On June 28, 2021, the Kick-off meeting of the project Railway Heritage for Sustainable Tourism Development – Rail4V4+V was held online. This Visegrad strategic long-term project will last for 18 months and engage five partners from Serbia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. The project aims to highlight the tourist potential of the railway, particularly through its history and heritage, recalling the role that rail has played in creating the Central European collective identity. In line with the aim of the European Year of Rail and strategic priorities of the Visegrad Group in 2021, the main goal of the proposed project is to raise awareness about the role of railways for V4 sustainable tourism development, through unique branding and presentation of railway heritage, in situ and on a digital platform.

At the Kick-off meeting, five partner organisations: Cultural studies platform CULTstore, Novi Sad (SRB), Aviscon Consulting and Services Ltd., Budapest (HU), Research Centre for Industrial Heritage FA CTU Prague (CZ), the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava Faculty of Architecture and Design (SK), and Foundation for the Protection of Silesian Industrial Heritage, Wroclaw (PL) planned and prepared detailed framework of activities and agreed on common goals and results. Partners discussed and talked through various parts of the project, including research, student design competition, workshops, dissemination of the results, evaluation of the activities. Although there were only a few hours and many topics to discuss, partners came back with new ideas and motivation and hope to keep up with such good work.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe