Mid-term evaluation of the MED GAIMS project for tourism promotion and preservation of cultural heritage in the Mediterranean

Gamification of tourism and touristic experiences to preserve cultural heritage

Title MED GAIMS – GAmifIcation for Memorable tourist experienceS

Location Lebanon, Spain, Italy, Jordan

Duration September 2019 – August 2022

Partners American University of Beirut (Lebanon), i2CAT Private Foundation, Internet and Digital Innovation in Catalonia (Spain), Directorate General of Antiquities (Lebanon), Alghero Foundation Museums Events Tourism (Italy), The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities – Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan), Neàpolis (Spain)

Framework Thematic objective A.1 – Development of entrepreneurship and SMEs and priority A.1.3 – Fostering sustainable tourism initiatives and actions of the European Commission

Funding  European Commission ENI CBC MED Programme

 

Context

Today’s demanding and discerning tourists don’t want just to observe, they wish to experience places.  In an effort to promote the concept of gamification in tourism, the project MED GAIMS will develop games in physical and virtual formats to create experiences for tourists, giving a necessary competitive edge to the attractiveness of less-known sites.

The project seeks to increase tourism flows, covering all niches and segments like off-season travellers, creating jobs opportunities and start-ups for gaming entrepreneurs. The project heavily relies on local communities to conceptualize and implement games, through self-employment or startups, for both high (technological) and low-skilled (manual, organizational) individuals, and new employment/business opportunities will be created for young people, women and local SMEs. The project will also influence the improvement of tourism reputation of concerned destinations offering enhanced experiences tested at the cultural level, fostering the exploration of more sites, longer stays and return visits.

The project aims at developing 40 games that will be implemented in 12 touristic sites from 8 destinations, generating benefits for 40 public actors (tourism destination managers, site managers, tourism policy officials), 40 private actors (from local civil society organizations, cultural and industry associations, schools, SMEs) involved in game design and game implementation as well as in business support activities, job seekers and young graduates

 

General Ojective

In order to evaluate the degree of achievement of project results, the Local Development Unit carried out a mid-term evaluation of the project. The analysis took into consideration two dimensions, the first concerned the country dimension of each individual project partner and the second the aggregate dimension.

 

Our contribution

The mid-term evaluation focuses on the use of results and tools that involved the project partners and key stakeholders at local and national level.

The Local Development Unit elaborated a set of data collection tools necessary to evaluate the project results in the mid-term evaluation report: desk analysis of project documentation, semi-structured interviews with the project leader, project partners, associated partners and main stakeholders.

For the mid-term evaluation, the Local Development Unit chose a methodology consisting of 4 levels of analysis:

  • Assessment of the alignment between the MED GAIMS project strategy and the ENICBCMED objectives and priorities
  • Analysis of the compliance of the project with the OSCE-DAC criteria.
  • Analysis of the added value of the cross-border dimension of the project
  • Analysis of the performance of the project with respect to the following aspects: visibility, social issues such as gender issues, youth involvement, environmental impact, raising awareness on concepts such as experiential tourism, game development for heritage purposes, and the interconnections between sustainable tourism and economic development.

Read more on our Local Development Unit