Can cultural tourism help an under-visited place?
Visitor interest can bring money and attention. It can also create pressure. The difference depends on whether the strategy begins with local culture or with a demand for a marketable story.
Europe’s rural question is not small: the European Commission reports that 137 million people, 30% of the EU population, live in rural areas. The EU-funded CROCUS research project is specifically studying sustainable cultural and creative tourism models for rural and remote areas, including how they may support jobs and investment without abandoning place-specific needs.
Start with what is already alive
The most compelling reason to visit a rural place is rarely a slogan. It is a person, practice, landscape, event, workshop, meal, story, or gathering that could not be copied somewhere else. Cultural tourism works better when it helps people encounter those things with context and care.
Build a wider invitation
A place can speak to more than short-stay visitors. The same cultural archive may help an artist find a residency, a family plan a meaningful visit, a remote worker understand the community, a potential resident imagine a move, or a funder see where support could be useful.
That wider invitation should not become a promise of easy growth. It should make the place more legible while giving local people a say in the pace, format, and limits of attention.
What responsible strategy includes
- Local ownership of the story and the archive
- Paid participation for cultural knowledge and creative work
- Visitor routes and experiences that direct value locally
- Clear boundaries around privacy, access, and sensitive places
- Measures of local benefit, not only visitor volume
Want to build attention around a place without packaging its people?
Countercult Studios works with rural communities, tourism teams, funders, and public institutions on cultural archiving and place development.
Sources and further reading
- European Commission, EU Rural Vision.
- European Commission CORDIS, CROCUS, EU-funded research into cultural and creative tourism in rural and remote areas.
A Countercult team essay on cultural tourism, place development, relocation, and the responsibility that comes with making a place more discoverable.
This piece was informed by Shona Neary’s writing, conversations, and thinking around independent culture, artists, and place.
editorial process: Our Journals are pulled from our writings over the years to get information out as quickly and as widely as possible, and to get to what matters: finding each other and claiming our seat in the circular economy. Some ideas overlap between Shona Neary's work on cultural infrastructure and their artist practice as Sketchy Shona. AI is a tool for infrastructure, not for creating Journal writing or artists' work. We welcome original reporting and pitches from journalists and independent publishers.