Escape depopulation and foster cultural heritage through active tourism

The rural exodus has been triggered in Europe since the early decades of the second half of the 20th century. Many people, especially youngsters continue to migrate to the cities looking for better opportunities. The exodus to the urban centers together with the negative natural growth has led to an unstoppable dynamic of population decline in many areas which in addition generates substantial gaps between regions of the same country. As a result, Europe must face today the scenario of demographic deserts threatening the ‘old continent’. We requested this project with the idea of creating escape rooms to promote the cultural heritage, active tourism, and the local economy to avoid depopulation, by empowering young people to take initiative and to promote their own community and its history and local culture. It arose after detecting these needs in the partner countries: ● migration of younger members of society to the cities looking for job opportunities, better facilities, and higher wages than in the countryside ● population decline in many rural EU territories ● poverty in rural areas ● lack of education facilities in rural areas ● labor market issues (such as lower employment rates and seasonal work)

The main idea of the project was to create escape rooms to promote cultural heritage, impulse active tourism, and local economy to avoid depopulation, by empowering young people to take initiative and to promote their community and its history and local culture. We wanted to offer both free time activities alternatives to young people, but also the possibility to implement their ideas to promote their village and to ensure a future in terms of employability opportunities that may arise from the development of the sector of active touristic activities. Therefore, these were our objectives: •To empower youth to express their ideas, develop actions, and create added value in their city/town/village in such a way to promote tourism and enhance the cultural heritage •To create escape rooms as instruments to develop active tourism and to promote local history and heritage •To develop youth entrepreneurial skills&competencies to increase their employability opportunities •To provide skills&competencies to youth workers such as critical thinking, problem thinking, and time management to increase their employability opportunities

PROJECT RESULT 1: SET OF ESCAPE ROOMS TO FOSTER CULTURAL HERITAGE - "ESCAPE INSIDE YOUR VILLAGE" (P2) PR1/A1 Create the escape room plots according to the towns' history (Led by P4) PR1/A2 Design the challenges (Led by P2) PR1/A3 Create digital elements (Led by P3) PR1/A4 Ensamble the set of escape rooms (Led by P3) PR1/A5 Pilot test (Led by P2) PR1/A6 Collect and analyze the feedback surveys (Led by P4) PR1/A7 Improve it according to the feedbacks (Led P1) PROJECT RESULT 2: METHODOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL GUIDE OF CULTURAL ESCAPE ROOMS (P3) PR2/A1 Create a methodology and a structure on how to design a temporary escape room fostering the cultural heritage of your village (Led by P4) PR2/A2 Create a training plan for youth workers on how to implement the methodology and create their own escape room to promote the cultural heritage in their community (Led by P2) PR2/A3 Implement the training plan (Led by P3 ) PR2/A4 Collect and analyze the feedbacks on the methodology and structure (Led by P1) PR2/A5 Final version of the GUIDE modified according to the feedback of the youth workers (Led by P3)

THE MAIN PROJECT RESULTS (PR) were two and concretized into free leisure time activities (set of escape rooms) and educational resources (methodological and structural guide of cultural escape rooms) which supported youth organizations,public institutions, youth workers, educators, and young people in their work and improved the active tourism services and better exploit the cultural heritages of the local communities of the involved partners, but also to any village that wanted to replicate it.