Before Designing the Journey, We Listen
Every itinerary begins long before the first step is taken.
It begins with a place, with the people who live there, with the stories that are often hidden behind a landscape, a cultural route, a small village, a local tradition or a natural path. It begins with questions: what makes this territory unique? What do visitors look for when they arrive? What do local communities need in order to benefit from tourism in a more balanced and sustainable way?
This is where the project journey starts: not from a ready-made route, but from listening.
Across the Adriatic area, Italian and Croatian territories are working together to rethink tourism through a more sustainable, active and experience-based approach. The aim is to move beyond the most crowded destinations and give new visibility to lesser-known cultural and natural heritage, creating tourism experiences that are meaningful for visitors and valuable for local communities.
The first phase of work is therefore dedicated to understanding local needs, opportunities and expectations. Through stakeholder needs mapping, each territory is looking more closely at its tourism potential, existing resources, possible barriers and future opportunities. This process helps connect local knowledge with visitor expectations, ensuring that future tourism experiences are not only attractive, but also accessible, realistic and rooted in the identity of each place.
Local communities, tourism operators, public authorities, NGOs, experts and young people all have an important role to play. Their voices can help reveal what cannot be found in a simple map: the atmosphere of a place, the everyday relationship between residents and visitors, the challenges of managing tourism flows, and the opportunities for creating new services, skills and experiences.
This listening phase is also a way to build trust and shared ownership. Sustainable tourism cannot be designed from above; it grows through dialogue, cooperation and the ability to bring together different perspectives. By starting from local voices, the project is laying the foundations for tourism experiences that are more inclusive, more authentic and more connected to the real life of the territories.
From coastal areas to inland destinations, from cultural hubs to natural trails, the Adriatic is full of places that can tell new stories. The challenge now is to connect them in a shared vision: one that supports slow tourism, strengthens local value and creates new opportunities across borders.
Before the itinerary takes shape, the project listens.
Because the most meaningful journeys are the ones built together.
