The future of educational (creative) tourism: the case of WWII monuments in Rasina County

Abstract

Limitations of physical movement and interaction, imposed by COVID-19 prevention regulations, strongly altered the perception of leisure activities and commodities, affecting tourism, culture and education sector. The demand of procuring ways for cultural/education institutions to establish a more dynamic approach to their users and consumers has overgrown the development of digital presence and rethinking of the physical encounters occurring in the “new normal” was instigated. The paper addresses a new format in which the educational and cultural sector use tourism tools to enhance their core functions, through a case study of an international summer seminar “Towards a performative turn in heritage studies”, as a local-specific merge of cultural and educational tourism using the infrastructure connected to the WWII monuments in Rasina County; as an example of development potentials based on reusing the often overlooked past and present touristic and cultural assets of this region by including educational and cultural/art programs in defining new heritage tourism routes.