News & Updates

The fifth European Cultural Capital Report adds to and compliments a whole set of previous reports that began with an evaluation report produced for the European Commission (Palmer Report, 2004) and then subsequent European Cultural Capital Reports, volumes I (2007) II (2009), III (2011) and IV (2012).  The fact that

IGCAT is pleased to inform you of our new collaboration in the EUHeritage Tour project. The EUHeritage Tour is a project focused on the UNESCO World Heritages site tourism and was created on September 2013. The aim of the project is to contribute to the differentiation of the European tourism

The Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO, Francesco Bandarin, has congratulated IGCAT on its recent creation. IGCAT aims to promote food experiences as a component of living heritage. In a letter addressed to IGCAT, both the Director and President are invited to a meeting with the Chief of Intangible Culture

IGCAT fully endorses that the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education has adopted an own-initiative report by Santiago FISAS AYXELA (EPP, ES) on European gastronomic heritage: cultural and educational aspects. The report outlines both educational aspects and cultural aspects. This is a timely initiative and one that signals the

The conference Città ri-visitate. Nuove idee e forme del turismo culturale (The city re-visited: New concepts and forms of cultural tourism) held in Bergamo, Italy on March 13th and 14th examined the rapidly changing nature of cultural tourism in Italy and the rest of Europe. A particular focus of attention

Prof. Greg Richards, President of IGCAT, attended the recent ITB tourism fair in Berlin where there was plenty of evidence of the growing convergence between gastronomy, culture and tourism. A vast number of national and regional tourism stands were offering gastronomy-related tourism products (and many were of course also handing

David Simon and Eva Rico Pachón visited IGCAT’s newly establish offices in Sant Pol de Mar to discuss the challenges of developing micro-businesses with new food markets. David and Eva have been producing high quality beer for several years and would like to expand however the costs are prohibitive for

IGCAT experts, Robert Palmer and Mary Miller paid a visit to Plovdiv last week to support their bid for European Capital of Culture 2019. During the visit in Bulgaria they provided advice, help and support to thePlovdiv 2019 Foundation and City stakeholders, in order bring our the best in the bid

IGCAT experts, Robert Palmer and Mary Miller paid a visit to Plovdiv last week to support their bid for European Capital of Culture 2019. During the visit in Bulgaria they provided advice, help and support to the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation and City stakeholders, in order bring our the best in

IGCAT expert, Diane Dodd was invited as part of a small circle of experts engaged with exploring new co-operation models for integrating culture in external relations, hosted by the ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) and More Europe, at the Goethe-Institut in Brussels.  With the premise that Europe must not be seen merely

The Destination Europe 2020 Conference, convened by the European Travel Commission (ETC), gathered over 100 delegates from all over Europe to consider the future of tourism in Europe towards 2020. An important element of these deliberations was gastronomy – identified by the ETC as a major pan-European theme for tourism

A meeting organised by the ATLAS Tourism and Gastronomy Group with the support of the International Institute for Gastronomy, Culture, Art and Tourism (IGCAT) in Ponte de Lima, Alto Minho, Portugal, 29-30 May 2014 In recent years the relationship between food and tourism has grown ever closer: food has become one of the

IGCAT participated in the World Summit on Arts and Culture that took place in Santiago de Chile, 13th-16th January 2014. The theme of the summit was Creative Times – new models for cultural development. Nearly 500 participants from diverse countries and cultures from around the world debated the role of

Last week,  the board of the International Institute for Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism (IGCAT) had a very positive meeting in Sant Pol de Mar (Barcelona). The board were excited about the ERG concept, and also came up with some interesting ideas for developing it further. IGCAT has agreed to

To celebrate publication of the 5th edition of the European Capitals of Culture Report, the co-authors (and IGCAT experts), Robert Palmer, Greg Richards and Diane Dodd discussed lessons learned and challenges for future capitals of culture. The meeting, organised by ART-idea took place on 13th December 2013 in Barcelona. Places were restricted