Title: Linguistic tools and communication strategies for the assessment of national tangible and intangible cultural heritage

Duration: January 2019- December 2020 (postponed)

Funder: University Agency of Francophonie in cooperation with the Scientific Research Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science.

Partners:

• Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"
• University of Turin
• University of Tirana,

 The goal is the development of language tools and communication strategies in the field of tourism and the development of research in this field, as one of the priority areas of the region. Their research and analysis aims to promote the national cultural heritage as well as tourism through the product of adequate tools in the field of communication in foreign languages.

 General objectives:

• Observations and analysis of how each country participating in the project builds the "required" image, for the tangible and intangible heritage tourism offer through the corpus study to look closely at the defects and shortcomings of these practices and to promote best practice .
• Contributing to the training of future communication professionals in the field of tourism.

 Specific objectives:

• Identification and comparison of tourism communication actors within each country to make a description of the situation;
• Identification and description of tourist communication tools and analysis of local and international promotion objectives of tangible and intangible heritage;
• Analysis of tourism communication strategies through a linguistic, discursive, iconic and sign study;
• Exchanges with partners of the best practices identified, observed and analyzed with the aim of issuing a joint publication as well as issuing recommendations for improving tourist communication.

 This research will also contribute to the quality of training of students, future communication professionals in the field of tourism, current branch of the Master's in the Faculty of Foreign Languages.

 

 Expected results include:

• Research from a linguistic perspective of current tourism communication as well as communication strategies for the promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the 3 partner countries, Bulgaria, Albania and Italy: such as monuments, architecture, works of man or combined works of man and nature, traditions and oral expressions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, traditional crafts, etc.
• Findings on the importance and performance of this communication in the context of national and European strategies and guidelines for the development of cultural and heritage tourism will be followed by the development of an inventory of recommendations and proposed language tools to strengthen and better target this communication in the evaluation of national cultural goods.

The project will have tangible results, which will significantly affect the activity of institutions that deal with cultural heritage and tourism, with the qualification of their staff, as well as provide valuable contributions to research and university studies in this field. . Another advantage is the sharing and exchange of best practices in the field of cultural heritage promotion. The innovative nature of the project lies in its interdisciplinary approach: linguistic and anthropological. This project is innovative because it aims to bring a new approach to tourism development, starting with effective communication strategies that can make the country a favorite destination and can also optimize the marketing of tourism products. The methodology for the development and implementation of this project relies on qualitative and quantitative analysis methods.