World Trails Conference 2018 –Santiago de Compostela

The 6th bi-annual World Trails Network Conference was organized in Santiago de Compostela, Spain this year from September 26-29th. The conference was attended by over 200 participants from 38 countries and sponsored by Galicia region. Worldwide trail builders, organizations, professionals, tourism representatives and local authority were present. Best practices from around the world were shared during the sessions over the course of two days.  Culture Routes Society made the presentation “Empowering Village Woman on The Lycian Way”, which chronicled the project “A Historical Break in Lycian Way”, that took place in Kapaklı Village, Demre between 2017-2018, and was funded by the Future Is in Tourism Program.

Following the consultations, the existing regional hubs of World Trails Network, such as Americas Hub and Asia Hub, decided to establish a Mediterranean Hub with the initial participation of Turkey, Greece, Spain, Lebanon and Palestine. Culture Routes Society will be representing the routes in Turkey under this sub organization. In addition to this, Culture Routes Society has been chairing the culture task team within World Trails Network.

The Camino Journey, which was an event that included eight days of hiking, was organized from Ponferrada to Santiago de Compostela, ending one day before the conference began. 11 people from seven different countries attended this journey. Serdar Fabrice Uzun from Culture Routes Society joined this event and filmed the group along the way. With the footage he collected, he created a rough summary of The Camino Journey, which was screened at the closing session. Serdar’s long term goal is to use this footage to make a mini-documentary in the coming months.

In other exciting news, the International World Trails Movie Festival was launched during the conference. During this festival, 10 movies from different continents were screened. Some of the movies were made for promotional purposes and others highlighted trail events, unique aspects of their routes and/or specific cultural themes. Cultural Routes Society intends to participate in the next festival with a movie from Turkish routes.

You can watch the conference summary video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUPOR4n-Eq0&t=47s

For more movies you can subscribe to our Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWm3ZOfL4Zpxs3MybmvIHfA/featured?view_as=subscriber