This deliverable presents policy recommendations for strengthening cross-border and macro-regional cooperation in sustainable cultural tourism, drawing on the European policy framework, the outcomes of the Beyond Borders Workshop, the SECreTOUR pilots and selected external good practices. The findings show that cultural landscapes, heritage assets and heritage communities often transcend administrative boundaries, while governance arrangements remain fragmented. The project identifies key challenges related to recognising functional heritage geographies, sustaining cooperation beyond project lifecycles, empowering heritage communities, connecting local initiatives with a global audience and better integrating local initiatives with macro-regional and European cooperation frameworks. The recommendations address policymakers at European, macro-regional, national, regional and local levels. They call for stronger governance mechanisms, reduced legal and administrative barriers, long-term cooperation structures, support for heritage communities, and improved alignment between cultural tourism, territorial cohesion and sustainable development objectives. In line with the EU principles of subsidiarity and multi-level governance, the recommendations promote community-centred and place-based approaches, while strengthening cooperation across borders and governance levels to unlock the potential of sustainable cultural tourism as a driver of territorial cohesion, resilience and sustainable development in rural and peripheral areas.
Oláh et al. (Wed,) studied this question.