Everything takes place as part of the EU project "Active Tourism meets Advanced Technology in Cross-Border Area - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.", the total value of which is 1,545,287.06 euros, and 85 percent is co-financed from the European Fund for Regional Development, i.e. from the Cross-Border Cooperation Program INTERREG V-A Hungary - Croatia 2014 - 2020. The partners from Croatia are Varaždin County as the leading partner and the Tourist Board of Varaždin County, while the Hungarian partners are the City of Csurgó and Pannonia University, Nagykanisza Campus.

During the implementation of the EU project, a number of activities were realized, noted the head of the Administrative Department for Economy and European Affairs of varazdin County, Darko Majhen.
- As part of the project, we acquired high-tech equipment consisting of multimedia presentation equipment, such as laser projectors, computers and an audio system, 3D artistic sculptural objects, and we will have hologram projection and a video surveillance system. It should be noted that we created a database of owners and managers of cultural and natural heritage in the project area, held training cycles for stakeholders in tourism and owners of facilities intended for tourists, organized an international conference in Varaždin with a large response of visitors, and after the establishment of visitor centers in Varaždin and Csurgó, the application that we are presenting will be a kind of link with the tourist offer in both regions - said Head Majhen.

This is also an added value of this project as part of the Interreg V-A Program, whose slogan is "Where rivers meet". One of the goals of this EU project is to connect people in the border area and develop unity and cooperation.
- It is equally important that future visitors and tourists will be familiar not only with the urban, but also with the rural parts of Varaždin County and the Hungarian Csurgó and its surroundings. Visitor centers will serve as a starting point, which is an added plus to the tourist offer, and the locations in the rural parts of the county to which this application will guide them will serve as an incentive for further research - emphasized Majhen.

Hungarian partners from the University of Pannonia, Nagykanisza campus, have developed a mobile application as part of the project, which, in addition to tourist information, also contains five games, announced Goran Mališ, director of the Varaždin County Tourist Board.
– The games are made on the basis of 3D models, and are based on the so-called augmented reality. Tourists will be able to tour five locations from Andrew's Tower in Kneginac via Grebengrad, the fortified town of Bela and the church of St. Martin in Varaždinske Toplice, and up to Pranger - the column of shame in Vinica, enable playing games in front of the real background. The goal of the application related to the project is to make the tourist attractions of the two regions accessible to everyone, even across the border, with the help of modern information and communication tools. Using augmented reality, the games experientially embody the era associated with a common historical figure, Andrew II. – points out Mališ.

The application fully encompasses the cultural-historical and natural values of the two regions through the display of the built environment, and it functions in a way that guides tourists to visit five points of interest from the Croatian and Hungarian sides, so that they can play the game there and collect points.
- We can learn through fun by studying the attractions related to the visitor centers in Csurgó and Varaždin. With the help of the application, we can travel through time and across borders, even from home. However, the main purpose of the app is to encourage users to visit places in the two regions. The games in the application provide the possibility of relaxation for all ages, while the mentioned points of interest are described in the application in 3 languages (Croatian, English and Hungarian), and there are also trilingual info boards that explain basic details from their past to passers-by - he concluded is Mališ.

The application was presented by Krisztián Bakon, assistant lecturer at the University of Pannonia, Nagykanisza campus, whose IT experts developed the necessary software that is rarely found on similar applications.
- An application for smartphones using the Android operating system, which can be downloaded from the Play Store called "Active Tourism", helps to promote attractiveness in cross-border areas. It represents 42 points of attraction, including visitor centers, and several cultural, religious and historical sites in Croatia and Hungary. Moreover, 5 different mobile games were developed using augmented reality technology - noted Bakon.

Augmented reality technology itself can be defined as the ability to display and place content in real space with a mobile phone camera that cannot be seen in reality.

- These contents are three-dimensional objects that the user interacts with to complete the game. The application begins with an introductory video, where Andrija II. asks the player to help him fight against the danger that threatens the kingdom. After that, the player's goal is to complete each game, which consists of getting out of the maze, solving a puzzle, fighting with a knight, participating in archery and building a castle wall, and at the end he will receive a special golden prize - Krisztián Bakon revealed only a part.