Europeana Creative – White Paper
Business Models for Tourism
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Business models – meaning the way that value is created, delivered and captured within an
organisation point of view
– need to be seen in a wider sense as the way public
organisations deliver content and the models they are implementing to create revenues. As
producers and distributors of content, cultural institutions develop new (non-commercial)
initiatives that guarantee the sustainability of projects and services and also serve as
content providers for the commercial sector.
Recent research shows that the current most common business frame underlying these
new projects is a contractual frame, where cultural heritage institutions contract creative
industries parties (e.g. brand or web agencies, game developers) to develop services,
backed by ad hoc public funding.
It was suggested that both businesses and cultural
heritage institutions want to exit the “contractual” frame and explore innovative funding
models together. Especially cultural institutions expressed that they want new business
models of profit sharing and gaining more benefits of the cooperation.
However, there does not seem to be one single approach to achieve this. No study seems
to be able to lay out a one-size-fits-all plan that any organisation can follow to reach the
point of financial sustainability.
An important aspect of a strategy to achieve sustainability
seems to be a shift in management on the side of cultural heritage institutions. Clear goals,
accountability, measurable targets, reviewing processes and assessing the performance
are proven elements in the business sector for creating successful companies, but are
considered a weak spot in the way cultural heritage institutions operate.
The Tourism Pilot is led by PLURIO.NET in close cooperation with Culture 24.
PLURIO.NET is a project of Agence luxembourgeoise d’action culturelle asbl (AC), a non-
profit association supported by the Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg and the City of
Luxembourg with a mission to execute specific cultural projects for these two entities.
PLURIO.NET is an infrastructure for the collection and dissemination of event information
in the Greater Region funded by a partner consortium consisting of the public cultural
See http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com; accessed February 19, 2014. See also Directorate-
General for Internal Policies 2013.
See Aubéry Escande, Hans de Haan and Louise Edwards, “Europeana Creative White Paper No.
1. Creativity, Technology and Management: Establishing Best Practices between Cultural Heritage
Institutions and the Creative Industries”, June 2013, available online at:
http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/1538974/1594727/eCreative_WP3_ST3.2.1_CreativityTechnolo
gyManagement_v1.0; accessed February 19, 2014.
See Escande, de Haan and Edwards 2013, p. 16.
See Kevin Guthrie, Rebecca Griffiths and Nancy Maron, “Sustainability and Revenue Models for
Online Academic Resources: An Ithaka Report”, Ithaka, New York, May 2008.
See Escande, de Haan and Edwards 2013.