Acronym

VirTour

NUMBER

PBU2/0924/18

Project type

Micro-project

STATUS

Completed

THEMATIC OBJECTIVE

HERITAGE

PRIORITY

1.1 Promotion of local culture and history

PARTNERSHIP

PL-UA

LEAD BENEFICIARY

Non-government organisation "Volyn Regional Initiatives Centre" (Volyn Oblast, Ukraine)

BENEFICIARY

The Association of Local Governments of Euroregion Bug (Lubelskie Voivodeship, Poland)

Project description

The cross-border areas in the borderland of Poland and Ukraine share a common history shaped by families that wielded significant influence over political and cultural life for centuries. One such example is the Sanguszko family, which played pivotal roles in the Rzeczpospolita and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with close ties to the Lubelskie and Volyn regions. Surprisingly, this shared history and heritage remain relatively unknown, both to tourists and locals.

The VirTour project team believes that exploring and promoting such pages of history can refresh cross-border cooperation resulting in an increased flow of tourists. The project placed a strong emphasis on new technologies recognizing them as highly effective tools for reaching the target audience and popularizing shared historical heritage. The main result of the project is a virtual tourist route named "Prince Sanguszko’s Family By-Ways." This route allows users to explore locations associated with this remarkable family through a dedicated website and mobile application. The tour comprises images of landmarks with detailed descriptions, integrated into a GIS/Google map, and supplemented with additional information about tourist infrastructure and facilities. The route is built on the findings of research about the Sanguszko family's life and the places connected to their history. In addition to the virtual tour, the project included workshops, a conference, and a promotional tour tailored for historians, museum professionals, tourism stakeholders, and media representatives. An extensive promotional campaign was also conducted to capture the attention of stakeholders and potential tourists.

This project presented an opportunity to develop a new tourist product aimed at both Polish and Ukrainian visitors, utilizing local resources and incorporating the latest IT trends. The overarching goal is to boost tourism and economic development in the borderland shared by these two neighbouring countries.