The project SILC – Silk Road Local Culture is aiming to support the tourism development following the Silk Road cultural heritage from the project targeted area and the evaluation of the potential of the Silk Road cultural footprint for tourism growth, interregional cooperation and cross-border partnerships.

The revival of the historic Silk Road encompasses and encourages the creation of new tourism flows of independent travelers seeking to experience diverse cultures and alternative forms of tourism, detouring from the mass-tourism scheme. Transnational cooperation lies on the understanding that the combination of efforts, resources and strengths could lead to the achievement of outcomes, which could not be reached by the independent actions of the nation – states. At the crossroads of ancient civilizations, the Black Sea Basin have a rich and diverse cultural heritage that needs to be preserved. Several tangible and intangible cultural assets have been listed as the heritage of humanity and the plethora of cultural variety offers considerable opportunities for tourism development and cooperation. Thus, the three project specific objectives are: mapping and cultural footprint of the Silk Road, the establishment of a cross-border, interregional network of local culture and tourism entrepreneurship, and the SILCNECT label.

The Baseline study on the Silk Road cultural heritage foreseen to be delivered by the project will incorporate the Study for the local Silk Road cultures footprint; Map of the local Silk Road cultures; Growth potential of the local Silk Road cultures.

In Romania, the project partner ANTREC Tulcea (National Association for Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism – Tulcea Branch) offered considerable inputs for the eligible Southeastern Region. The Southeastern region has extensive Silk Road tangible and intangible cultural heritage resources that can be found in the Study for the local Silk Road cultures footprint:

• Archaeological sites, ancient and traditional settlements
• Museums
• Spiritual sites (i.e. churches, monasteries)
• Military posts, garrison stations, fortifications
• Built heritage (industrial heritage, castles)
• Traditional markets (bazars), places of trading goods (mining, metal working, manufacturing and handicrafts, and other industrial and production sites)
• Folklore Traditions (skills, know-how, customs), places of associations with transfer of ideas, language, music, dance etc.
• Heritage objects (tools, clothes, furniture, tapestries, etc.), documentary heritage, movable heritage and artifacts
• Gastronomy (local products, recipes, production methods).

Following the extensive Silk Road tangible and intangible cultural heritage resources, the Romanian partner traced the cultural footprint in the Southeastern region of Romania from the following counties: Brăila, Buzău, Constanța, Galați, Tulcea, and Vrancea. The inventory of Silk Road cultural assets in the study area of Romania can be found in the Map of the local Silk Road cultures.

Thus, geographically and historically, the Southeastern region of Romania is the mix of several cultures, located to the confluence of history and national culture. Through the mapping of Silk Road cultural footprint in Romania, following the Danube and the Black Sea coastline, the Southeastern region can become the backbone of the East-West freight transport on the future maritime Silk Road. Further, the Study for the local Silk Road cultures footprint explores the untapped cultural tourism opportunities that exist along the Silk Road and it identifies the prospects of creating new tourism entrepreneurial networks based on the Silk Road cultural heritage on the Southeastern region of Romania. These aspects can be found in the document Growth potential of the local Silk Road cultures.