Development of rural and remote areas is a strategic priority for the EU, as can be seen from the the European Commission’s  long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas (2021). The vision recognises that many rural and remote areas suffer from problems such as an ageing population, out-migration, poor skills, and low incomes – but at the same time these areas are also rich in cultural heritage. In line with the Commission’s strategy for making tourism more sustainable (2022), cultural and creative tourism is seen as a possible means to address the challenges of rural and remote areas. This resulted in a topic within the Horizon Europe programme, Fostering socio-economic development and job creation in rural and remote areas through cultural tourism (HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-05) which also put particular emphasis on the importance cross-border collaboration and the possible role of the four EU macro-regions. CROCUS is funded on the basis of this call for project proposals.

CROCUS argues that if cultural and creative tourism are to play a bigger role in making rural and remote areas more resilient, three key challenges and associated knowledge gaps must be overcome:

  • place-specific business models that suit different types of cultural heritage and community needs must be created
  • tourism development must be balanced and sustainable
  • policies at different scales should support cooperation between rural and remote areas.

CROCUS addresses these knowledge gaps by:

  • generating knowledge about which CCT business models are most appropriate for different types of heritage and rural areas
  • creating eight cross-border living labs in which sustainable CCT business models will be prototyped (16 business models in total)
  • developing macro-regional and cross-border policy scenarios for each of the four EU macro-regions (Baltic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian, Alpine, and Danube)
  • synthesising knowledge and experience from the project to create tools and resources that RRA across Europe and beyond can use to develop sustainable and inclusive CCT in the future.

The project features a multi-scalar research design, innovative cross-border living labs, and participatory processes for sustainable business model prototyping. The consortium includes leading scholars and practitioners with extensive experience in cross-border tourism development, stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis. CROCUS represents the first systematic study of cross-border CCT cooperation in RRA.

Ten partners from eight countries are involved in the implementation of the project.

For more information about the CROCUS project, please visit: