Thanks to a successful first mandate, last May the UNESCO Chair at USI was granted a renewal of four years (September 2017 – August 2021).
During its first mandate (September 2013 – August 2017), a variety of activities have been performed, among which: organization of 4 summer schools, launch of the first MOOC in eTourism: “eTourism: Communication Perspectives”, development and implementation of a World Heritage Awareness Campaign for Youth (WHACY), development of a mobile application for Bellinzona Castles and San Giorgio Mountain, over 30 between conference presentations and invited lectures, 5 reports on the online presence of World Heritage Sites around the world, over 50 scientific publications. Among the most successfull projects of the first mandate is the online social media campaign #faces4heritage (www.faces4heritage.org), which in February 2016 granted the Chair a prize in an international university contest and an official presentation in Washington D.C. at the Department of State.
A number of new projects and activities are planned for the second mandate, all of them aiming at improving understanding and sharing knowledge on how how ICT can be effectively exploited to develop and promote sustainable tourism at World Heritage Sites.
Read the official press release of Università della Svizzera italiana here.