Macro-regional and cross-border Workshop

This document refers to Deliverable D4.3 Beyond Borders Workshop Report, developed within Work Package 4 of the SECreTOUR project. The deliverable documents and analyses the outcomes of the Beyond Borders Workshop, hosted by partner USI -. Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano in October 2025. The workshop was conceived as a space of convergence between pilot experimentation, cross-border and macro-regional cooperation, and European policy frameworks related to sustainable and creative cultural tourism in rural and remote areas. Building upon the analytical work carried out in Deliverable D4.2, the workshop translated the review of cross-border and macro-regional initiatives into structured dialogue among project partners, sister projects funded under Horizon Europe Cluster 2, institutional actors, and UNESCO-related stakeholders. The discussions addressed cultural sustainability, heritage community governance, cross-border administrative challenges, macro-regional coordination mechanisms, and the long-term sustainability of SECreTour’s collaborative network. The report reflects on the thematic contributions presented during the workshop, including: • the conceptual shift from consumption to heritage inheritance to cultural tourism; • the operational complementarity between the Faro Convention and UNESCO governance frameworks; • the structural challenges and opportunities of cross-border cooperation in EU and non-EUcontexts; • the emergence of the Network of Common Interest (NoCI) as a mechanism to ensure postproject continuity; • and the articulation of “Beyond Borders” as both a methodological standpoint and a policynarrative. The deliverable situates these discussions within the broader goals of WP4 and outlines their implications for WP5 recommendations and the forthcoming joint policy statement with sister projects.