LIMES

Large Scale Innovative and Mobile European Services Culture Tourism in Rural Areas

Project objectives

The main objectives of the project are:

• to link tourist sites along the Limes in 10 European countries,
• to develop and implement innovative mobile services along the route which support information brokering, travel mobility and additional services for visitors as well as local people,
• to support new businesses along the route via these services,
• to create income and jobs for rural areas,
• to make the European identity and the common European history visible and accessible for visitors from all over the world. 

Activities

Roman limes is the only European cultural heritage which binds together 10 European countries: From the North-West in the UK to the South East in Bulgaria it is a unique monument for many regions and, in part, already a designated UNESCO world heritage. European history becomes alive following the limes. Through the LIMES project, this former fortification of the Roman Empire will get an excellent opportunity to become a beacon of future cultural tourism. In fact, only a small part of the limes is accessible at the moment: the limes runs through rural regions which are not fully developed for tourism. While the European limes countries, which are the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, have numerous museums, historic routes, archaeological sites and hidden places of interest along the Limes, these single places are not yet linked. Linking them though common mobile services offers an outstanding chance to raise the profile of, and bring more visitors to this unique heritage and, at the same time, to support the economic development of the rural areas it runs through by supporting new business and job creation.

LIMES will undertake:

• Mapping of services: the current situation of tourist infrastructure and the offers of cultural heritage institutions along the Roman limes in 10 European countries shall be analysed for their economic potential and in order to create a list of mobile services to be provided.
• Development of mobile service applications: existing mobile applications will be examined and further developed to create mobile services for accessing, experiencing and imagining the Roman limes, providing information on tourist facilities and events in the ten European regions and featuring infotainment with text, video, virtual reconstructions and augmented reality and other useful services.
• Promotion and signposting activities: the partners will develop, test and apply a common marketing strategy for the new mobile services in tourist structures and cultural heritage institutions in three areas in Germany, Bulgaria and Austria and promote the business potential of these mobile services.
• Devising  guidelines and inter-European connected services: the mobile services will not only be adapted to the limes regions in Germany, Austria and Bulgaria, but the activities will also cover the other seven countries along the Roman limes thereby creating a “virtual path” for all European limes regions connected through similar mobile services.

Actors involved (as representatives of stakeholders on a regional and national level)

In addition to the LIMES project partners, the advisory board for the project will include representatives of cultural institutions in the seven other countries that are part of the Roman limes (UK, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary and Serbia).
In Germany, the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economy, departments of creative industries and tourism support the project together with the Romantischer Rhein Tourismus GmbH – Romantic Rhine Tourism Agency, and in Austria the RÖMERLAND Carnuntum regional development organisation. In the Bulgarian municipality of Ruse, the Regional Museum of History, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Support Centre for SMEs are closely associated with the project which is also supported by Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.

Expected outcomes and impacts

The project will contribute to the valorisation of sustainable tourism in all European countries along the Roman limes and support the mobility in rural areas through the development of innovative mobile services. The project will focus on developing mobile services and creating new, innovative value chains.  Three countries (Germany, Austria and Bulgaria) will take the lead and include the other seven limes countries through their existing partnerships. Transfer activities will play an important role in order to make mobile services for the tourism sector available in all countries.

It is expected to address  70.000 people interested in cultural tourism in the three partner countries as well as 20.000 local actors (as users of the mobile services and as ambassadors of their regions). Other beneficiaries will be companies, specifically innovative start-ups, and regional developers. At least 15 new companies will be supported in the framework of the project and around 10 regional agencies will directly benefit from the project outcomes. Additionally, the project targets 650.000 € to be invested by the tourism sector in the regions  along the limes.

LIMES partners

	Website	Name of organisation	Region / Country
	www.per-rlp.de	Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz (PER)	German State Rheinland-Pfalz
Short description of key activities	PER is designed as a service company for the development of public real estate and city development as well as regional development.
	www.mar-vis.de	MarVis Gesellschaft für Raummarketing G.b.R	Germany
Short description of key activities	MarVis is a start-up entrepreneurship project at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. It is a company “in founding”. They are specialized on spatial and tourism marketing with new media, developing and implementing innovative mobile solutions for tourist information
	www.ini-novation.com	INI-Novation Bulgaria	Bulgaria
Short description of key activities	INI-Novation Bulgaria OOD specializes on the design, development and implementation of interactive turn-key solutions for cultural heritage exploitation, regional development and mobile services. Their key activities also include the development of business models.
	www.ruse-bg.eu	Municipality of Ruse, Bulgaria	Bulgaria
Short description of key activities	Implementation of initiatives and projects in tourism and local business development. The municipality of Ruse runs its own touristic information centre, a tourism council and public councils for sustainable development, integrated urban development and investment.
	www.ceit.at	Central European Institute of Technology – CEIT, Austria	Austria
Short description of key activities	CEIT ALANOVA is an applied research institute. The expertise covers limes exploitation, tourism, regional development and mobile and mobility services.