DANTE project (“Digital Agenda for a New Approach Tourism in Rural Areas and the European Mountain”), funded by the European territorial cooperation program INTERREG IVC, aims to promote a better use of information and communication technologies to develop tourism in the rural and mountainous areas and to share innovative actions for the promotion of local and regional policies in remote areas.

The adoption of ICT applications in small and medium enterprises in rural and mountainous areas is still relatively low. The use of new information and communication technologies can help improve the attractiveness of rural and mountain tourism:
– providing tourists with quality information and the opportunity to interact and share their experiences in a proactive way
– helping organizations to better coordinate their offers and to design new products and tailored services.

During three years of the project, 13 partners distributed in 10 regions of 8 European countries, through a process of teaching / learning / sharing, have produced:
– 1 Good Practices Catalogue
– 8 Implementation Plans for the development of the information society and tourism
– 1 Web Platform Pilot (Light Pilot) which includes features and tools in the Catalogue.

Through the Light Pilot, DANTE streamlines and generalized Innovative best practices that have proved successful in local entities, highlighting the benefits brought about by technological innovation to increase the competitiveness of disadvantaged areas.

ICT tools adapted to the tourism sector in remote areas will in fact encourage growth and create conditions for their promotion and to enhance their attractiveness.

Prerequisite is that public administrations are able to strengthen the network infrastructure in mountainous and rural areas in order to encourage the creation of new business ventures and offer new services to tourists and population.

The Light Pilot of the DANTE project follows the guidelines shared between partners, based on the following principles:
– the use of open source software, in accordance with the principles declared by the European Commission. In this direction, the project partners have shared DANTE the implementation of a pilot project testable and reusable in local entities for the promotion of the territories;
– support policies for the protection of open data. Public administrations involved in DANTE spread in fact the use of open data, valuable to all economic operators, whether public or private, often very important to make the most of the territories underestimated;
– an “open” approach in creation of an integrated tourism. One of the most common problems of tourism promotion is the extreme fragmentation and lack of coordination of efforts. This produces the idea of weakness of the system. The pilot will involve all stakeholders to identify the most interesting aspects of an area. Tourists can also become creators of information shared through social networks. In fact, only the joint participation of tourism operators, tourists and the public system is able to shape the touristic offer and to promote a territory;
– full adoption of the paradigm of “bottom up” approach, based on listening to the users of the services and, more generally, the “network” to get a more accurate perception of what the public expects from a holiday in rural and mountain areas.