Europe boasts a wealth of cultural destinations, from museums and galleries to royal palaces and historic towns. But Eda Gürel, a researcher in the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management at Bilkent University in Türkiye, says that visitors often miss out on the full experience.

“Many people often do not know how to start exploring a museum or destination, or how to engage meaningfully with the environment,” she notes. “Some visitors find the information provided too limited or overly simplified, while others consider it too detailed, complex or overwhelming.”

Her experience led to the creation of CULTURATI, a platform that combines technology, professional curation and local cultural knowledge to support more meaningful, inclusive and sustainable experiences for visitors to cultural institutions.

A new way to explore

The CULTURATI platform was developed through a highly collaborative effort involving fourteen partners across six countries, including museums, universities, SMEs, governance bodies, civil society organisations and cultural organisations.

The system integrates cloud and mobile technologies, sensors and AI to assist visitor management and encourage citizens, creative professionals and curators to work together on heritage and arts experiences.

A CULTURATI app developed for visitors offers customised routes that help guests navigate sites, local histories about the location and its exhibits, as well as interactive games to encourage further exploration.

Inspiring co-creation and cultural participation

Prototypes were developed and tested across several pilot sites: Blenheim Palace in the United Kingdom, the Ankara Citadel and the İstanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Türkiye, and the popular historic towns Porvoo in Finland and Ascoli Satriano in Italy.

“Throughout the project, the platform evolved significantly, leading to the development of two main system versions, including the later ‘Blenheim version’, which incorporated an improved architecture,” explains Gürel. “The technologies were continuously improved through user feedback, surveys, interviews and real-world testing activities.”

The project emphasised co-creation and cultural participation. More than 100 creators contributed to the platform, supplying over 16 000 pieces of audio, visual and text content relating to the museums and heritage sites.

“Through this participatory approach, we also realised that many hidden stories emerged during the project,” adds Gürel. “In several cases, museums, cultural institutions and destinations themselves began to rediscover their own collections, spaces, heritage and local identities from different perspectives and angles.”

An ethical approach to technology

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many museums and other cultural sites were closed. “This demonstrated the urgent need for more resilient, adaptive and digitally supported cultural ecosystems,” remarks Gürel. “Technologies such as CULTURATI can help cultural institutions continue engaging audiences even during disruptive events by offering flexible, interactive and personalised digital experiences.”

Gürel says one of the aspects she is most proud of is the emphasis on ethical, human-centred and participatory approaches to technology.

“From the beginning, we wanted to ensure that the platform would not simply generate content automatically, but would provide meaningful, accurate and culturally sensitive information,” she adds. “Working closely with our pilot sites and independent ethics advisor throughout the project helped us better understand the ethical dimensions of AI and cultural heritage.”

The team is now working on the commercialisation and sustainability of the platform. The source code for the CULTURATI platform has been made available online, so that institutions can build their own localised versions. “Our goal is to continue improving the technology and to support wider adoption across cultural heritage sites, museums and tourism destinations in Europe and beyond,” says Gürel.