The XpRience Thess Project connects Culture, Tourism, and the Creative Industry, sequentially aiming at the reinforcement of Sustainable Cultural Tourism in the city of Thessaloniki. The Programme develops an alternative tourism product, which will consist of walking tours with historic and cultural aspects and aims at the creation of digital Extended Reality Applications that will be integrated into the tours and bring out treasured historic monuments of the city.

This tourism product will offer tours of at least 10 points of historical and cultural interest of the modern history of Thessaloniki. Visitors will have the chance to enrich their experience using Virtual and Augmented reality Applications, in between their tours. The virtual material that will accompany the walking tours will consist of 3D animations, videos, audio, and narratives, related to significant historic incidents that left their mark on the socioeconomic life of the city during the 20th century and shaped its current social, urban, and architectural aspects. Moreover, a smartphone application of a digital map will be developed with the use of Extended 3D information, to guide visitors during the tours and offer them useful tips about the area.

Visitors will get to know views of the city as they did during the 20th century and the everyday life of that era. The virtual applications that will be developed will offer the user a broader insight into the city, and a deeper acquaintance with distinctive historic locations in the city, as they were reconstructed through the years and are reference points nowadays.

The Project XpRience Thess is actualised in the context of the Action Innovation Investment Plans of Central Macedonia and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the EU and by National Resources. The duration of the Programme is 24 months (8 Oct. 2021- 7 Oct. 2023) and the total amount of funding is € 371.983