Diversitours

DIVERSITOURS - © Eurocities

Diversitours - ©City of Bilbao

DIVERSITOURS

Status

ongoing

City

Bilbao

Main actors

City Government, NGO / Philanthropy, Community / Citizen Group, Research Institutes / Universities

Project area

Whole City/Administrative Region

Duration

Ongoing since 2021

DIVERSITOURS is an intercultural community project that offers guided tours in two formats: on-site and immersive Virtual Reality. These tours highlight the richness and contribution of cultural diversity to the development of three neighbourhoods in Bilbao: Bilbao la Vieja, San Francisco, and Zabala. The project enables participants to explore a territory characterized by high cultural diversity, with a significant history of migration and intercultural coexistence both past and present. The design of content and execution of both on-site and virtual routes is carried out in collaboration with residents of the involved areas. These residents, hailing from diverse origins, guide participants to places and experiences that are full of life and activity yet excluded from the classic tourist tours of the city. Initially promoted by the Bilbao City Council, DIVERSITOURS is currently led by two social entities, KOOP SF34 and the cultural innovation association MOVILTIK. The project also involves the collective of young creators and content developers known as Kamanga Influencers Club.

Originally published by EUROCITIES: LINK

For further information about the case study, click here.

Sustainable Development Goals

Eurocities Awards

This project was awarded the 'Eurocities Awards' in 2023 in the following category: Taking the step from human global mobility to local community cohesions.

Learn more

City information

City

Bilbao, Spain

Size and population development

According to data from the 2018 census, the city of Bilbao has a population of approximately 345,821. The city spans a total area of 41.3 km2, resulting in a population density of about 8,372 people per km2. Since the 2011 census, the population growth rate in Bilbao has been relatively stable, reflecting the city's well-established urban development and economic base.

Population composition

The 2018 census data shows that the population comprises 50.7% females and 49.3% males. Age-wise, 64.7% of Bilbao's residents fall within the 15-64 age bracket, while 19.2% are aged 65 or over, and 16.1% are children aged 0-17. Regarding country of birth, 93.2% of the population were born in Spain, with 1.2% from EU countries and 5.6% from other countries. The largest migrant communities are Bolivians and Colombians. Most of the population in Bilbao identifies as Roman Catholic, reflecting the broader religious tradition in Spain. There are also small communities of other Christian denominations, as well as growing communities of other faiths, including Islam. Spanish is the most spoken language in the city, followed by the vernacular Basque language. Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid – 2018 census

Main functions

Bilbao city is the capital of Biscay province, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, northern Spain. The city is nestled along the estuary of the Nervión River, making it a central part of the Greater Bilbao region. The city is served by Bilbao Airport and the Port of Bilbao, one of the most significant ports on the Bay of Biscay. The airport is connected to Bilbao city and surrounding areas through a well-developed transport network, which includes a metro system with 3 lines, a tram line, suburban trains, and comprehensive road links to other parts of Spain.

Main industries / business

Bilbao is the economic and industrial centre of northern Spain, and stands as a significant hub within the country, following closely behind Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia in terms of economic influence. The primary industries that drive Bilbao's economy include manufacturing, particularly in steel and shipbuilding, as well as finance, information technology, and services. Recently, the tourism and culture sectors, with landmarks like the Guggenheim Museum and the historic Casco Viejo (Old Town) have started to flourish, enhancing the city's status on the global stage.

Sources for city budget

Similar to other Spanish municipalities, the City of Bilbao relies heavily on property tax as a substantial revenue stream. Alongside this, the city generates income through fees, fines, and operating revenues from municipal services. Additionally, other taxes such as business and vehicle taxation contribute to the financial resources of the city. Furthermore, subsidies and financial support from both the regional Basque Government and the central Government of Spain play an essential role in facilitating public expenditure.

Political structure

The city of Bilbao is the capital of the province of Biscay and as such it is home of the administrative entities that pertain to the provincial administration, both from the autonomous and central governments. Settled in the city are the provincial delegations of the different departments of the Basque autonomous government, each coordinated by a representative. In addition, the Government of Spain has the official Government Sub delegation in the city.

Administrative structure

Bilbao is a municipality and has a mayor-council government system. The governance of Bilbao is managed by the City Council. This council is made up of Councillors elected through popular vote in municipal elections held every four years, where all European Union residents in the municipality are eligible to vote and stand for office. The Mayor, elected from and by the Councillors, acts as the highest representative authority and is responsible for the overall government and administration of the city. The City Council's responsibilities encompass vital areas such as urban development, taxation, and urban policy. Bilbao's governance is further organized into eight distinct districts, reflecting a localized approach to administration within the city's broader political framework.

Website

http://www.bilbao.eus

Background and objectives

The objectives have been developed in collaboration with participants from the beginning and are both ambitious and achievable, as detailed below.

Create More Inclusive Neighbourhoods: Enhance the principle of equality, respect for and recognition of diversity, and promote positive interaction between people from diverse backgrounds. Participation is a basic principle of the Intercultural Model of diversity management.

Connect Visitors: Connect visitors with the history of the neighbourhoods, their vibrant communities, meeting places, businesses, places of worship, and other social, economic, and cultural manifestations.

Train People: Train individuals committed to tolerant, critical, inclusive, and intercultural citizenship, encouraging social responsibility.

Contribute to the Fight Against Negative Stereotypes: Work against hate speech, the global rise of extremism, and improve the image of involved neighbourhoods that have strong social stigmas.

Empower Local NGOs and Communities: Empower local NGOs, collectives, migrant communities, and neighbourhood residents from diverse backgrounds and cultures to become content creators, project designers, storytellers, and active participants in the visits.

Build a New Narrative: Construct a new narrative of these neighbourhoods that emphasises the contribution of diversity to the social, economic, and cultural development of the city, making them more inclusive.

Attract New Visitors: Attract new visitors to these neighbourhoods by offering a community-oriented, responsible, and intercultural tourism alternative.

Boost Bilbao as a Pioneer City: Position Bilbao as a leading city in the development of intercultural awareness content, using new technologies such as Virtual Reality, with a focus on citizen participation and training.

Digitally Train and Promote Collaboration Technologies: Encourage the use of learning and collaboration technologies to facilitate dialogue, co-creation, and dissemination of inclusive digital narratives. These are considered tools for reflection and awareness-raising on the reception of migrants and refugees.

Develop a Transferable and Sustainable Project: Create a project that can be transferred to other territories and cities and is sustainable over time.

Implementation

To achieve the objectives, the project has been developed in several phases and activities:

1. Selection of the territories of intervention based on the following criteria:

Territories with a high component of cultural diversity.
With a history of past, present and future migrations.
With a deteriorated social image and social stigma.
Existence of social, economic and cultural dynamism.
Neighbourhoods not frequented by the rest of the city’s inhabitants.
Possibility of identifying the contribution of diversity to the social, economic and cultural development of these territories.

2. Selection of the coordinating team and the group of intercultural guides.

The role played by the intercultural guides is innovative as it focuses on personal stories related to the places of cultural and historical significance of the neighbourhood. Their stories may reflect their own realities and vision as migrants or as part of the community. The selection was based on criteria such as diversity of the team's origins, communication skills, personal ties with the neighbourhood, a high level of interest and motivation, and coordination with the municipal technical team that originally promoted the project.

3. Construction of a narrative for the neighbourhood - Exploratory study of the targeted neighbourhoods. This study represented the basis for the creation of the content for the intercultural routes and was carried out in a participatory manner with various social agents and citizens of the neighbourhoods. The study contained elements such as a historical perspective of the configuration and development of the neighbourhoods from an overview centred on internal and international migratory processes and their contribution to the development of the territory; a socio-demographic analysis with evolutionary data on diversity; intercultural projects developed; first person testimonies and social, business, cultural, artistic, religious initiatives, etc.

4. Training. The training of the intercultural guides was carried out based on the exploratory study previously concluded. It has two modules, one aimed at the participation in the design of the visits and experiences, and the other, focused on the development of communication and interpersonal skills and the construction of the story collectively.

5. Design of the intercultural routes and maps of the visit. The route is co-design, taking as a reference both the exploratory study and the identification of spaces previously carried out. The route incorporates multiple experiences ranging from community initiatives or cultural, social, religious or economic development spaces located in the neighbourhoods and is complemented by the personal stories told by the team of intercultural guides.

6. Implementation of the face-to-face routes. During the implementation, different elements were considered, including the alternation of voices on the route, accessibility, optimal number of visitors and technical elements of visibility and amplification.

7. Design and production of content in Virtual Reality (VR) format were carried out with the participation of a group of young people of sub-Saharan origin linked to the neighbourhood, specifically the Kamanga Influencers Collective. Within the framework of the project, immersive VR works were produced that allow different routes, enabling users to virtually tour various locations in these neighbourhoods through the narratives of the residents. The face-to-face routes and the Virtual Reality experiences complement each other to achieve the planned objectives and results. Thus, the Virtual Reality works allow participants to visit different places that each tell a unique story. Moreover, the device, in its design and execution, combines cognitive sciences, virtual reality, and performance, generating in the users the perception of inhabiting the bodies and life stories of real people. This encourages perspective-taking and reflection by exploring social phenomena such as identity or empathy.

8. Implementation of the routes in VR format enables immersive, interactive, empathetic, sensory, and meaningful experiences that foster understanding of diversity through audio-visual experiences mediated by immersive digital narratives. To achieve this immersive effect, presentation processes are set in place in which the members of the Kamanga Collective interact with the individuals who explore the different routes. They utilise various objects and actions to create a more physical, emotional, and impactful experience.

The project includes a significant participatory component, considered a strategic element of the intervention. This approach promotes recognition of the initiative among all social actors and citizens. The different actors involved, and the role played by each, are described as follows:

1. LOCAL INSTITUTION - BILBAO CITY COUNCIL: The City Council has promoted the development of the project since its inception through a grant from the Council of Europe within the framework of the Intercultural Cities Programme. Currently, the leadership has been transferred to the community actors involved and the City Council collaborates through promotional and communication actions and contracting visits.

2. SOCIAL ENTITIES: There are currently two entities linked to the project that assume a leadership, promotion and development role. They are entities with recognition in the territory and a track record in the development of participatory intercultural projects with citizens of diverse origins:

KOOPSF 34 is a social microenterprises incubator created by people of sub-Saharan origin in the San Francisco neighbourhood. This pioneering project aims to serve as a model of entrepreneurship and social development. It is an organisation with experience in working with migrants who have a strong presence and recognition in the neighbourhoods where the project is being developed. This entity carries out the tasks of coordinating the team of intercultural guides, promotion, development and communication of the project in relation to the on-site routes through the neighbourhoods.
MOVILTIK Cultural Innovation Association, whose objectives include carrying out participatory social communication projects and promoting the strengthening and participation of citizens in the creation, production, dissemination and distribution of digital content. This association, in collaboration with the KAMANGA Influencers Collective, is leading the design, content development and execution of the visits in virtual reality format. KAMANGA influencers is a community of young people, mainly of sub-Saharan origin, who develop an intercultural communication project in the neighbourhoods of San Francisco, Bilbao la Vieja and Zabala. Their role in Diversitours project has been the design, creation and interaction with the audiences that have participated in the visualisation sessions and embodiment of the citizens of Bilbao with the Virtual Reality work.

3. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION:

Team of intercultural guides. The people who act as guides in the face-to-face format are residents of the neighbourhood from different backgrounds. Their role in the development of the project has been to participate in the design of the routes and the implementation of the intercultural walks. A total of 10 people have been trained as intercultural guides for the project from the following origins: Zimbabwe, Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, Morocco, Colombia and Spain.
The route designed incorporates different voices of neighbours who develop different projects (entrepreneurs, businesspeople, shops, participants of associations, representatives of different communities, places of worship, etc.).
Active participation of the visitors in the tours. The people who participate in the tours contribute to the development of content and the expansion of information about the territory by contributing their own visions and additional information that is naturally incorporated into the neighbourhood narrative.

4. OTHER COLLABORATIONS, including the involvement of different government levels such as the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (through the European Heritage Days); the academic sector with the Mondragon University LEINN- Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation (through the design of a Communication Plan); the social entity Aldauri Foundation (with strong roots in the territory and linked to the development of the exploratory study) and; the artistic collective through BeAnotherLab (experts in the use of VR as a tool for social transformation).

Financing and resources

Diversitours originated in 2021 as a 6-month pilot project promoted by Bilbao City Council. It was established in the framework of a €15,000 grant awarded by the Council of Europe - Intercultural Cities for the development of a pilot experience between the cities of Bilbao and Valencia.

The year 2022 marked the beginning of KOOP SF 34's autonomy in managing the project. This involved packaging of the product and offering it to social and cultural entities, institutions, companies, and events that pay a price ranging between €250 and €400 depending on the characteristics of the groups.

Also in 2022 the entire digital layer of the project was developed with a total investment of €38,700, financed by several Basque public entities (Bilbao City Council, Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Basque Government).

For the year 2023, an investment of €50,000 is estimated from various funders to further develop the digital aspect of the initiative. This includes the creation of new content, the improvement of the existing routes and the organisation of workshops and informative sessions. In addition, Bilbao City Council has allocated a budget of €7,500 for contracting 20 visits by Educational Centres in the city during the 2023 academic year.

The evolution of the budget lines since 2021 is a clear sign of the commitment and desire to continue and improve the action, reflecting the beneficial impact of the Diversitours project.

Results and impacts

The impact of the project can be observed from multiple perspectives:

The profile and scope of the people participating in the on-site visits has been diverse, including political representatives, municipal and provincial technical staff; technical team at national and European level (RECI- Intercultural Cities Network, European Youth Parliament Delegation, European Heritage Days); reaching also the international field through international delegations (a delegation from Cuba in the International Invisible Film Festival -kcd-ongd/ The Wellbeing Summit) and of course the educational sphere with the participation of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation Mondragon University students, University of Deusto, Harrobia Vocational Training and Educational Centres) during the years 2021-2022-2023.

27 tours have been completed and 597 people have experienced the Diversitours on-site visits, 60% of them have been women, 50% have been young people under 25 years old, the vast majority are people who live in Bilbao or Bizkaia, only 5% have been foreign tourists.

More than 400 people enjoyed the virtual experience during the 2022 Loturak Festival (Ties Festival). The profile of the participants was made up of students from 7 schools in the city and adults.

The effectiveness of the project has been measured through an evaluation system using individual questionnaires, testimonials and focus groups with the team of intercultural guides and participants.

From the on-site routes, these questionnaires evidence that the average satisfaction with the activity is 9.24 on a scale of 0-10, and from the qualitative evaluation, the following stand out, among others:

The opportunity to learn about history of past and present migrations from the hand of its protagonists, migrants.
An integrating concept of heritage that transcends monuments. The importance of diversity and how it improves community life.
The opportunity to get to know spaces that are not usually accessed (Mosque, businesses run by migrants, business initiatives, associations, cultural initiatives).

Of the virtual experiences, participants were surprised by the presence and interaction with the protagonists of the works throughout the experience, heightening sensory perception. Participants were asked to define the experience with one word: interesting was the most prominent, fun, good, amazing were the most used words.

After experiencing the virtual reality work, the participants' perception changed substantially, offering more positive responses than in their initial assessment linked to conflict, prejudice and stereotypes of neighbourhoods.

97.2% of the responses recommended the activity and 91.7% wanted it to be transferred as an educational experience.

To maximise effectiveness, a Communication Plan was developed, which included the following actions:

Project brand design and motto
Creation of specific material for the routes: This is an easy-to-read map explaining the project and containing an overview and itinerary of the places to be visited with a brief outline of the contents.
Institutional press releases that have been reflected in local media.
Municipal Social Networks, mainly through Bilbao, Intercultural City.
Social networks of the entities linked to the project: KOOP SF34 and MOVILTIK, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Barriers and challenges

Among the difficulties encountered during the development of the project, the challenges can be categorized into difficulties related to the process and the implementation:

Coordination Challenges: Maintaining a permanent stable group in the coordination team and among the intercultural guides has been challenging. Given the profile of the participants and, in some cases, their precarious employment situations, sustaining a consolidated group has been difficult. This has necessitated the incorporation of new members and has led to imbalances and delays in the development process.

Complex Participation: The project includes the participation of various actors with differing profiles, interests, and management levels, making the articulation of participatory processes complex. This has required constant adaptations and a high level of flexibility.

Implementation:

Financial Resources: There is a need for greater financial resources to strengthen and develop the project.
Dynamic Changes: The high level of social, economic, and cultural dynamism in the project spaces means that the routes must be constantly updated.
Structural Reinforcement: Work is needed to consolidate and reinforce the coordination and management structures of the project.
Participants' Proposals: Improvement proposals include reviewing the duration to accommodate a wider audience (e.g., shorter durations for older people), enhancing the audio range of devices, updating shop openings, improving the gender perspective, adjusting group sizes, increasing the representation of different profiles in virtual content, and more.

For Virtual Reality (VR) Production and Implementation:

Adaptation Needs: There is a need to adapt the VR experience for greater immersion and empathy, and to make certain synchrony adjustments to help users feel more connected and related to the experiences of others.

Lessons learned and transferability

From the outset, the project has been developed with the aim of enabling its transferability and applicability in other cities in Spain and Europe.

To achieve this, a key tool known as the "Methodological Guide" has been created. This guide facilitates the design and implementation of the intervention in various environments. It incorporates a comprehensive outline of the process, identifying specific phases, criteria, actors, work processes, participation methods, communication strategies, and evaluation mechanisms.

The Methodological Guide has been disseminated through the website of the Intercultural Cities Programme, led by the Council of Europe, of which Bilbao has been a member since 2011.

In addition, the entire production process of the Virtual Reality (VR) work has been thoroughly documented to systematize the process. Currently, protocols are in place for using the necessary applications to conduct the presentations. These protocols streamline the execution and ensure that the experience can be replicated in different contexts.