Trufflegarden Heritage Centre - visitor attraction concept development plan

TRUFFLEGARDEN HERITAGE CENTRE Concept Development Plan and Scrapbook

Roland Lรกposi, Edinburgh, 2020

Contents

Village resort and Restaurant ............................................................... 21

Introduction ................................................................................................ 2

Our secret location: ‘Your Home’.......................................................... 21

Vision: ‘from plantation to plate’ ................................................................ 2

Signage and orientation ............................................................................ 23

Why truffle? ............................................................................................ 3

Maps...................................................................................................... 23

Trend Canvas............................................................................................... 4

Directing signs ....................................................................................... 23

Development Concept: ............................................................................... 5

Staff ........................................................................................................... 24

Location and context .................................................................................. 6

Skills ....................................................................................................... 24

Destination ecology: stakeholders and partners .................................... 7

What guides do? ................................................................................... 24

Site locations and settings ...................................................................... 8

What truffle hunters do? ...................................................................... 24

Transformative experience ......................................................................... 9

What dogs do? ...................................................................................... 24

Heritage research and exhibition............................................................ 9

Appearance ........................................................................................... 24

Website and the virtual museum ........................................................... 9

Bibliography .............................................................................................. 25

Social media .......................................................................................... 10

Picture references for Exhibition layout ............................................... 25

Visitor’s Journey ........................................................................................ 11 Interpretation ........................................................................................... 12 Themes and Storylines concepts .......................................................... 12 Locations and activities: Maps and Descriptions ...................................... 13 Trufflegarden Heritage Centre .............................................................. 15 Flow ....................................................................................................... 15 Heritage centre concept scrapbook.......................................................... 17 Truffle Trails 1, 2, 3 ............................................................................... 18 Truffle orchards..................................................................................... 18 Truffle Hunting grounds ........................................................................ 19

Introduction

Vision: ‘from plantation to plate’

Trufflegarden manages truffle orchards and two wild forests to harvest truffles. The owners wish to share their knowledge and skills in sustainable woodland and plantation management, climate change adaptation and promoting truffle culture, traditions, stories and food making.

The Trufflegarden Heritage Centre is going to be a visitor attraction, where visitors can stay, gain transformative experience through engagement and participation in a visitor’s journey shaped around themes based on truffle. They can do it through activities, sites and storylines aligned with the slow food and slow adventure principles in order to connect people to nature and local people, to engage all 5 senses and to take visitors behind the scenes of the very secretive and hidden world of truffle.

Its aim to establish a truffle heritage centre – the Trufflegarden Heritage Centre – to do research and share information about the heritage of people involved in truffle hunting and growing in the area. Important role of the heritage centre to form partnerships with existing and potential stakeholders to create a new visitor attraction in cooperation with the local community and actors.

Trufflegarden places strong emphasis on the development of the remote rural area of Szentantalfa by raising awareness to social, economic and environmentally sustainable and way of life. It works together with the local Zsóka’s Inn, a nationally recognised village retreat resort of converted vernacular houses with adjoining gardens and a countryside restaurant.

The Inn has almost 100% occupancy in high season between June-August but out of season it only uses around 30% of its capacity to accommodate guests and only has the restaurant open for two days a week1.

This is an opportunity to tap into the existing client base and marketing networks of the inn, by diversifying the available visitor attraction options for visitors.

The inserted short YouTube videos will open in a browser window. Please CLICK on them!

1 CLICK: Destination: The Balaton Uplands. Source: Youtube

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Information provided by Zsóka’s Inn

Why truffle?

Truffle is type of fungi growing underground on roots of trees and used to make fine dining foods. It is widely, but not well known. The main producers and consumers are in France, Spain and Italy, with a very rich culture of enjoyment. Other countries like Croatia and Hungary are also traditional truffle grounds. Due to the recent revolution in Hungarian food and wine scene which raised a strong demand for authentic, traditional ingredients and locally resourced products2.

The majority of Hungarian truffle is collected from forests by truffle hunters (people with trained dogs), and it is sold to Italian and German distributors3.

3 Influencer in the forest: Oprah Winfrey. Source: Sabatino Tartufi

The climate change has been fundamentally changing the truffle scene by pushing the frontier of truffle habitats northward up to Scotland, while making the Mediterranean truffle grounds and orchards untenable due to warming temperature, lack of irrigation and extended periods of droughts.

This shift is already under way and opened new possibilities for climate change adapted farms in Hungary. Truffle orchards are managed ecologically and with a long-term view as the planned lifecycle is over 4050 years.

2 Truffle hunting: Visitors at Karlic Tartufi; Kids and dogs and truffles. Source: Karlic Tartufi + World Travel Family

2

Hungarian Government (2019) National Tourism Development Strategy 2030

Trufflegarden has two orchards up and running with around two years before achieving full commercial production volume. The 9-hectare plantation shall produce around 100 kg truffle/hectare on a sell-price of 150 euros/kg in each season (late August to early February) in every years.

This will provide finances to turn the estate into a visitor attraction and establish a truffle heritage centre.

3

Consultation with Andrea Gรณgรกn expert. Source and contact: Truffle Cultivation

Trend Canvas Basic Needs

Drivers of Change: Shifts

Triggers:

Innovation Potential

Mindfulness and well-being, Seeing and experiencing through 5 senses, Authentic: no fake, no mass, Joy and enjoyment and recreation, Green getaway, Adventure and challenge, Creative Exploration and fun,

Climate change and rise of environmental consciousness, Flygskam - flight-shaming, Emergence of electric cars and charging networks, Shift to transformative economy, Huge deficiencies on supply side, only traditional, single tourist services, Focus only on physical infrastructure, not on visitor’s journey, No mega-trends identified in the Tourism Development Strategy 2030, Visitor attractions have no booking apps and online platforms,

Hungarian Forint devaluating, Electric buses only for public transportation in cities in 2025, Gastro revolution, Veszprém s going to be the European Capital of Culture in 2023, Balaton Uplands on UNESCO’s Tentative list, Train development around the Balaton, Strategy 2030 promotes cultural, wine & food, well-being tourism, Real-time data collection on tourist nights started in 2019,

Planning a visitor’s journey, Linking up truffle, heritage, nature and environmental consciousness with well-being, Authenticity via heritage, and existing geographical origin designation, Planned and managed online presence, Tapping into other niches like HelloWood (millennials’) Ozora (global festival travellers) and Zsóka’s Inn (retreat, wine & food) Electric charging point and shuttle,

Emerging Costumer Expectations

Inspiration

Who

Immersive experiences, meaningfully woven together, Using all the 5 sense , Environmentally consciousness, Contributing to local community, Connecting to people and stories , Exploring authentic culture through unique places and experiences, Connecting to nature, finding piece and mindfulness, Option to switch between solitude and togetherness,

Karlic and Zigante Tartufi (Croatia) La Trufa Negra (Spain), Érsek Éden (Hungary) all offer various degree of the combination of the experiences. They usually focus on one aspect and offer a limited service in another 1-2. All of them operating on small scale with global outreach. Only the global player Urbani Tartufi (Italy) has a museum and chef academy.

Alba and Nero Norcia (Italy) and TeTa (Croatia) Truffle Festival represents the regional scale with a serous potential for destination management, truffle, artisan food and wine is the main attraction and heritage (Alba is in Piedmont region on a World Heritage Site

From millennials to the age of 45-50,, Smaller groups, friends or families – later case could be 3 generations together, Active and curious people, Looking for ‘eat, pray and love’, Peace and mindfulness are important, Physical challenge and creativity are plus, Nature, with intimate places but not a day long trekking, Slow food, slow adventure ,

MakeMayDay (UK) offer website and app for building modular experiences with ease.

Heriot-Watt’s Intercultural Research Centre has the New Connections Across the Northern Isles virtual museum, covering hard-to-access areas from Shetland to the Western Isles and forming connection in the virtual space.

Data: OECD (2019) OECD Economic Surveys: Hungary, p156-169 and National Tourism Agency (2019) National Tourism Development Strategy 2030

Development Concept:

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1. Creating a visitor attraction by -

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Developing a visitor’s journey with partners; Opening sites and providing interpretation through linking together activities and places to discover, Establishing the Trufflegarden Heritage Centre providing up-todate research information, creating a virtual museum and a forest themed exhibition, Offering variable and seasonal all year around experience.

2. Giving meaning to the truffle heritage by -

Developing themes and stories with the involvement of local people and lore; Involving the gastronomic sector (chefs, restaurants and organisations) through events and seasonal market fairs; Educating people about what truffle is, where is it coming from, why is it expensive, while giving a chance to experiment with tastes and food recipes and discover the joy of eating truffle;

3. Provide transformative experience by -

-

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Raising awareness to contemporary and future issues with climate change, sustainability, food security and life on rural areas and showing first –hand examples; Encouraging visitors to think on consequences and possibly change perspectives on lifestyle on long term;

Seven strategy to survive the summer by Hospitallers at the Lake Balaton (2018) Welovebalaton. Source:

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Setting an example of ecologically friendly but financially viable economic activity by looking at the gastro-chain from harvesting to preparing a ‘Made by You’ goodie bag Discovering together different ways of creating, preparing and consuming food where playful creativity is the key and exploration in OK; Offering possibilities to visitor to engage with artisan food and winemakers for a more immersed experience; Connecting visitors to nature and landscape as they are roaming the trails and sites, going for truffle hunting or visiting orchards.

4. Contributing to the local community by -

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Employing local people and talent and providing training for them; Helping to retain experienced staff by tackling seasonality over the out-of-season business who otherwise would move another country4; Allowing the use of the designated sites, facilities and activities for free of charge in frequent occasions especially for local children and young people and families; Reinforcing local identity by promoting traditions, culture and heritage Ensuring sustainability’s priority in developments decisions and setting limits on visitor numbers.

https://welovebalaton.hu/bor.gasztro/igy.elik.tul.a.nyarat.a.balatonon.het.strate gia.vendeglatosoktol

Location and context Trufflegarden based in the small village of Szentantalfa, in the NivegyValley wine region, which is a protected designation of origin for this terroir in the Balaton Uplands region.

Just over 500 people live in the village in 140 homes.5

4 Szentantalfa with the Lake Balaton. Source: http://osszkep.hu/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0713.jpg

The village is 7 km away from the Lake Balaton, the major summer/beach tourist destination of Hungary, which in terms of the size and scale second only to the capitol city Budapest. Balatonfüred, the biggest city of the northern shores of the Balaton and Veszprém, the regional capital on the 5

Source: http://nepesseg.com/veszprem/szentantalfa

county are both 40 km away. The distance to the Budapest Airport is 175 km away from the village. The closest railway line runs along the Balaton and Zánka- Köveskál train station is just 6.5 km away. Getting to the village by public transport is a challenge, the only way is by bus which goes only every two hours.

The life of the village relies heavily on agriculture in form of wineries and local farms producing artisan foods and hospitality businesses. Besides that, the local municipality is the biggest employer and many of the people commute to other towns and cities in the vicinity.

5 Vineyards on the hillsides over Szentantalfa. Source: https://femina.hu/utazas/nivegyvolgy-latnivalok/

Destination ecology: stakeholders and partners

The municipality also responsible for road maintenance, signage, waste collection and trade permissions.

Local level actors shape the destination with their own interests, intentions and investments. Partnerships and synergies can mutually reinforce each other’s effort in marketing the experiences.

Together they can tap into many different markets and have a wider outreach.

Special potential partners HelloWood initiative takes large groups of architectural, engineering, landscape designer and art& craft university students to design and build wooden landscape feature in return for accommodation and food. Their target group is educated millennials, always looking for locations.

Ozora Festival builds new and dismantles old pop-up festival buildings made from organic materials. They can be used here.

Mental wellbeing and yoga instructors work in the region but not approached by any of the stakeholders.

6 Stakeholders from top to bottom on national - regional - local level. Source: own illustration

All agencies providing strategies and finances for tourism including cultural heritage, gastronomy and nature are important.

As a forest and landscape based, village scale visitor attraction Trufflegarden must comply to regulations and guidance provided by environmental agencies.

Conservation, planning and building authorities are involved in development planning process and in the preparation of the local development plan.

Site locations and settings Trufflegarden’s orchards are located just outside of the village, one of them next to the vineyards while the other is beside the truffle hunting forests.

The forests are within the Balaton Uplands National Park’s area. They are also part of the buffer zone for the proposed Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape nomination currently on UNESCO’s Tentative list.

The Trufflegarden is in a strategic alliance with Zsóka’s Inn, a major hospitality stakeholder. There is an underused single storey building belonging to the resort in the village centre within 2 minutes walking distance from the Inn. This building may accommodate other nonresidential uses according to the local development, and it can be a potential home for the heritage centre.

7 Restaurant and car park. Source:, own photo, http://www.zsokafogadoja.hu/

8 Zsóka's Inn: layout of the village retreat and restaurant. Source: http://www.zsokafogadoja.hu/

Transformative experience The concept plan aims to achieve transformative experience6 for visitors through various level of immersion. The plan focuses on interaction between hosts, truffle hunters, guides, chefs, hospitality partners and the staff of the heritage centre. Visitors will be engaged in various ways and locations and be involved in sharing their own thoughts and creating various truffle-based food creations, they are likely to consider consuming.

Proposed experiences: -

Truffle hunting with experienced truffle hunters Guided site visits with storytelling, Recreation and chill out with mental wellbeing, meditation and mindfulness classes in partnership with the local yoga instructor Cooking classes and creating your own goodie bag: ‘Made by You’ (‘edutasting’: sounds like edutainment?)

Truffle show cooking and tasting in partnership with local vineries and artisan food makers Exhibition, coffee and gift shop

exhibition, which will be changed frequently by reflecting on new research results. Beside the own research and the centre will keep tab on other researchers’ work in the field and share them with visitors. This will also provide content for the online platforms and social media, both in Hungarian and English.

Website and the virtual museum The heritage centre will have a dedicated website, which will be its main platform for an online museum and to make bookings. For example, visitors can see here 3D models of truffles, truffle hunter tools, watch videos and interviews with truffle hunters, guides and local people involved with truffle heritage as well as look up recipes, read stories and get regular updates on the work of the centre. The website will also have a Trufflegarden blog to write about researches (example here)

These options are modular and could be combined in many different ways to get different experiences. For the deepest immersion visitor will be encouraged to follow through the whole story and stay for 3-4 consecutive nights, however the activities are available for the local community, or can be experienced individually too without staying here.

Heritage research and exhibition The heritage centre will do the research on truffle heritage, curation of the exhibition and the development of the stories. It will create a regular

9 Example for a virtual museum: New Connections Across the Northern Isles. Source: https://irc.hw.ac.uk/new-connections.html

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http://www.aandbcymru.org.uk/documents/2012-07-16-11-35-19-10Beyond%20Experience.pdf

Tina Mermiri (2009) ‘Beyond experience: culture, consumer & brand – The transformation economy, Arts & Business, London [online] available at:

Social media Social media channels will be the main tool of reaching out and informing guest as well as interact with them. All social media channels will be updated regularly and use friendly, informal tone reflecting to the happenings locally and globally. The main goal is to get wide range of topics explored from book reviews to recommendation of other places to discover – all connected to experiences available at Trufflegarden. Visitors will be encouraged to use the #trufflegarden hashtag when posting.

Instagram will be the main platform of posting photos, and. Special locations on sites will be identified as the most ‘Insta-able’ places and communicated to visitors on the orientation maps and brochures.

Twitter will be the main source of information on short stories and comments reflecting everyday information and news.

Facebook will be a bit of an amalgam of both above and a place where virtual community can be created around the truffle heritage.

YouTube will be the home of videos, food recipes and recorded interview.

YouTube has a creative studio application provides a free and easy-to-use solution to make content.

11 Example of modular booking through online platform. Source: getyourguide.com 10 CLICK: Recipes on YouTube. Source: Villa Plus

Visitor’s Journey

Interpretation On conceptual level, there are 4+1 storylines around the themes of cultural heritage, nature and sustainability, where truffle is the main thread tying them up. The stories use local settings and examples to tell about events and changes with national and in cases global significance. They connect information, knowledge and local lore to the sites and truffles.

so it could be dangerous! There are stories of poisoned dogs, robbery and killings. In Italy and France, organised crime is always close by…”

Truffle Futures

The storylines and the principles of achieving transformative experience place strong emphasis on environmental consciousness as well as on truffle heritage. Every location – truffle hunting grounds and orchards – has its own leading storyline.

“While often threatened in their natural habitat, truffles do well on plantations. And they have a secret: truffle makes host tress healthier, stronger and more resilient. An orchard enhances the local biodiversity and gives home to many insect, smaller and bigger animals and a wide variety of plants. During their lifecycle trees absorbs a huge amount of CO2 from the air and they act as a carbon storage system. That is the way a truffle orchard can contribute to the sustainability in the future…”

Themes and Storylines concepts

Food for 5 senses

Themes will be based on experiences of people and with knowledge of the local area and truffle. The stories also draw on many disciplines from agriculture to heritage and food. Each storyline emphases the relevance of a theme and engage visitors into thinking about the future while.

The thrill of truffle hunting “Truffle doesn’t grow everywhere. Even if you know a location, it may vary in every year. You must have a dog to find it and know what to look for and how to harvest. No guarantees though, you might go home empty handed or might find a piece worth of hundreds of pounds, It is a bit like gambling, only it is environmentally friendly and you are not going to lose all your money…”

Darkside of Truffle “Truffle industry and the world of truffle hunters – that’s the guy with a dog – are very secretive. Traditionally each hunter has its own hunting grounds - locations handed down through generations. Poaching is a real threat!

Anything can happen in the deep dark forest, where are not eyewitnesses,

“To get truffle on your plate and hopefully to your ‘Made by You’ bag the use of all senses is important. You must see where you are and keep an eye on the dogs too. You must listen to the noises and use your hand to uncover the truffle with a wee shovel and your nose to smell the scents to decide if truffle is ripened enough. We are not the first one eating truffle, the Romans who built Villa Romana Balaca not far from here and have villas, farms and vineries all around the Balaton Uplands for example regarded truffle as strong aphrodisiac and used it accordingly…” + Mystical forest for kids “Once upon a time forests were full of mythical animals and creature. In the imagination of the people told again and again during the centuries ancient folk stories were about elves, dwarfs, fairies, gnomes, trolls and adventure of princes and princesses, many of them captured in the 100 Hungarian Folktales. There is so many stories to choose from but today I am going to talk to you about the story of the…”

Locations and activities: Maps and Descriptions

Trufflegarden Heritage Centre The heritage centre will be in a refurbished and converted building in the centre of the village. This is the starting and finishing point of all trails and guided activities. The building will be accessible for disabled guests and have an outside stair and elevator installed.

Ground floor level: -

Reception and meeting point Orientating map (there is another one outside too) Restrooms Exhibition space Coffee and truffle shop space Kids’ corner

Attic level: -

Co-working style office for resident and visiting researchers Meeting room with a capacity of 25-30 people

This is the place where visitors meet with the guides and have the first impression with Trufflegarden. Within, wall posters showing different part of the forested area of Trufflegarden surround the reception and exhibition spaces, and visitors hear sound samples recorded on the truffle grounds.

Along the outer wall, there are small display cabinets placed in different heights showing tool used in truffle hunting under spotlights.

The exhibition area divided to two areas along its length by an animated 2D display showing moving pictures: animals, silhouette of truffle hunters, dogs, seasons changes with an opening in the middle.

12 CLICK: Sensory experiences at arrival, Glasgow Airpor., Source: Youtube

There is where a model oak tree stands with screens showing illustrative video about the interaction between trees and truffles. The forest setting is dimly lit, only the path is bright as it is illuminated from above by spotlights.

Flow The layout and the flow are designed to take people around the exhibition area, through the coffee and gift shop. The forest setting is dimly lit, only the path is bright as it is illuminated from above by spotlights.

The path starts from the reception and meanders through the space around walls can all be displayed in succession. Local stories also can be included and displayed like an animated movie.

The path leads towards the glass walled end, where the interior changes.

This is the sunny area of the coffee shop, where 4-5 tables and chairs standing around small market-stalls of merchandise, non-perishable local

food products, gifts and publications. The coffee shop only caters for a limited, selected range of products: coffee, tea, handmade fruit juices and cakes (including gluten free, allergen free and vegan options).

13 Fresh lemonade, local berries at Érsek Éden Truffle. Source: Érsek Éden

In the corner there is a kid’s corner with painted wall showing the ‘Hungarian Folktales’ themes, referring back to the stories told in stories in the truffle grounds. There is also drawing and colouring material, beanbag seating, playdough to make ‘truffles’ and tablets to check out a few of the cartoons while the grownups having a coffee.

This is also the place, where visitors can pick up their ‘Made by You’ goodie bag, or if they did not take part in cooking classes, they can pick truffle products and gifts.

Then the path turns you back to the direction of the reception, where the guides and the reception staff will direct visitors to their guides or say farewell at the end of the stay.

14 CLICK: Example of blending of truffle heritage themed exhibition, coffee shop and gift shop AND online content - Paolo Urbani Truffle Museum, Italy. Source: Urbani Tartufi YouTube

Heritage centre concept scrapbook – layout and flow

Truffle Trails 1, 2, 3 The trails connect the heritage centre to the truffle hunting grounds and truffle orchards. There are three different trails leading to the individual sites. The trails leading to the bigger truffle orchard and the forest sites have a significant elevation in certain places and shall cross a small stream.

The shortest trail 1 is 500 meters (8-10 minutes), trail 2 is 850 meters (1215 minutes) and trail 3 is 1.1 km (20-25 minutes).

Outside of the heritage centre building there is an orienting map, showing the different routes and destinations in and around the village. The routes are following existing desire lines. The trails are not that long and go over even asphalt surface, however out of the village they change to ground roads. Along the route, the guide welcomes and builds rapport with visitors, introduces the local area and gets into storytelling.

Truffle orchards These are planted forest sites, surrounded by tall fence and under CCTV surveillance, because wild animals – deer and wild boar – would damage the trees and there is a chance that they are going to be targeted by robbers. Access through gates is controlled.

Orchard 1 This is a small, experimental plantation growing Périgord truffle, which is a very rare type in Hungary. Here the changing environment and its consequences the main storyline spiced up with the darkside stories.

Orchard 2 It expands over 7 HA, has over 10000 planted trees, with its own internal ‘orchard trail’ and 5 additional landscape design features surrounded by small meadow areas, for strolling around, chilling out and in general to get lost within nature and find peace and concentrate on fun and well-being.

The landscape design elements are designed and built by the HelloWood movement, and recycled from the Ozora festival. They are going to be installed in phases, possibly one in every year. Individual locations on site: 1) Entrance tunnel: it marks the entrance into the orchard, but also signs that visitors are entering into a different world. It is made of locally resourced timber.

2) Smart Waves: there is no stabile Wi-Fi mobile reception coverage on this side of the Nivegy-Valley, but here visitors can have access to the Trufflegarden Wi-Fi and recharge phones or tablets. Or, just take a nap on the waves. They are loved features in the city central of Budapest and kids love running up and down on them.

3) Truffle Shack: the only place with restrooms, snack, drinks and beanbags to seat under shelter through the summertime, when temperature can reach 40 Celsius degrees. It also plays hypnotic tribal music from Organica Elemental available Soundcloud providing multisensory experience. Next to it, there are large, colourful tents with organic carpets ideal for taking yoga classes or just mediate.

4) Spiral Tower: this lookout tower landmark is based on an actual one – tough it is not 20 meters tall, just 5 which is the standard height for hunter’s blind in the area and the local plans permits it. It stands on the highest point of the orchard, where visitors can see the scenic view of the valley, the village and the Lake Balaton. It also has a slide inside for the brave and adventurous. In 10 years, the trees will match and go beyond its height and it will become the part of the façade of nature.

5) Kids Zone: it is not a kindergarten where children can be left on their own, but it is safe place with loads of entertainment to keep them happy together with their parents. There are trampolines on the ground, a mud-

pit to get dirty or build sandcastles (water taken from the wee burn running along the orchard), wood toys and a woodland adventure park Orchard 2 is a special place as it can be visited during the whole year on designated days and time periods, apart from maintenance periods and not only in truffle season (between August and February). Out of season, booking in advance is required, or at least a pop into the heritage centres reception, however in later case no facilities can provided. It is fee free for everyone during spring and summer time, but during truffle season only for local community organisations, nurseries, schools and kids. It is fully accessible for disabled guests.

Truffle Hunting grounds (forests and woodlands) These woods are untamed, wild forests on sometimes, steep hillsides and braes, where truffle grows naturally. The forests belong to the Balaton Uplands National Park, and Natura 2000 protected and for health & safety and security reasons there are no signage or interpretive displays placed anywhere. However, there will be a single land art feature signalling the start and finishing point of every truffle hunt: a woven wooden ring. It is part of the ritual.

Here a guide and a truffle hunter with trained scent dogs accompany visitors. The dogs are especially playful and love kids. The terrain can be challenging, and the level of difficulty is various ranging from easy walk to trekking. However, the route taken is tailorable for less experienced forest walkers and kids as well.

15 Woven wooden ring in the Redwood Forest, Australia. Source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/redwood-forest-tree-art

The stories told in the forest starting with the ‘Thrill...’ story but can cover all storylines augmented with the truffle hunters own experience and knowledge. An average truffle hunt lasts around 3-4 hours including the time to get here and back to the heritage centre.

ingredients when experimenting with or creating recipes and preparing different dishes and their own goodie bag called ‘Made by You’.

The main visitor’s car park is located at the restaurant, and for staying guests in the smaller courtyards. Electric charge point will be installed to every carpark and an electric shuttle bus will take guest to the train station, the Balaton or into Veszprém city.

During truffle season the main carpark can also be transformed into a pop-up truffle market fair with stalls and serviced from the restaurant.

16 Young truffle hunter + treasure found in Croatia. Source: Karlic Tartufi

Village resort and Restaurant- the Zsóka’s Inn The resort has 14 individual apartments in converted vernacular houses, group around 3 wine themed ‘courtyards. The all connected through the gardens of the formerly separate plots. It also offers BBQ place, swimming pool, playground, Finnish sauna and Jacuzzi, a reception with wines hop and a restaurant.

Even though the Inn is a separate entity, signage will be aligned for the better visitor experience. There are apartments suitable for disabled guest, but the restaurant is inaccessible.

The restaurant is the place where cooking classes and show cooking takes place with the resident chef. The storyline revolves around tastes, scent and recipes of the past and the today. In the kitchen, visitor can taste local

17 Érsek Gergely chef is getting ready for show cooking (left). Ideas for the ‘Made by You’ bag (right). Source: Érsek Éden, own photo

Our secret location: ‘Your Home’ This is the place and moment where the ‘Made by You’ comes forward, and soon scents, smells tastes and memories will take over. This is the end of Trufflegarden’s visitor’s journey, hopefully with a newly converted member of the truffle lovers community on board.

Signage and orientation Maps Orienting maps will be placed in every location, showing recognizable landscape features and associative elements. There will be brochure versions in to be handed over to visitors and to guest rooms.

The brochures will also hold information about facilities and services and will clearly mark the routes to be taken to the sites as well as show other points of interests and visitor attractions. They will be displayed at all partners and attractions offered.

Directing signs At the moment, there are many different directing signs in the village, displaying different information in different style. Trufflegarden will work together the local municipality and stakeholders to get a unified, village wide signage system.

19 Directing signs: the faded and the organic. Source: own photo, osszkep

18 -Artistic maps to Lonely Planet UK by map artist Nik Neves. Source: Mary C. Nasser

Staff Skills Staff are effectively rangers working in and outdoor. Required skills are Health and Safety, Bushcraft and First aid.

They also will have training in Storytelling and Park Guiding. The national park offers training offer guides and volunteers.

English, German and Hungarian are required with at least two of them on a level, which allows building good rapport and easy flowing conversation.

What guides do?

Guides will be working in rotation and accompanying visitor groups going for different activities and sites. They will be at orchard 2 when it is open for the public.

Their main role is greeting and saying farewell, to inform and engage as well as hold conversations with people. Guides shall also have good people skills to any deal with any difficult situations.

They shall alter the storylines according to the different type of visitors, combine them to lead more immerse experience. The main concept behind the truffle heritage centre’s motivation is based on the ‘Heritage Cycle’7 which – through the visitor’s journey – takes one from enjoying, understanding and valuing to caring. Guides shall help them hop the stages.

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Childs quotes Simon Thurley (2005) in Childs, C. (2015) ‘Culture and Heritage Tourism Experience: Key Themes’, in The 9th UNTWO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook, Guilin, China, October 2015,

The guides shall use open ended questions and ask about people’s views and there is always a chance to give a ‘teaser’ before in each activity to make visitor interested into a deeper level of immersion.

Of course, some people have a more intellectual approach therefore edutainment is a ‘hook’ and some people more rely on the sensual experiences, so for them the activities using sense – including eating – is the way to form connections to truffle. The guide shall pick on these things.

What truffle hunters do?

Truffle hunters are paid and invited experts, locally and from around the country. They all have different experiences and ideas about truffle. The main goal on the long term is to find out, who is the best with the people.

What dogs do?

Running around, being friendly with everyone, listen and obey to commands and shall have working truffle scent dog certificate. Finding truffles – very important!

Appearance The guides – practically rangers - are working outdoor and in forest environment in various weather, therefore high visibility and protective uniforms to stand out. (Dogs also will have high visibility collars.)

Word count: 5003 excluding footnotes, contents and references

Bibliography AIM (2017) Successful Visitor Experience – Getting it Right US. National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Office, US. Department of Interior (2010) Interpretative Planning Tools for Historic Ways and Gateways MERL: (n.d.) Social Media Policies and Guidelines VisitEngland (n.d.) Visitor Attraction Quality Standards Morcillo, M., Sánchez M., Vilanova, X. (2015) Truffle Farming Today – a Comprehensive World Guide, Spain, Barcelona, Micologica Forestall Griffiths, T.J. (2017) Oaks and the Appenines – Truffle Cultivation, Heritage Foods, Sustainability and Well-Being in Italy, Italy , Macerata, Edizioni Ephemeria

Picture references for Exhibition layout Coffee and gift shop https://www.pinterest.com/pin/262616222001708373/ Kid’s corner https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenewchildrensmuseum/2487075283/ 2D Animated panes https://www.polin.pl/en/forest Tree model https://www.chron.com/life/health/article/Texas-A-M-Forest-Servicecelebrates-centennial-9655823.php Walls

https://www.glenstone.org/art/exhibition/robert-gober/ Logo vectors on illustrations created by freepik, myriammira, rawpixel, macrovector has been designed using resources from Freepik.com