rurAllure has been included as integral part of the e-learning course “Designing a cultural route”, conducted by the Italian training agency Demetra in collaboration with the European Association of the Via Francigena Ways – EAVF. 

The classes, held on 31 January – 20 April 2023 include several modules such as  communication strategies of a cultural route. On 13 March Simona Spinola, Communication Expert for rurAllure and EAVF, held the course focused on how to best promote a cultural route online and onsite.  

After an overview of the challenges of the slow tourism sector in the post-covid era, the class learnt about the evolution of the “social tourist”, main characteristics of Inbound Marketing and an overview of digital and traditional channels.  

rurAllure was featured as best practice in communication for its successful editorial collaborations with bloggers and content creators, disseminating the project results, its mapping and main points of interest, such as the work of the Italian pilgrim and digital nomad Davide Fiz travelling along the Romea Strata.   

The phenomenon of cross-media was explained on an example of an interactive game presented at the tourism fair Fa la cosa giusta in Milan in 2022, in which rurAllure offered a quiz on thermal heritage accessible via a QR code to all the participants. On the same occasion, thematic postcards were produced.  

The rurAllure photo contest was another example of a user-generated content, as it allowed the team to receive over 3,000 photos from the pilgrims all over Europe, sharing their walking experiences along the European routes.  

The class finished with an interactive exercise to relaunch and promote thermal heritage, starting with an example of free walks organised by the project last spring, which brought dozens of walkers along the Via Francigena in Tuscany and Lazio Regions along thermal itineraries. 

The course was attended by stakeholders and operators from the tourism sector interested in acquiring technical and operational skills in planning, organization and communication of products and services related to tourism.