Digital Transformation: Slovenia's Heritage+ Toolkit Leads Cultural Innovation

11.07.2022Article

What if digital innovation allowed every tourist location to fully utilise its cultural heritage? With its innovative Heritage+ toolset, Slovenia is leading this change and demonstrating that tradition and technology can coexist.

A Digital Revolution in Collaboration

For travel destinations looking for digital innovation, the Tourism 4.0 Partnership has created extensive assistance resources. In order to provide useful recommendations for the transition of digital cultural property, this program brings together technologists, business developers, innovation specialists, and heritage professionals. The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology made a public request in January 2020 to formally establish the initiative in Slovenia.

Practical Digital Solutions

• Essential resources for digitising cultural assets are available through the assets+ toolkit:
• Comprehensive Handbook: Detailed instructions in Slovene and English for the digital innovation of cultural heritage (pdf in English and Slovene)
• Technical Guidelines: Particular procedures for digitising artefacts related to cultural heritage (pdf in English and Slovene)
• Training Program: A three-phase series of workshops intended for all important stakeholders in Slovenia.

First part:

• Presentation (pdf)
• Worksheet 1 (pdf)
• Worksheet 2 (pdf)
• Worksheet 3 (pdf)

Second part:

• Presentation (pdf)
• Annex 1: Where can we find more information about immovable cultural heritage? (pdf)

As part of capacity-building programs for popular tourist locations, the first workshops were held in 2020–2021, guaranteeing real-world application throughout Slovenia's tourism industry.

Creating Experiences for Digital Tourism

According to the project philosophy, "Digital tourism experiences should be built on the richness of our cultural heritage." This method honours and presents genuine cultural riches through immersive digital experiences that replace traditional tourism.

Building Digital Tourism Experiences

As stated in the project philosophy: "Digital tourism experiences should be built on the richness of our cultural heritage." This approach transforms traditional tourism into immersive digital experiences that honour and showcase authentic cultural treasures.

Unlocking Cultural Potential

The toolkit's structured approach helps destinations leverage their unique heritage assets through digital means, creating new visitor engagement opportunities while preserving cultural integrity for future generations.
Tourist destinations should explore the free Heritage+ toolkit resources to begin planning their own digital heritage innovation strategies, starting with the available handbook and technical guidelines.

While Slovenia's Heritage+ toolkit provides the foundational framework for digital cultural heritage transformation, the practical implementation of these tools relies heavily on advanced digital capture technologies like 360° photos and 3D models that can bring these heritage assets to life in unprecedented ways. You can read more of this in our next article: Digital Heritage: How 360° Photos and 3D Models Are Changing Institutions.