Testimonials

1st Trasnational

Konstantina Daouti- Greece

I’ve heard about the CulTY project through a friend who convinced me to participate. “You studied culture and you work in the touristic section, you are the ideal candidate for this project” he said. I was triggered. I started gathering my ideas, giving form to my presentation, biting my nails to see if I got accepted.

And I did.

And it was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had in my life.

When I was a student in the department of Communication, Media & Culture of Panteion university, I focused on cultural administration. Several years later, when I studied drama, I realized why cultural administration is so important.

Coming from a country with rich cultural history and a touristic aspect based on it, I found it extremely interesting participating in a program with people from Italy, India and Vietnam. All of them are countries with rich culture but with totally different approach on the touristic management. And both culture and tourism are based on the interaction between people, philosophies and way of living.
When we arrived in Italy and met every participant of the program, I knew I’d have a blast. Everyone was friendly, open to new experiences, ready to know and learn from the others.

The activities we were called to attend were fun and educational. Through the collaboration between nations in the given projects we learned how to communicate, how to listen one another and accept different approaches and points of view.

Each one of us had something different to contribute and all of them combined in the spirit of team work led us to amazing results. We have learned a lot on how to expand the alternative forms of tourism and a transnational seminar is the best way to do it.

I want to thank Action Synergy who gave me the opportunity to participate in such an interesting program and meet all these wonderful people.

It was an amazing experience and I would do it all again!

Sonali Chaudhury- India

Being a part of the first meeting of Project CULTY (Cultural Tourism for Youth) held at Castellammare di Stabia, Italy in June 2016, was an incredible and exhilarating experience. The camaraderie, knowledge share and openness to networking were boundless as it assembled a diverse pool of people from various countries that brought a unique mix of perspectives to the event.
The activities were mostly interactive, practical and educational where every participant contributed, thus making the conference a huge success. A couple of site visits and games kept the spirit going!

I’m grateful to OSVSWA and would specially thank Mr. Dillip Pattnaik for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to learn, network and be inspired. For the upcoming meetings, I’d highly recommend this conference to anyone who is interested in cultural tourism practices as this conference is one of its kind and gives you hands on experience like no other!

Abinash Sahoo- India

Attending the 1st Seminar of “CulTY” was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in my life. For the first time, I have participated in an event whose objective was to promote tourism and involvement of young professionals within. I presented my report on “Alternative Tourism” at the event to highlight a certain aspect of tourism.

The event was organized by RAS (Restoring Ancient Stabiae) foundation, a non-profit Italian foundation which was born to promote the ancient archaeological park of ancient stabiae.I feel grateful to be able to present my perspective among various individuals from nations that are culturally rich as of my own like Greece and Vietnam.

As we all know, tourism has been contributing to a distinct percentage of economy of a nation. The opportunities still persist to improve the management of the entire system. These opportunities were discussed and few solutions were provided to tackle the challenges faced, in this transnational event. All of us shared their own perspective of tourism and the ways to implement it in the respective countries. The seminar was supplemented by many team building activities and musical events.
HANOIKIDS!!!A perfect idea of alternative tourism. It involves in facilitating tourism in a hope to bring travelers an insight into Vietnamese culture, traditions and beautiful tourist attractions.

The best part of the event was on-site and off-site activities. It includes a visit to Villa Arianna and Sorrento. Restoring the villas which was buried in volcanic ashes from centuries is a just incredible.The seminar concluded with a delicious ancient Romanian Dinner.

A big thank to OSVSWA for making me a part of it and special thanks to the consortium for designing this beautiful project exploiting the youth potential across the Globe.

Amrita Muduli- India

I felt an adrenaline rush in my veins when I was selected to attend the 1st Transactional Seminar at Castallammare de Stabia in Project –CulTY as youth worker of OSVSWA. Although this was my first abroad trip in my life, it was not the sole reason for this great feeling. In fact to represent my country in front of the world was the real reason. As an Engineer my career was limited to my core skills neither was I exposed to such a great opportunity. But I quickly accepted the offer as collecting people and moments holds priority for me than focusing on monotonous career.

When I landed in Italy or Italia or Land of Cattle, got mesmerized by the beauty of the city. It was like a Dream come true… Europe has always been my topmost priority on a travel list; hence,this trip was like some sort of achievement. Oh!!!!The first page of my travel diary is going to be so colorful………………

We took a train to Naples (Napoli) and then to Castellammare-Di-Stabia, the destination where the event was organized.There we interacted with our new friends from Greece, Vietnam and Italy.We interacted with each other and knew a lot about their countries, food,cultures and manymore. This just changed the way I see the world. I could feel the blending of cultural aspects by trying to learn new languages and dances, tasting different food and wines and having a lot of fun. Finally I understood the meaning of the saying: Jobs will fill your pocket, but travel will fill your soul.

The next five days I felt like on the top of the mountains and beneath the stars. All works turned into fun-loving activities. It was like an infotainment package. …All problems I had earlier seemed tiny….And the greatest feeling was when the audience got mesmerized while we presented the cultural and touristic view of our motherland India and homeland Odisha.

I participated in the event by taking a step forward and while returning I felt like that step was inward….towards me……
And I am really gratefully thankful to team OSVAWA for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and team RAS for arranging and executing such a marvelous event………….I would love to welcome these type of events again and again in my life……………….

Thao- Vietnam

I was very grateful to have the chance to join the seminar in Castellammare di Stabia. It was kind of an eye-opener experience for me. The knowledge, the friendliness, the sense of humor and the stories of my new friends from Italy, India and Greece made me feel so enlightened and happy. Castellammare di Stabia is such a beautiful place with nice people, significant castles, super delicious food and many more things there that I think it deserves much more popularity than it does now. During the seminar, the activities I was involved in were really interesting and educational. I brought to the seminar an example of youth initiatives in cultural tourism from my city – the case study of Hanoikids, a volunteer English group of students taking foreign visitors on free tours around Hanoi. I was so, so proud and delighted when other participants said we (Hanoikids) were doing such a great job. More than that, the ideas, the feedbacks, the suggestions I received during the seminar were beyond my expectations. They are such a great help to Hanoikids for now and for other youth initiatives that we can lend a hand in the future. I was sad to leave Castellammare but more than glad to welcome other participants to my beloved Vietnam in the next training course here.

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