Purpose:
Diversitours – real and virtual tours
Project in execution in Bilbao since 2021 Diversitours is a project to promote intercultural coexistence through urban tours that reflect the positive impact of cultural diversity in cities. Guided walks with an intercultural perspective were developed in the neighbourhoods of San Francisco, Bilbao La Vieja and Zabala.
The project offers the opportunity to walk through neighbourhoods with a significant past and present history of migration and intercultural coexistence.
The aim is to perceive and experience the city's diversity through a visit to one of its neighbourhoods, San Francisco, Bilbao La Vieja and Zabala, which have a significant present and history of migration and intercultural coexistence. It employs and encourages new narratives and attitudes about migration and cultural diversity in the city and allows us to discover how the different migratory processes, both national and foreign, have transformed the commercial fabric, the fabric of associations, the uses of public space and the places of worship present in the neighbourhood.
- CREATE MORE INCLUSIVE NEIGHBOURHOODS BY ENHANCING THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY, RESPECT FOR AND RECOGNITION OF DIVERSITY AND POSITIVE INTERACTION between people from diverse backgrounds and participation as basic principles of the Intercultural Model of diversity management.
- CONNECT VISITORS with the history of the neighbourhoods and their vibrant communities, meeting places, businesses, places of worship and other social, economic and cultural manifestations.
- TRAIN people committed to a tolerant, critical, inclusive and intercultural citizenship, encouraging social responsibility.
- CONTRIBUTE TO THE FIGHT AGAINST NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES, hate speech and the global rise of extremism as well as to improve the image of involved neighbourhoods that have a strong social stigma.
- EMPOWER LOCAL NGOs, COLLECTIVES, MIGRANT COMMUNITIES and neighbourhoods’ residents from diverse backgrounds and cultures who become content creators, project designers, storytellers and actors in the visits.
- Build a NEW NARRATIVE of these neighbourhoods that makes them more inclusive, emphasizing the contribution of diversity to the social, economic and cultural development of the city.
- ATTRACT NEW VISITORS TO THESE NEIGHBOURHOODS by offering a community, responsible and intercultural tourism alternative.
- Boost Bilbao as a PIONEER CITY for the development of intercultural awareness contents using NEW TECHNOLOGIES (VIRTUAL REALITY) with a focus on citizen participation and training.
- Digitally train and promote the use of LEARNING AND COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES to facilitate processes of dialogue, co-creation and dissemination of inclusive digital narratives, considered tools for reflection and awareness-raising on the reception of migrants and refugees.
- Develop a project TRANSFERABLE to other territories and cities and SUSTAINABLE over time.
Rationale:
Sustainable and inclusive tourism could be a powerful way to safeguard citizens well-being during touristic routes, promote unknown areas and neighbourhoods, provide opportunities for employment of migrants, and promote intercultural interaction. These are some of the goals pursued by the cities of Bilbao and Valencia through “Diversitours”, a project awarded with an ICC intercity grant in 2021.
Inspired by the model of the European network MIGRANTOUR, Diversitours has been developed as a specific intercultural business model, consisting in educational and community-led guided walk that contribute to the generation of new narratives for the targeted neighbourhood, empowering the local community through co-creation and implementation, while dismantling negative perception and stereotypes about the territory and its residents.
DIVERSITOURS is an intercultural community project of guided tours in two formats; on-site and immersive Virtual Reality, to show the richness and contribution of cultural diversity to the development of three neighbourhoods of Bilbao: Bilbao la Vieja, San Francisco and Zabala. It offers the opportunity to walk through a territory with high cultural diversity, with a significant past and present history of migration and intercultural coexistence. The project has a strong element of citizen participation since the design of contents and execution of both on-site and virtual routes is carried out with neighbours of the involved areas, of diverse origins that bring the participants closer to places and experiences full of life and activity, excluded from the classic tourist tours of the city. Initially, it was promoted by Bilbao City Council and is currently led by two social entities, KOOP SF34 and the cultural innovation association MOVILTIK. In addition, the project involves the collective of young creators and content developers, Kamanga Influencers Club.
The project has been shortlisted as best practice for the Eurocities Awards, taking place this year during the Brussels Urban Summit.
Process:
- Selection of the territories
- Selection of the coordinating team and the group of intercultural guides
- Construction of a narrative for the neighbourhood
- Training of intercultural guides
- Design of the intercultural routes and maps of the visit.
- Implementation of the face-to-face routes.
- Design and production of content in Virtual Reality (VR) format
- Implementation of the routes in VR format
Impact:
The effectiveness of the project can be observed from multiple perspectives: visit data, evaluation, communication and transferability:
The profile and scope of the people participating in the on-site visits has been diverse, including political representatives, municipal and provincial technical staff; technical team at national and European level (RECI- Intercultural Cities Network, European Youth Parliament Delegation, European Heritage Days); reaching also the international field through international delegations (a delegation from Cuba in the International Invisible Film Festival -kcd-ongd/ The Wellbeing Summit) and of course the educational sphere with the participation of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation Mondragon University students, University of Deusto, Harrobia Vocational Training and Educational Centres) during the years 2021-2022-2023.
27 tours have been completed and 597 people have experienced the Diversitours on-site visits, 60% of them have been women, 50% have been young people under 25 years old, the vast majority are people who live in Bilbao or Bizkaia, only 5% have been foreign tourists.
More than 400 people enjoyed the virtual experience during the 2022 Loturak Festival (Ties Festival). The profile of the participants was made up of students from 7 schools in the city and adults.
The effectiveness of the project has been measured through an evaluation system using individual questionnaires, testimonials and focus groups with the team of intercultural guides and participants.
Key reference documents:
