Reviving the Past: Digital Innovation in Cultural Heritage Projects

The project addresses Slovenian immovable cultural heritage, registered in the Register of Slovene Cultural Heritage, specifically the Registry of Immovable Cultural Heritage. With more than 30,000 entries, the register systematically identifies the protected and most important immovable cultural heritage in Slovenia. From a tourism development point of view, each of the entries presents an opportunity and a potential source of new digitally enriched interpretation and experiences.

Cultural heritage as a starting point of sustainable tourism development is characterised with deep roots in local culture and the life of local communities, is a reflection of local, regional, national and cross-border identity and symbolic DNA, as well as relatively evenly dispersed across the country, thus “resisting” the agglomeration effects in tourism.

Slovenia is not amongst the best-performing countries as it takes 16th place in Europe, below the average. Before the national Digital innovation of Cultural Heritage project, Slovenia was also among the worst-performing countries in the area of the digitalisation of cultural heritage. However, with the project’s implementation and 100+ digitised units of CH, Slovenia has become one of the top 5 countries in Europe and is expanding its work and experience abroad.

Each registered object of immovable cultural heritage conveys a value and learning that could be interpreted digitally. However, tourism management organisations are typically not engaged in the creation of new complex tourism products on cultural heritage and are even less incorporating new digital interpretation technologies. The sectors of tourism and cultural heritage have – despite having many touchpoints and common aims. Moreover, digital interpretation technologies – such as VR, AR, holographic projections, video mapping, mobile and web apps – have not been common at leading tourist destinations, especially due to a lack of knowledge, skills and dedicated funding.

This was to be changed in 2019 with the Ministries mission to become the leading European country in digitally enriched experiences of tourism and thus combine tourism development with cultural heritage protection and interpretation aims. The goal was to develop new tourism products that take inspiration in cultural heritage, engage new audiences and stakeholders through digital and hybrid interpretation and contribute to interpretation, awareness-raising and documentation of cultural heritage.

The purpose was to promote the development of the tourist offer, promote digital innovation of Slovenian cultural heritage and strengthen the competencies of employees in the field of tourism in leading destinations in Slovenia. The project enabled the development of the tourist offer, digital innovation of Slovenian cultural heritage and strengthen competencies of employees in the field of tourism in leading destinations in Slovenia.

The prime objectives were:

• Raising the quality of the tourist offer

• Creating immersive, local 5-star tourist products, experiences

• Slovenia to become the leading country in Europe, which will create unique tourist experiences through systematic digital innovation of cultural heritage

• Digital innovation of Slovenian cultural heritage

• Improving the competencies of employees in the field of heritage, hospitality and tourism

• Further enhancing tourist satisfaction

• Raising the competitiveness of Slovenian tourism both at the level of destinations and at the national level

The mission of the project was that Slovenia becomes the leading European country in digitally enriched experiences of tourism.This would be achieved by making a profound change with regard to 3D digitization and digitalization of CH in Slovenia – and to reach the general population as well as stakeholders that are not commonly engaged in digitalization of CH projects (creative and cultural industries, tourism providers and destination management, local NGOs, students...

The main result is 100 digitised units of cultural heritage and 30 5-star tourist products -  AR app at the Russian Chapel, re-created world of sunken villages, exploring local stories with the help of a web app, e-Castles digital room, interpretation of 7 castles, Winegrowing and winemaking interpretation, etc.
But behing these results are many more. For the first time, the cultural and tourism sector connected in pioneering the use of advanced technologies. Many stakeholders – the ministries, national heritage institutions (e.g. Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, National Gallery, UNESCO), local heritage institutions (museums, galleries), public institutions (local tourist boards, regional development agencies, tourist org., etc.), local heritage and tourist providers (tour guiders, craftsmen, seamstresses, cooks, restorers, carpenters, winemakers, historians, etc.), NGOs and associations (theatre groups, youth clubs, etc.) – were working together, seeking for synergies and developed a longlasting partnership. Many were developed also on an international level as many stakeholders have partners abroad and disseminated the project with them. A lot of people – experts from tourism, heritage and other sectors, governmental representatives, educators, pupils, students, municipality representatives, journalists, influencers, companies, local residents, etc. now have the knowledge and practical examples of what digitalisation is and what is its value. The local providers and institutions have created new tourist offers and started to make new revenue or are achieving higher added value by offering new, immersive, unique, local 5-star experiences.

Tourism development has finally begun to see the value of CH. They became more aware of their heritage, their feeling of belonging to the local community has raised. 

All the 30 tourist products have roots in the local community, history. They have drawn stories from their own DNA, local identity and are passing them to the other local residents and tourists. Following Tourism 4.0 vision - if the local residents are proud and aware of their own heritage and are taking care of it with great care, the tourists will follow that good example – a strong social value. All the included destinations did not want to import »successful« stories (e.g. thematic parks) from abroad but have taken their own, genuine reality, that they know and have grown up with and also have proofs of. The main focus was on the heritage values, how to present it in an interesting way. This raises the local awareness even more and brings the local community together.

The project significantly contributes to the preservation of historical and cultural heritage as the digitised units will make it timeless. Positive impacts are also on the environment with offering the digitised units online and using it for immersive digital tourist products. That way the negative environmental impacts, e.g. raising the CO2 concentration because of the large number of tourists, raise of the temperature damages the heritage.

The project provided priceless educational value with:

• Offering new competencies about advanced technologies, creation of 5-star experiences, etc. to various stakeholders on a local level, primarily from Heritage and Tourist sector and in addition also for other connected sectors; the high-quality digitised units and the innovative 5-star. experiences are a clear result that the experts really understand what digital innovation of CH is and how it can be used and valorised.

• Organised national conferences with the presentations of Digital Innovation of CH to experts and other public.

• Offering 5-star experiences to local residents (schools, families, etc.) and other tourists with the focus on local history, traditions,...

• Sharing the experience, knowledge and good practices on international conferences, workshops, lab-days; with partners on EU projects, based on the Digital Innovation of CH project.