GOGO TOUR
The GOGO TOUR CHALLENGE project is a cross-border educational and tourism initiative that brings together students from Slovenia and Italy in the joint creation of a bilingual educational tourist route between Nova Gorica and Gorizia. Young participants take on the role of guides and, through experiential learning, develop linguistic, cultural and social competences. The project is based on broad youth participation, with more than 550 participants involved in its activities.
Within the project, two routes have been developed – the GOGO WALK TOUR and the GOGO BIKE TOUR – guiding visitors through key points of interest in the cross-border area while engaging them in interactive bilingual challenges. The main result of the project is the development of a new sustainable product for schools, the so-called “activity day”, within which students actively participate as guides and co-creators of content.
The project is designed with sustainability in mind, enabling long-term use within the educational process. At the same time, it goes beyond the school context, as the developed routes are also intended for the wider public. For this purpose, a bilingual printed map and a bilingual website with an interactive map have been created, allowing all interested users to explore the routes independently.
The project promotes cross-border cooperation, strengthens the sense of belonging to a shared space, and contributes to increasing the visibility of the area within the framework of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025.
The objectives of the project were:
- to develop and implement an innovative cross-border educational-tourism product, GOGO TOUR CHALLENGE, structured around two routes (GOGO WALK TOUR and GOGO BIKE TOUR), integrating education and tourism;
- to create a bilingual tourist guiding model in which students from Slovenia and Italy act as guides and actively collaborate in cross-border groups;
- to promote bilingualism, intercultural understanding and cross-border cooperation among young people, reducing linguistic and cultural barriers in the shared area;
- to contribute to the development of sustainable and innovative tourism in the Nova Gorica-Gorizia cross-border area;
- to strengthen the sense of belonging to a shared area and contribute, in the long term, to reducing negative phenomena such as brain drain and the limited integration of the area;
- to develop a sustainable model for schools (the so-called “activity day”), allowing the long-term use of the project within the educational process;
- to increase the visibility of the area and the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025, while also strengthening the visibility of cross-border cooperation.
As part of the project, several cross-border training sessions were organised for Slovenian and Italian students, who were trained as future guides through workshops, preparatory activities and field exercises. On 20 and 21 March 2025, joint training sessions were held to prepare the guides, accompanied by 8 GOGO TOUR pilot activities aimed at testing the routes and content and developing bilingual guiding and communication skills. This phase involved approximately 30 student guides.
On 3 April 2025, a pilot guided tour was organised on the occasion of a visit by students from Agrigento, followed, in April, by a working meeting of the guides in Piazza Transalpina / Trg Evrope. These activities made it possible to test the product in a real-life context, verify the content and organisation and involve teachers and mentors. During the second reporting period, additional internal training exercises and 7 GOGO TOUR CHALLENGE guided tours were carried out, compared with the 5 originally planned, involving the schools OŠ Frana Erjavca Nova Gorica, OŠ Branik, OŠ Dornberk and SM Ivan Trinko in Gorizia. The tours involved 30 trained guides, a further 220 students aged between 12 and 14, and 24 teachers, for a total of more than 550 participants across the two reporting periods.
The project concluded on 23 September 2025 with the cross-border press conference held at the EPIC Center in Piazza Transalpina / Trg Evrope, attended by institutional representatives, tourism organisations and project partners. With the student guides playing a central role, the event received significant media coverage, with more than 15 publications across television, radio, print media and online portals. This exceeded the planned communication indicators and further strengthened the visibility of the project, the SPF programme and GO! 2025.
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LINK to the project's website: GOGO Tour