended the 2 key-note speakers. Dr. Eleni Karanikola-Tsouvela (teacher-researcher) made a historical review of the course of the festival over the years, emphasizing that the ritual festival of AI-SYMIOS is a complex folklore phenomenon with a social, historical, religious and symbolic character. Mr. Konstantinos Sokolas (sociologist-historian) praised the emergence of the festival as a factor of perpetuation of cultural heritage and referred to its contribution and its usefulness as a tourist product that will attract many interested visitors, through the creation of souvenirs, thus stimulating and promoting the cultural industry of the wider area of
Mesolonghi.

Between 11-14 June, 2022 an Interactive Exhibition was hosted at the Creative Hub of Mesolonghi, entitled: “Ai-Symios’ Festival”.

The second workshop, held also in the Sacred City of Mesolonghi on June 26th, attended by 44 people and focused on the Public Benefit Private Cultural Organization “Diexodos” and the work over the Culture and the development of entrepreneurship, promoting and building an extremely good practice and a unique model of cultural industry, worthy of study and Internationalization. The key-note speaker Nikos Kordosis (CEO of “Diexodos”) emphasized the added value given by the history of the building
itself, the marketing of the narration of the Historical Root (Cultural Telling Story) and its one way to connect with culture and the creation of a Hub of Cultural Industry. Among others, he emphasized the strategy of the holistic design approach based on the synergies of all of the valuable sectors of the cultural industry can give the desired development impetus to the Municipality of Messolonghi and the rest of Aetoloakarnania. The Chamber of Aetoloakarnania in collaboration with the Region of Western Greece will continue to support it in every way.

The organization of workshops by the Chamber of Aetoloakarnania is a concrete reply to the needs of the local creative and cultural industries, emerged after a survey conducted in 2020 by the Institute of Regional Development – Panteion University. The local creative industries can contribute to the local economic development however, they lack of significant skills as creativity, economic knowhow related to the innovative business models, so they need to be trained about these topics in order to become more competitive.