It is well known that cultural heritage is a delicate issue in the process of European convergence, since the problems to be tackled do not concern only the identification of common tools, but also the harmonization of different traditions and ways of life, which are different in all the countries. This is one of the main difficulties encountered in the process of strengthening the links among regional policies into an unique European mainstream supporting the cohesion policy for cities and regions.

The cultural richness of the Central Europe area is so high that cultural tourism is one of the main pillars in the economic development of many cities and towns. However this richness produces often a non-positive effect, since most known cities are overcrowded, while other important cultural centres non too far from them are poorly visited by the main tourism flows.
This fact has a negative effect in the cohesion policy, since the current trends prevent the creation of several new jobs in the neglected cultural sites, while increase pollution in large cities.

CUSTODES intends to work in this direction, focusing on less known cultural sites (archaeological areas, historical castles, natural pathways, small spas...), enhancing their potential as sustainable tourism destinations and promoting the socio-economic development of these areas.
It focuses on the development of tourist products specifically created for small cultural sites, even if strictly related with tourism areas not too far from them. The innovative aspects with respect the strategies currently adopted – usually based on the promotion of tourism simply focusing on the attractiveness of the cultural areas - are in the approach that the project intends to use, where the promotion is integrated with the creation of new sustainable tourism infrastructures at local level, well integrated with and benefitting from the proximity of a well known tourism destination not too far from the cultural site (e.g. 50 km).

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