Building together an initial route based on the narratives and hospitality possibilities of a given destination.

In France, tour operators, cultural facilitators and local inhabitants are joining forces to promote hospitality[1] and give others the chance to discover their local areas and their histories, in a way that fully upholds human rights. In response to the changes in how people organise their travel and the increased and varied use of internet, they have set up a travel planning website: www.lesoiseauxdepassage.coop.

Les oiseaux de passage (birds of passage) promises a journey of discovery giving the opportunity to meet new people, exchange information, get to know others and their way of life and discover new places.  Each proposed activity has its own story to tell through its myriad associations and routes. This will help visitors learn more about the areas in question.

The proposed workshop will be led by the les oiseaux de passage co-operative with the aim of developing new destinations in partnership with local facilitators. The objective is to develop a destination and everything it evokes by identifying and involving local providers of hospitality and producers of narratives. This will depend on the destination(s) of each of the participants.

The destination is co-built with residents invited to participate in a "hosts school" to share their stories and the heritage they wish to transmit. It starts with a call for applications to individual citizens or groups of citizens, to create their own heritage walks. Those selected benefit from a programme including training time, guidance or tutoring, and the setting up of a test walk. These walks are then programmed and become part of a shared catalogue. The hosts school proposes “training by doing” in a context of exchange of knowledge and know-how. The hosts school deals with theoretical, patrimonial, interactive and organisational aspects related to the setting up of a heritage walk.

The workshop will end by showcasing a number of examples, such as the peri-urban GR2013 trail, the Hotel du Nord network, the Hidden City app and the les oiseaux de passage collaborative platform.

[1]The term “hospitality” defines the act of sharing and reciprocal exchanges between the host and the visitor, where the two parties get to know each other and learn together through their stories and the stories associated with the destination.