Borderless, without borders, is the keyword of the cross-border platform ‘Borderless Wireless GO! 2025’, which can be browsed at www.go2025.eu, presented today - Tuesday 28 May - in its completed form, which includes the accommodation offer for stays and catering in the cross-border area. A vast territory that extends well beyond the perimeter of the cities of Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Culture, and includes the area of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region of the Slovenian border regions, from Collio - Brda to the Slovenian Karst, from the Vipacco Idria valley to the entire Soča valley. Operational well in advance, more than 8 months before the official inauguration of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025, the Platform was illustrated today in Gorizia in its culminating phase of development: a project, curated by GECT GO, which is also one of the pillars of the candidacy book, and already holds the record of the first cross-border platform for a European Capital of Culture. The platform, created through an articulated participatory planning process, in fact registers the adhesion of the Italian and Slovenian tourism promotion institutions of the border area, and from today it will be an important reference for all guests visiting the Borderless area, thanks to the important implementations that confirm a cross-border tourism vocation.

But there's more: as was explained today, the Borderless Wireless Platform GO! 2025 will become a valuable legacy of the European Capital of Culture, because it will remain operational also in the future, as a legacy of GO! 2025, and will therefore retain a lasting impact on the territory and a valuable added value for tourism and cultural promotion. Already today, by logging on to the link https://www.go2025.eu, it is possible to access hundreds of culture, show business and various entertainment events of the upcoming summer of 2024, from the big on-stage events of artists such as Zucchero and Negramaro to the concert that will be conducted by Riccardo Muti in Aquileia, from the exhibitions of Berengo Gardin and Jacovitti to the theatrical proposals, tourist excursions, and events designed for the little ones.

The presentation of the Borderless Wireless Platform GO! 2025 was attended by Barbara Zilli, Councillor for Finance of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia; Rodolfo Ziberna, Mayor of Gorizia, Anton Harej, Deputy Mayor of Nova Gorica, Romina Kocina Director GECT GO and the First level Stakeholders: PromoTurismo FVG, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia, Confcommercio Gorizia, Fondazione Aquileia, the Culture and Sport Directorate of the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, Fundacija Poti miru v Posočju, Območna Razvojna Agencija Krasa in Brkinov, Zavod za turizem, kulturo, mladino in šport Brda, Javni zavod za turizem Nova Gorica in Vipavska dolina, Turizem Dolina Soče, Zavod za turizem Idrija, Zavod za Turizem Miren - Kostanjevica, Javni zavod kulturni dom Nova Gorica, DMO Turismo Benečija, Fondazione Palazzo Coronini Cronberg, G. I.T. Grado Impianti Turistici S.p.A and Goriški muzej Kromberk - Nova Gorica.

‘Borderless Wireless’ is much more than a trilingual (English, Slovenian, Italian) website, it is a real advanced digital platform that allows users to navigate and learn about all the projects and news of the official European Capital of Culture programme with a very simple and intuitive approach. To this must be added the further implementations made to complete the second phase: Romina Kocina, director of the EGTC GO, illustrated them, stressing that they are ‘the result of a strategic plan shared and implemented in a short time thanks to a participatory design process with the main stakeholders in the area, which has made it possible to bring together the cultural and tourist offer in a digital cross-border dimension. The main implementation of the platform includes the tourist information part concerning the possible experiences that can be enjoyed in the area, which can be planned by users directly on the platform by choosing their period of stay, choosing the events on the calendar that they are most interested in, and they will also be able to discover the points of cultural interest or where to stay according to their preferences. In short, everything that is typically offered digitally by a tourist destination and that aims to give maximum support to the enjoyment of visitors to the capital, thus focusing on the cultural value of this cross-border destination’. 

‘The platform dedicated to GO Borderless produces an even more disruptive magnet effect towards young people towards the Capital of Culture, further amplified, in the aftermath of the end of the Giro d'Italia, by the exploits of two champions such as Tadej Pogačar and Jonathan Milan, who raced and won in the pink and cyclamen jerseys,’ commented the Councillor for Finance of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Barbara Zilli. ‘The two champions are a model of humility and commitment, attachment to their land, and I believe they represent an authentic message for Go! 2025. The Capital is celebrated in conjunction with the Jubilee and is linked in an ideal and profound embrace with Aquileia, from which come our deep Christian and cultural roots, which must sustain us to shape the Europe of the future’. The mayor of Gorizia, Rodolfo Ziberna, and the deputy mayor of Nova Gorica, Anton Harej, agreed in enthusiastically greeting the Borderless Platform: ‘an indispensable tool to concretise the communication of the initiatives produced in the territory - observed mayor Ziberna - and above all an investment also for the tourist future of the European Capital of Culture area: because this Platform is destined to remain as a tool for the tourist and cultural promotion of the territory. Just as the Gect GO entity will remain, at the conclusion of GO! 2025, as the reference institution for cross-border integration’. ‘We start today with a project of great value for the promotion of borderless tourism,’ confirmed the deputy mayor of Nova Gorica Harej, ‘and the hope is that more and more users will visit and use this platform, and that the implementation of content will be more and more widespread for the Borderless area.

‘The Borderless Wireless Platform is an important result, achieved thanks to the involvement of the reference institutions, both Italian and Slovenian, the so-called First Level Stakeholders, who today shared and endorsed the objectives of the participatory planning process started in the previous months - commented Giulio Selvazzo, Borderless Wireless project coordinator for Gect GO and ECoC's Intellectual Property Manager - Only thanks to the participation of the main stakeholders of the area - to date - we have managed to offer visitors almost 350 points of interest, more than 1800 accommodation references and a management of about 330 shared events. These numbers are just the beginning, soon they will be even more! A very good start considering that the participatory planning process is open and includes different ways of collaboration. It comforts us that we are more than 8 months away from the start of the Capital but the Borderless message is already fully in place’. 

Tourists, as well as citizens of the territory, by consulting the platform and thanks to the contribution of content from the main actors in the cross-border area, will quickly have access to all the information and proposals that will accompany the European Capital of Culture. It is thanks to this approach that it will also be possible to improve the involvement of the territory and the population through the updating of the new forms that will make it possible - in an even simpler way - to request a licence for the GO! 2025 logo, to submit a request to the Capital's editorial board for the inclusion of one's event within the platform or even to apply to be a GO! 2025 Artist to further increase the Capital's artistic and cultural offer. These are the main development highlights of this phase of the platform, made possible by the contribution of the project team made up of Studio ButMaybe, creator of the Capital's coordinated image, and developed by Kumbe, a Trento-based agency specialising in tourist sites. Borderless Wireless Platform GO! 2025 is thus a virtuous example of digital enhancement of the cross-border territory.