The Roman Circuit

The project relates primarily to archaeological sites as vectors of long term local development.
The sites that have been considering this joint cooperation include : Arles (France), Mertola (Portugal), Constanza (Romania), Merida (Spain), Sbeïtla (Tunisia).
The objectives of this program consist of :

• The definition of a concerted strategy, uniform across the four sites, of production and commercialisation of cultural products, handicrafts and tours which develop the ancient heritage with a view of improving the economy;

• The organisation of the tourism activity allowing the heritage sites and the local area to increase their auto-financing capacity;

Project RESIDE has been financed by the European Commission under the ECOS-OUVERTURE program.

• The setting up of a quality assurance plan between the cultural heritage professionals, craftsmen, archaeological site managers and the tour operators;

• The drawing up of a development plan and an economic development policy aiming at maintaining or even creating new jobs and opening an access to international cultural and heritage tourism markets;

• The constitution of a European network composed of representatives of public bodies, private operators, tourism and cultural heritage professionals. This project has been placed in a financing program of European Union ECOS-COUVERTURE. The project was launched in the summer of 2000 with a provisional duration of 36 months;