With regret, we must update you all not to plan your journey to Germany for next spring, as was previously communicated.

Due to some shifts in priorities and funding options, the proposed conference for next year – iecon27 – needs to be cancelled, Well, let’s call it postponed, as we hope to re-instate the concept of our fantastic in-person meeting and chance for lively debate among our network of heritage interpretation professionals in future.

For now, keep an eye on our announcements as we hope to find other engaging ways of keeping the fire alive between us.

To cite this article: Interpret Europe Management (2026) “Change of priorities: iecon27 cancelled”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, p. 37. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

AI is changing how knowledge, culture and history are shaped, accessed and understood. This has profound implications for the cultural heritage sector, which has long served as a trusted and accountable interface to public knowledge and culture. At the same time, the growing influence of AI raises important social, cultural, geopolitical and geoeconomic questions, particularly as technological power becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of private actors outside Europe.

Against this backdrop, a recent online Policy Talk explored the vision of a distinctly European approach to AI – Public AI – and the role that the cultural heritage sector can play in shaping it. The discussion built on a recently published paper by Europeana, titled ‘Making Public AI reality: How cultural heritage can lead the way’ (2026), and an upcoming policy paper from the European Heritage Hub, outlining concrete recommendations to build Public AI in Europe. 

European and international policymakers, innovators and leaders from across the cultural heritage and AI communities came together for discussion with the aim to catalyse a coordinated advocacy movement around shared policy priorities and a common vision for Public AI.

A joint policy contribution
As part of the Hub’s mission to contribute to shaping EU policies relevant to cultural heritage, we have been following with great interest the development of the forthcoming AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS), which will be released by the European Commission next year, as announced in the Culture Compass for Europe. We are committed to supporting, informing and inspiring this important Strategy and stand ready to mobilise our expertise for this purpose. The recent Policy Talk was part of this effort.

The cultural heritage sector can help to shape a more diverse, fair and sustainable AI ecosystem in Europe – one that is grounded in the public interest.

Together, the European Heritage Hub and the European Heritage Alliance can make a difference by articulating the policies, partnerships and collective vision needed to make Public AI a reality in Europe. Find the recent papers online to learn more.

[This article has been taken from a newsmail for members and followers of the European Heritage Hub.]
The paper is available to view here

Harry Verwayen, General Director of the Europeana Foundation, European Heritage Hub beneficiary and partner, also in its role as the coordinator of the European Heritage Hub – European Heritage Alliance Digital Task Force and steward of the common European data space for cultural heritage.
Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic, Secretary General of Europa Nostra, Project Leader of the European Heritage Hub and coordinator of the European Heritage Alliance. 

To cite this article: Verwayen, Harry and Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic, Sneška (2026) “Making ‘Public AI’ reality: How cultural heritage can lead the way”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, p. 33. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

Whether you’ve used the guides regularly, dipped into them occasionally, shared them with colleagues, or haven’t yet explored them, we’d really value your feedback.

The survey is anonymous and takes around five minutes to complete. Responses will help shape the future direction of the Best Practice Guides and will also be discussed at the AHI Conference 2026 in Newcastle this October.

Complete the survey here:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=LVbl49TfZkGa3TIcJel2Bb8C2S3UJGdGtuZnusjFH31UQUY3TTVaSVNSMlpHSDVYNTlZQlI1TDA5SC4u&origin=Invitation&channel=0

You can explore AHI’s Best Practice Guides on our website. A selection of guides are open access for non-members, while AHI members can access the full archive of guides, webinar recordings and resources.

https://ahi.org.uk/resource-type/best-practice-guides/

To cite this article: AHI UK (2026) “Have your say on AHI’s Best Practice Guides”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, p. 32. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

As members have already been informed by direct newsmail, there are two important changes in Interpret Europe’s management to be aware of.

Gerald Wagenhofer’s engagement with Interpret Europe came to an end on 15 September 2026. Gerald joined the Management for a limited period to support Interpret Europe with a number of important financial and legal matters. We are very grateful for the expertise and support he has provided during this period and we thank him for his contribution.

Helena Vičič’s current service agreement ends on 31 January 2027 and she will not continue as IE Director after this date. Helena will remain in her role until then and will support the organisation in preparing for a smooth handover. The Supervisory Committee warmly thanks Helena for her outstanding commitment to Interpret Europe and for her professional and personal contribution to the organisation over the past seven years. She has transitioned IE to an organisation well-embedded with UNESCO and EU programmes, and has substantially increased IE’s visibility and impact in the natural and cultural heritage sector in Europe. 

The Supervisory Committee is now preparing the next steps for the recruitment of a new Director and members will be kept informed about the recruitment process and other relevant developments in the coming months.

We thank Gerald and Helena for their work for Interpret Europe and look forward to continuing our work during this period of change.

To cite this article: IE Supervisory Committee (2026) “Changes to IE management”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, p. 9. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

Join the next one, organised by Interpretive Guides Canada, InterpatMX and National Association for Interpretation (NAI):

Thursday 29 October 19:00 CET
The power of interpretation in tourism

Great tourism experiences are about more than seeing the sights or learning the facts, they’re about creating connections that visitors can feel and remember. Interpretation brings destinations to life by revealing the stories, people, culture, and meaning behind a place.

Join panelists from Interpretive Guides Canada, InterpatMX and the National Association for Interpretation (NAI) for an international conversation exploring how thoughtful interpretation can transform the visitor experience.  Discover how guides and tourism professionals can create experiences that spark curiosity, build emotional connections, and turn a trip into more than just an Instagram post.

Kristin Robinson is a CIT, CIGT & NAI Lead Trainer. She is the founder of The Impact Story, a training and consulting company focused on personal interpretation and storytelling.  She is an Advisory Board Member for the International Association of Tour Directors and Guides and is a certified facilitator.  Her 25+ year interpretive career spans cultural/natural/historic sites and international tourism and she holds a Master’s Degree in Performance Anthropology. The conviction that inspires her is that more people exploring and caring about more things in their complexity, will lead to a thriving future for all.  She can be reached at kristin@theimpactstory.com.

Tracey Gage is the Executive Director of the Interpretive Guides Association. She is also a guide, educator, trainer, and tour manager with 30 years of experience in interpretation, guiding, and outdoor education. She has worked as a backcountry guide, interpretive guide, tour guide, grizzly bear educator, operations manager, and guide trainer in the Canadian Rockies and beyond. A certified Master Interpreter and Hiking Guide, Tracey helps guides create experiences that move beyond facts to spark curiosity, reflection, connection, and care. Her work focuses on strengthening professional guiding and helping tourism experiences become more meaningful for guests, communities, and places.

Aura Banda is an interpretive trainer and expedition naturalist with over 21 years of experience, primarily in the Galápagos Islands. Trained by Dr. Sam Ham as a trainer in thematic interpretation and certified as a HEART trainer, she helps guides connect visitors with places, people, wildlife, and stories.
Her long-standing collaboration with Dr. Dee Boersma and Ecosystem Sentinels on Galápagos penguin research is the cornerstone of her approach, integrating science, expeditions, and thematic interpretation, to inspire conservation action. She trains guides to recognize interpretative opportunities, transforming visitors’ curiosity as a starting point to inspire deeper understanding, and support for conservation initiatives.

Register here to receive the link for attendance. Participation is free of charge.

Jon Kohl’s Interpretive Theme Writer’s Field Guide, now in its second edition, is not just a book explaining why interpretation should be thematic. Subtitled, How to craft strong themes from big idea to presentation, it tackles a more practical question: How do we actually craft and deploy a strong interpretive theme?

Designed as a field guide rather than a theoretical text though it still offers extensive references from the interpretation and writing craft literatures, it combines concise explanations with exercises, worksheets, famous writing quotes, examples and critiques of real-world themes. It also features contributions from practitioners worldwide in the ‘Voices from the Field’ sections. You can find essays by IE members Thorsten Ludwig, Angela Pfenniger and Michael Hamish Glen.

For members of Interpret Europe, the timing is telling. Our professional conversations have shifted in recent years toward narratives, participation and co-creation, a shift explored at length during our online symposium in February this year on the role of narratives in 21st century heritage interpretation, which asked how narratives shape meaning, dialogue and responsibility, and why working with them has become a central task for interpretation today. 

Kohl’s book arrives in the middle of that reflection, not outside it. He advocates that narratives do not exist without a theme structure, but that both can be the starting point for storytelling. Kohl embraces participatory approaches; in fact, he argues for ‘theme teams’ and community-based interpretive frameworks to help develop the ‘Big Idea’. But he insists participation does not replace professional expertise, and that a smaller professional group or individual still needs to shape the words that carry a shared idea. Whether a theme ever truly left the centre of planning, or only its authorship became contested, is itself part of the debate this book reopens.

One of its most valuable ideas is the distinction between primary and secondary audiences: a theme should first inspire those who create it, before being adapted for different kinds of visitors. It is a convincing defence of the interpretive planner’s role, not someone who imposes meaning, but someone who facilitates dialogue to identify a compelling ‘Big Idea’ and then refines it into a theme sentence. The book is process-driven and this idea was already in the first edition. 

What the second edition genuinely adds are two new chapters: one on deriving presentation structures from themes, another on developmental psychology, a reminder that interpreters grow and change too which affects both the kinds of themes that they write and the kinds of themes different audiences can relate to.

The chapter on artificial intelligence (AI) deserves attention for its balance. Kohl treats AI as neither threat nor miracle, but as a tool that still demands critical professional judgement. 

The question resonates well beyond this book: it ran through this year’s Interpret Europe trainers’ summer school, where Michal Medek facilitated an exchange ranging from skepticism to cautious optimism, alongside real ethical and sustainability concerns. Kohl has also conducted a separate study on the use of AI in interpretive theme writing, which will be the subject of a webinar on 13 October 2026.

Readers will not agree with every argument here, nor should they. Perhaps the book’s greatest contribution is that it keeps a debate alive rather than closing it, pushing us to keep refining both our thinking and our tools.

The book is available from the US National Association for Interpretation (NAI) and Bloomsbury Academic.

Vanessa Vaio is an IE certified interpretive planner and trainer and is IE’s Country Coordinator Italy. She has worked in heritage interpretation for more than 30 years, supporting museums, protected areas and UNESCO World Heritage sites across Europe. She can be contacted at: vanessa.vaio@interpret-europe.net. 

Have you ever visited a place that stayed with you long after you had left? Not simply because it was beautiful. Not simply because it was old or picturesque. But because you felt that something invisible was still there, perhaps a memory, an idea, a conversation that had never really ended.

In Sykia, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, Greece, there is a house that invites precisely this kind of encounter. Hidden among the pine trees of Pefkias forest, beside the Corinthian Gulf, stands the villa of the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos and his wife, Eva Palmer. Completed in 1916, the villa is one of the distinctive literary and cultural landmarks of the area. Its architecture brings together references from different layers of the Greek past, including classical, Byzantine and Ionian/Venetian influences. Yet the building itself is not the most interesting story. The first thing an interpretive visitor encounters is not the villa. It is the landscape.

Pefkias is a coastal pine forest where the trees grow just beside the Corinthian Gulf, creating a striking meeting of land and sea, enclosure and openness. The villa stands within this landscape, and its setting is essential to understanding the atmosphere in which Sikelianos and Palmer lived and created.

This immediately raises a simple question: Why there?

Instead of beginning with dates and architectural details, the question invites us to look: the pine trees, the sea, the light, the sounds. So, the landscape becomes part of the story.

For Sikelianos, nature was not merely scenery. His relationship with the natural world was deeply connected with his artistic and philosophical outlook. The house, therefore, becomes more than a residence; it becomes part of a particular environment of thought and creativity.

Then we can look at the building itself. Its architectural language is equally layered. Classical references coexist with Byzantine elements and influences from the Ionian and Venetian traditions. Rather than belonging entirely to one historical period, the villa brings different cultural layers into conversation. In a sense, the house is already expressing an idea that was central to Sikelianos and Palmer: that the Greek past could be revisited, reimagined and brought into dialogue with the present.

Furthermore, the villa became a meeting place for people connected with the intellectual and artistic life of the period. Historical sources associate Sykia and the villa with famous poets, including Nikos Kazantzakis, Kostis Palamas and Kostas Karyotakis, among others.

It would be easy to turn these names into a list of famous visitors, but a list of names does not necessarily create an interpretive experience. So instead, imagine them as voices. A poet. A novelist. An artist. A composer.

Different personalities, different ideas, different visions of Greece, sharing a physical and intellectual space. What might they have discussed? What did they disagree about? What ideas were born from these encounters? And, perhaps the most important question, What would you have asked them if you had been there?

This question changes the visitor’s role. We are no longer simply looking at a historic house or receiving information about the people who lived there. We are imagining their voices and becoming participants in a conversation that began long ago.

This is what makes the villa particularly interesting as a place of heritage interpretation, a place where literature could meet music, ancient Greece could meet modern artistic experimentation, nature could become a source of inspiration, personal relationships could develop into cultural projects. 

The relationship between Sikelianos and Eva Palmer is especially important in this respect. Palmer was not simply the poet’s wife. An American by birth and deeply engaged with Greek culture, music, theatre and traditional arts, she was an artist and cultural figure in her own right. The Delphic vision that emerged from the world of Sikelianos and Palmer eventually took form in the Delphic Festivals of 1927 and 1930.

Therefore, we do not simply interpret what survives. We interpret what connects the surviving place with questions that still matter. 

Today, the villa exists in a very different context from the world of Sikelianos and Palmer. Its surroundings and use have changed, and the people who filled the house with conversation are long gone. Yet the place can still provoke questions.

Standing among the pines, looking towards the house and the sea, we can imagine the conversations that once took place here and, for a moment, create a new one. That is where interpretation can begin. Not with just an instruction to admire a historic building, but with an invitation to enter into a relationship with it. A heritage place does not necessarily have to give us every answer. Sometimes it gives us better questions.

How can the past become a source for creating something new? How can encounters among people shape cultural ideas? What happens when different perspectives meet in the same place? And finally, What conversations deserve to continue today?

Perhaps this is what makes the Villa of Angelos Sikelianos more than a historic residence. Its walls preserve a past. Its landscape preserves traces of a particular way of life. But its greatest potential may lie in the questions it can still inspire. Because heritage is not only what survives… It is what continues to speak!

There is also a more personal reason why this place continues to speak to me. I spent my childhood summers in Sykia, growing up with memories of Pefkias — its pine trees, the sea, the paths through the forest, and the quiet presence of this particular house. Long before I approached it as a heritage site, I knew it simply as part of the landscape of my childhood. Perhaps this is why, when I return to the villa today, I find myself thinking not only about the people who lived there a century ago, but also about the way places become part of our own stories. A landscape can hold memories that are deeply personal, while at the same time carrying memories that belong to a much wider cultural past. The two can meet in the same place. And perhaps this is where my own encounter with the villa begins.

Georgia Pyriovolis is an English teacher, certified tour leader and mountain guide, as well as a pioneer of Forest Bathing practice in Greece, recognising the profound link that nature plays in cultivating health and wellness. She facilitates nature-based experiences that foster reflection, dialogue and meaningful connection with place. She can be contacted at: gpyriov@gmail.com.

To cite this article: Pyriovoli, Georgia (2026) “Where the pines still hold their voices”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, pp. 28–29. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

Do you think that living in the countryside is quiet? What would London be without the melodious sound of Big Ben? What would Mediterranean summers be without the chorus of cicadas?

In heritage interpretation, we often talk about multisensory experiences: smell, taste, touch – and, of course, sound. Sound can be particularly powerful. Music has always played an important role in intangible cultural heritage, and today technology gives us new ways to bring sounds, songs and stories into heritage experiences. Folklore songs, for example, can be reproduced during a tour, or incorporated into living heritage experiences, adding another layer to the visitor’s sensory journey.

But recently, I encountered a type of sound that made me think differently about what we consider heritage. The sounds we don’t notice. I often remember someone saying to me, “Wow, you can still hear hawks around your house!” For me, this was almost surprising. Not because I couldn’t hear them, but because I had never really thought about them.

In cities, we often talk about urban white noise. We become accustomed to it and eventually stop consciously noticing it. The same can happen in nature. Depending on where we live, the sounds of birds, bees, insects, sheep and goat bells, cats, rustling leaves and the wind can become part of our everyday acoustic environment. They are so familiar that we stop listening to them.

Yet these sounds can also be references to place. They tell us where we are, who inhabits this place. They can evoke memories, seasons, landscapes and ways of life. And, just like smells or tastes, they can carry cultural meaning.

This question became particularly relevant to me during a recent project on Andros Island in Greece, where we developed two interpretive walks exploring the heritage of the lemon. As part of the project, a large library of soundscapes was created.

At first glance, these might seem like ordinary recordings. But perhaps that is exactly the point. How should heritage interpreters deal with sounds that are so familiar that we hardly notice them? How can we transform an everyday sound into an element of interpretation? And, more importantly, how can we use sound to make visitors listen differently?

Digital interpretation gives us some exciting possibilities. A sound does not necessarily have to be the main attraction. It can work subtly in the background, create an atmosphere, accompany a story, or become the story itself.

For example, in an audio tour or digital interpretive app, we could use familiar sounds in several ways:

• A sound carpet – A natural soundscape playing quietly underneath the interpretive guide’s narration, creating a stronger sense of place.
• A phenomenon to be interpreted – Instead of simply using a bird sound as background, why not invite visitors to stop and listen? And consider what its presence tells us about the landscape?
• An interactive sound game – Visitors could be challenged to identify sounds around them, match recordings with places, animals or elements of the landscape, or even distinguish between sounds that belong to different places or seasons.

These approaches turn listening from something passive into something active.

Learning to listen again: Perhaps the most interesting opportunity is not to introduce visitors to sounds they have never heard before. Perhaps it is to make them notice sounds they have heard all their life. And once we start listening, the landscape changes. We begin to realise that sound is not simply an accompaniment to a heritage experience. It can be a way of understanding place. 

So perhaps the question for heritage interpreters is not simply: What can visitors see here? But also, What can visitors hear? And, What have they stopped noticing?

Because there is no silence in nature. We just need to learn how to listen.

Penelope Gkini works as an interpretive guide and mountain leader. She is an Interpret Europe certified interpretive trainer. You can contact her at: porizocrete@gmail.com.

To cite this article: Gkini, Penelope (2026) “There is no silence in nature”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, pp. 26–27. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

For six heritage destinations across Southern Africa, this means going beyond presenting facts to visitors. It means asking deeper questions: 

What should visitors understand? 

Whose voices should they hear? 

How can communities participate? 

And how can stories contribute to conservation, education and sustainable tourism?

These questions were at the centre of a regional training on interpretation and storytelling held from 27 to 31 July 2026 at Matobo Hills, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, which brought together participants from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. 

Supported by the European Union and implemented by UNESCO through the Africa–Europe Partnerships for Culture: Promoting Culture and Heritage-based Sustainable Tourism in Southern Africa project, the training was delivered in collaboration with Interpret Europe and technical support from the African World Heritage Fund.

Moving from planning to visitor experience

The training marked an important step in the project’s journey from planning towards implementation. Across the six participating sites, Tsodilo Hills World Heirtage Site, Matsanjeni North, Morija Cultural Precinct, Twyfelfontein / Ui-//aes World Heritage Site, ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site and Matobo Hills World Heritage Sites, work is underway to strengthen how heritage is managed, interpreted and connected to sustainable tourism development.

Interpretation is a critical part of this process. Rather than producing interpretation frameworks that remain as planning documents, the project aims to translate them into experiences that visitors can see, hear and participate in, including guided experiences, heritage trails, exhibitions, community storytelling and appropriate digital interpretation.

Through the Interpret Europe Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP) training course, participants explored practical methods for identifying the significance of heritage, understanding different audiences, developing meaningful themes and connecting tangible places with the stories, memories and values associated with them.

The learning extended beyond the training room, with practical exercises encouraging participants to consider how interpretive principles can be applied in real heritage settings.

The training challenged us to think beyond simply giving visitors information about our sites. Good interpretation is about creating a connection, helping visitors understand why a place matters, whose stories it carries and what they should take away from the experience.
Corera Links, Socio-Economic Transformation Officer – ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site, South Africa.

Putting people and multiple voices at the centre

At the heart of effective interpretation is people. Heritage sites hold different histories, memories, meanings and perspectives. The objective is, therefore, not to develop one standard story across the six destinations, but to equip each site team to develop an interpretation framework grounded in its own heritage values, communities and visitor context.

Community participation will be particularly important as this work moves forward. Local communities are not only beneficiaries of heritage tourism. They are knowledge holders, custodians and storytellers whose perspectives can help shape how places are understood and presented.

Bringing these voices into interpretation can also create opportunities for local guides, creatives, cultural practitioners, entrepreneurs, women and young people to participate more meaningfully in the visitor economy.

As local guides, we are not only showing visitors places; we are sharing stories that come from our communities and our lived experiences. It is important that local people are involved in deciding how those stories are told, so that visitors hear the voices of the people connected to the heritage.
Sipho Khoza, Local Community Guide – Matsanjeni North, Eswatini

This reflects a broader shift towards interpretation that is inclusive and multivocal, recognising that heritage can carry different meanings for different people and that these perspectives are part of what makes a place significant.

Learning by doing

The training was designed not simply to introduce interpretation theory, but to prepare participants for the work that follows.

Through facilitated sessions, group exercises, practical activities and reflection, participants considered how interpretation can provoke curiosity, encourage participation, create deeper meaning and ultimately strengthen stewardship of heritage.

One question captured this approach throughout the training: What story should every visitor remember after leaving your heritage site?

The question moves interpretation beyond signs, information panels and guided commentary. It asks site teams to think about the lasting connection between the visitor and the place, and what understanding that comes from emotion or curiosity a visitor should carry with them afterwards.

Interpretation is not simply about providing more information. It is about creating meaningful connections between people and heritage. When visitors are encouraged to think, participate and discover meaning for themselves, interpretation can contribute to a deeper appreciation of a place and its values.
Michal Medek, Interpret Europe trainer

From training to site-level action

The conclusion of the regional training is, therefore, a beginning rather than an end. Participants will take the knowledge and methods developed during the programme back to their respective sites, where the next stage will involve working with site teams, communities and other stakeholders to develop site-specific interpretation and storytelling frameworks.

These frameworks will help identify the stories each site wants to communicate, the audiences it seeks to reach, whose perspectives need to be represented, and the most appropriate ways of turning those narratives into visitor experiences.

This site-level process is particularly important because the six destinations are very different. Tsodilo Hills WHS, Matsanjeni North, Morija Cultural Precinct, Twyfelfontein / Ui-//aes WHS ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape WHS and Matobo Hills WHS each have distinct histories, landscapes, communities, heritage values and tourism contexts.

Their interpretation should reflect those differences.

This training is not an end in itself. What matters now is how the learning is taken back to each of the six sites and translated into interpretation and storytelling frameworks developed with communities and other stakeholders. Ultimately, we want to see those frameworks move from paper into real visitor experiences that strengthen people’s connection with heritage while creating opportunities for communities.
Rodney Bunhiko, Project Coordinator – UNESCO

Turning stories into sustainable futures

The ambition extends beyond improving how stories are told. Strong interpretation can contribute to more meaningful visitor experiences, diversified tourism products, opportunities for local livelihoods and greater understanding of why heritage needs to be protected.

For the Africa–Europe Partnerships for Culture project, this connects interpretation directly to the wider objective of developing sustainable culture and heritage-based tourism across Southern Africa.

The measure of success will, therefore, not be the completion of the training itself, or even the production of six interpretation frameworks. It will be seen in what happens afterwards: whether guides are better equipped to engage visitors; whether communities have stronger voices in how their heritage is presented; whether new experiences and opportunities emerge around heritage; and whether visitors leave with a deeper understanding of the places and people they have encountered.

The training provided the participating site teams with a common foundation. The next step is to turn that learning into locally grounded interpretation frameworks and those frameworks into experiences that connect people with heritage. Because ultimately, the most powerful heritage stories are not simply the ones that are told. They are the ones people understand, feel connected to and carry with them long after they leave.

Rodney Bunhiko is a culture and heritage professional the Project Coordinator for the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA). He has coordinated significant cultural initiatives, including restoration and storytelling development projects at the Great Zimbabwe National Monument and regional heritage preservation programmes. 

Rodney can be contacted at: r.bunhiko@unesco.org 

To cite this article: Bunhiko, Rodney (2026) “From heritage to human connection”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, pp. 20–22. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.

The idea for Cats of Cres was created during an IE Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) course organised by the town of Cres in Croatia. The course included a lot of practical fieldwork, where each participant developed and explored their own interpretive ideas.

The IE trainers noticed something else: I seemed to know almost every cat in the old town by name. One of them asked me, “Why don’t you create a tour about the cats of Cres?” Something immediately clicked.

With their guidance, I developed the idea further, and Cats of Cres became my final course project. This summer, it also became a real interpretive walk in Cres.

But Cats of Cres is not really a tour about cats. The cats are our guides. They experience the town differently from us. They see details we often pass without noticing, hear things we do not hear, and disappear into narrow passages and hidden corners we rarely explore. During the walk, I invite participants to imagine seeing Cres through their eyes.

Instead of focusing on the town’s most obvious landmarks, we stop at small details that are always there, but that we rarely consider important. A fragment of old street paving tells us how people once moved through the town. A symbol on a façade introduces a noble family. Even the terrace of a café reveals a piece of the town’s history.

At the beginning of the walk, participants receive cat ears. It is a playful invitation to become cats themselves for a while: to slow down, observe, listen and look more carefully. Participation is an important part of the experience. We observe, exchange ideas and discover the stories together.

The real cats of Cres are an important part of the experience too. They are friendly, used to people and regularly spend time around the old town, so we often meet them during the walk. Guests also receive a few cat treats, which makes these encounters especially fun for children. They can offer the cats a treat, pet them and get to know some of their names and personalities. Some cats have owners and some do not, but they are all part of everyday life in the town. Of course, there is never a guarantee that a particular cat will appear – they are cats, after all.

My hope is that after the walk participants will continue looking differently – not only at Cres, but at other places they visit. Perhaps they will notice a small detail they would previously have passed by, or see a cat disappearing around a corner and wonder: What would that cat show me if I followed it?

I would love Cats of Cres to inspire interpreters elsewhere to find their own cats, small details and local stories. Every town has a different story to tell.

Dunja Sladić is a licensed tourist and hiking guide and heritage interpreter from Cres, Croatia. Through her tour agency, Cres Fun & More, she creates local experiences connecting visitors with the island’s heritage, traditions and everyday life. She can be contacted at: info@cres-fun.com. 

To cite this article: Sladić, Dunja (2026) “Cats of Cres: Seeing the town through feline eyes”, Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026, p. 19. Available online: Interpret Europe Newsletter Autumn 2026.