KRA’GAS project as an implementer of the Carpathian Euroregion cultural heritage development

October 2019 marks the month when the Maramures Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Romania), acting as the lead beneficiary, launched a new project focusing on the promotion of crafts and gastronomy in the Carpathian Euroregion.

The KRA’GAS project will last for 24 months and the partners of the project are Babes – Bolai University (Romania), University of Miskolc (Hungary), Uzhgorod National University (Ukraine), Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Hungary) and TES Foundation (Ukraine).

KRA’GAS offers an innovative approach to promote the heritage and tourism potential of crafts and gastronomy in the Hungary-Romania-Ukraine cross-border region. In a time of globalization and cultural homogeneity, heritage, craftsmanship and gastronomy are the co-creators of regional identity. Therefore, they are perceived as strategic “highlights” that influence tourism development.

Located at the intersection of the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, the region has recognizable cultural areas, however, as in other parts of the world, the intangible heritage suffers from two syndromes: the extinction of traditional crafts and gastronomy, and the lack of visualization. The solution offers local producers access to markets, and the growth of tourism provides a great opportunity for it.

Within the framework of the proposed activities, the project will have three general objectives: to conduct an anthropological analysis that will highlight the similarities associated with the crafts and gastronomy of the partner regions; identify and create a cross-border tourist route in the project area and develop the project region as a general tourist destination, supporting and promoting the cross-border tourist route as a way of connecting local producers to tourism markets, including the organization of the International Craft and Gastronomy Festival.

The first months of the project are devoted mainly to research and management and planning activities, followed by a kick-off conference in early 2020.

You can follow KRA’GAS Facebook posts and read about crafts and gastronomy by following the project’s timeline https://www.facebook.com/KragasProject/

Oleksandra Lazar – KRA’GAS Communication Manager, kragas@ccimm.ro

Photo: Emmanuel Luke