3 free workshop on digital storytelling for cultural and tourist operators

How has traveller behaviour changed in the digital age and what are the most effective strategies for communicating and promoting a cultural asset or tourist destination?
 

Within the framework of the DUE MARI - next generation tourism development Interreg project, Puglia Region Department of Tourism, Cultural Economy and Territorial Development organized three free workshops on Digital Storytelling, to make stakeholders acquire theoretical notions and practical tools useful to dialogue with one's target, transferring the value of stories, traditions, culture and social life of a tourist-cultural destination.

The workshops involved 90 participants among tour operators, tourism businesses, trade associations, and all stakeholders belonging to the tourist and cultural sector, coming from the whole Apulian territory.

The choice of the topic: the digital storytelling

Storytelling is the art of narrating or communicating a cultural asset, a product, a tourist destination, facilitated by digitisation processes and tools. Today more than ever, consumers are overstimulated by an excess of visual and promotional content in tourism, also due to social media.

It therefore becomes more and more difficult for cultural and tourist operators to take the attention of potential customers and promote their asset, service or product in an effective way. In tourism marketing, the imperative is to stand out from standard communications and excite people by involving them into an innovative experience.

The art of knowing how to effectively communicate a message, using storytelling, is a very powerful communication strategy in modern tourism and cultural heritage marketing. It allows people to understand, learn and appreciate the stories, traditions, culture and social life of a tourist destination.

Digital storytelling should therefore be experienced effectively because it can create an empathic connection, appealing to their deepest emotions. And emotions are one of the main purchase drivers in the tourism sector.

DueMari portal and platform are a powerful tool to enhance digital storytelling of cross-boarder destinations: that’s why Puglia Region has decide to provide operators with theoretical-practical applications in the cultural and tourism spheres of digital storytelling. Particular attention was also paid to the world of gaming and its implications and useful applications in the cultural and tourism experience for different audiences.

• 27-28 February at the Castle of Mesagne (Brindisi) with Elisa Bonacini on the topic: “Digital Storytelling for cultural heritage”
• 1-2 March at the Biblioteca Comunale di Trani (BAT) with Maurizio Goetz on the topic: “Digital Storytelling of tourism products”
• 3 March at the Fiera del Levante in Bari with Aldo Campanelli on the topic: “Digital Storytelling through gaming”.

Each workshop consisted of two days: the first of theoretical framework and second for the practical activities starting from DueMari virtual tours. On this second day, participants were able t devise new digital promotion strategies based on the beta content of the DueMari platform currently available fot Puglai Region.

Furthermore, on 3 March, Puglia Region organized a final event to present all the results of the 3 laboratories during the BTM – Business Tourism Management 2023, one of the main exhibition events in Italy related to tourism, held from 1 to 3 March at Fiera del Levante in Bari.