The project for the development of the present website Cultural Corridors of South East Europe is a practical implementation of the Varna Declaration, adopted at the Regional Forum Cultural Corridors of South East Europe (Varna, May 2005). There, the Heads of the State from the region make a commitment to contribute to the promotion of cultural heritage and cultural corridors within the region using modern dissemination technologies, in cooperation with the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Luxembourg, and other specialist institutions.

The project is implemented by the Association for Cultural Toursim in partnership with the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (Multimedia Heritage Laboratory), ICOMOS/Bulgaria and a network of experts from South-East Europe. This implementation is possible, due to the assistance of the Luxembourg Government, which has a remarkable contribution for the development of the European cultural routes and the fostering of the regional initiatives in this field. The project is also realized, thanks to the help of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Luxembourg, which has a unique experience in the implementation of the Cultural Routes Programme of the Council of Europe and its promoting in the web space through a network of websites. In fact, this website may be considered as an integral part of this network. A financial help of great value for the implementation of the project has been rendered by the Presidency of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. The cooperation of the big international organisations for the project should be particularly underlined: UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Commission, inspired by the Forum in Varna.

The present website reveals the principle opportunities of presenting on the internet the unique cultural corridors and the cultural heritage of South East Europe; at fostering the cultural tourism in the region; at declaring the visibility of the regional politics in this field. The project includes also an innovative experiment with GIS maps of the cultural heritage in Internet. The project is completely open for future development.

The website addresses the public at large, which has interests in the field of cultural heritage and cultural tourism. By means of interactive maps, users get orientated within the big variety of cultural values, different in their type, period and theme; make their choice for cultural tourism; get acquainted with the broad background of the regional projects and initiatives. Children are also envisaged as users of this website, by the integration of the independent multimedia product Treasure Quest. This project addresses the children public and is implemented also by the Association for Cultural Tourism and is financed by the British Council Bulgaria, through the British Council Cultural and Environmental Heritage Fund for South East Europe. The integration of these two products creates the synergy of the messages.

While working on the website, the rich experience of the Cultural Routes Programme of the Council of Europe and the Regional Programme of the Council of Europe and the European Commission for Cultural and Natural heritage in South East Europe has been thoroughly studied. Partners of the project are experts from the Regional Programme. The website utilises the valuable experience of the UNESCO with Roads of Dialogue and the possibilities for their multimedia modelling.

All this, comes to tell, that this website is the result of a multilateral partnership. In fact, this can be its future way of development: with the contribution of states, international organisations and experts, that are concerned about the wide promotion of a new image of South East Europe. A successive step of this developmet was realised in the frames of the project Heritage: ESPRIT – with the help of the Ministry of Education and Science, the website is enriched with new information for cultural values, projects and realisations.