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Limiting the spread of coronavirus through culture at cultural and heritage sites and events
Published on 04 February 2022
Greece
Kentriki Makedonia
Project Manager
About this good practice
Due to lockdown measures people all over world faced problems staying home (esp.Greeks who are friendly people with open affection) while culture and tourism were under the great pause.To this respect, the Cultural Institution of the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM) sharing the needs for limiting coronavirus spread, for protecting people and supporting adults/children to deal with their leisure time, amusement and psychology but also the needs for facilitating sustainable cultural tourism, introduced ICT tools and strong local community involvement that promoted cultural expressions, and regional cultural and heritage sites/attractions to all while contributing to the potentiality of creative tourism (residents’/e-visitors’ active participation/feeling of involvement into RCM’s destination’s life and intangible heritage, motivation to visit).Well programmed campaigns (In the pandemic of coronavirus no one alone, We stay home and have fun, We support culture we support its people) included concerts, music events, theatrical performances, literature tributes, kids’ performances/narratives, psychological empowerment speeches, all provided through live streaming services (many on cultural/heritage sights).Persons who wished to join (citizens, people worldwide, artists, tourists) could make a like at the Cultural Institution’s Facebook page, tune in and watch live interactive performances.Live broadcasting, extra video recording, video clips and physical events were launched too.
Resources needed
On own funds of Institution, most events were free live streaming, artists’ non-profit basis, free for public, involved local community/culture/touristic stakeholders, promoted cultural/heritage sites, optimized RCM’s existing intangible heritage, diversified entertainment without investments.
Evidence of success
Campaigns have met with great success.Measurable outputs refer to thousands of likes on Cultural Institution’s Facebook page, to number of participants in live streaming and physical events.[Note:from 2/10/2020 to 10/1/2021 the RCM’s Cultural Institution planned 26 cultural events that made 310.000 views on its fb page and attracted an additional 9.000 viewers through eStage.gr].The total number of events, likes, participants exceeded expectations while RCM’s tourism wasn’t seriously endangered.
Potential for learning or transfer
When a disease spreads through large parts of population we can cope with that in both biological and cultural reactions;The last vary depending on how each community is structured (families, habits, way of life, own cosmologies, leisure time activities, economy);Cultural behaviors influence the spread of infectious diseases in human populations.Key success factors of RCM’s (NUTS 2) good practice, which reflect both the degree of limitation of COVID-19 spread and the facilitation of sustainable cultural tourism in the region, include: Innovative ways to include culture as a weapon against pandemic, i.e. exploit ICT (free live streaming, interaction, live broadcasting, e-entertainment, video recording) and involve local community (authorities, artists, residents, NGOs) so as to promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage (local cultural expressions, regional cultural and heritage sights/attractions) to all, to create benefits, to contribute to creative and all year round tourism.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
Organisation
Cultural Institution of the Region of Central Macedonia
Greece
Kentriki Makedonia
Contact
Project Manager