Heritage tourism, which involves traveling to experience places, artifacts, and activities that represent historical stories and people, is transforming. Augmented reality is positively transforming heritage tourism. It provides new ways to interact with cultural sites. This technology enhances the overall experience at tourist destinations. AR is improving the visitor experience and guaranteeing the protection and enjoyment of cultural assets for future generations by offering interactive and captivating ways to explore cultural places. In this article we will explain and include the dynamic effects of augmented reality (AR) on historical tourism, emphasizing how AR may create realistic experiences that bring history to life. Through the lens of Tourism 4.0 part of Arctur's distribution of AR tools, we will explore case studies that illustrate how this technology is utilized to create compelling narratives and interactive tours that captivate and educate visitors. We will start with one of the projects of Tourism 4.0 called DIGI-SI, this project will promote digital transformation for SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups, and Public Administration in Slovenia, focusing on Agrifood, Health, Tourism, and Manufacturing. This project aims to be a central contact point for the four priority areas of the Digital Europe Programme: Artificial Intelligence, High-Performance Computing, Cyber Security, and Advanced Digital Skills. It also provides technology services in Robotics, the Internet of Things, Big Data, Blockchain, and Augmented/Virtual Reality. DIGI-SI offers clients services like testing before investing, skills training, investment support, and raising awareness about digital opportunities.

Using a design-driven methodology, the CulturalDeTour project promotes entrepreneurship, sustainability, and innovation in the field of cultural tourism. It encourages technology adoption and sustainability through the use of design-driven innovation and earth-centered design. CulturalDeTour aims to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration and entrepreneurship by establishing an online platform and organizing creative events. The objective of the CDT Boost project is to assist multiple cultural entrepreneurs in expanding their operations and enhancing their sustainability. The primary goal of the project is to promote small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the cultural tourist sector by using Design Driven Innovation to address important issues including sustainability, digitalization, creative business models, mentoring, and entrepreneurial skills. To promote social and economic sustainability, Tourism 4.0 has had another important project called 5Dculture. This project sought to improve and use the European 3D digital cultural heritage assets in various domains, including education, tourism, and the cultural and creative industries. It focused on modern digital technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and semantic tools, to manage, enrich, and reuse 3D content. The initiative offered tools and training to support cultural heritage institutions using these 3D assets. Professionals with various talents and expertise in cultural heritage data areas work together to accomplish the project's objectives. With the help of this project, we can experiment with fashion collections (a fascinating and comprehensive museum dedicated to fashion history; archaeological 3D Content (to explore the 3D archaeological monuments) and historic buildings and cityscapes (3D applications for historic buildings for virtual cultural tourism, research and education). Arctur has also thought for students by creating a project called Heritage in Action introducing cultural heritage, to create and analyze interactive techniques and ICT tools. The research project's primary objective is to create an example and test a prototype digital learning resource that is going to introduce different perspectives on impact practices and digital heritage content to the younger generation. Two main results from this project are a guide explaining how to use ICT tools (video, 3D animation, augmented reality, and mobile apps) and participatory approaches to help educators and heritage professionals teach about cultural heritage through hands-on experiences and a digital learning prototype for the municipality, a regional museum, and a local library that was created by students in Ajdovščina, Slovenia to promote and educate about the area's cultural assets. With a focus on primary and secondary school curricula, the research team will create guidelines for the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport on how to use digital heritage in educational and educational processes. WEAVE is another cultural heritage project whose primary objective is to create a framework that connects and illustrates the relationships between intangible and tangible cultural communities. This enabled the rich and invaluable cultural legacies (CH) that these communities protect and guard from the margins to become the center of attention by making them accessible from Europeana (containing movies, images, point clouds, and 3D models). The project was supported by a variety of open and reusable AI and machine learning technologies through the WEAVE Toolkit, which is managed by ARCTUR. Some of them are WEAVE 3D Asset Manager for storing, viewing, and manipulating high-quality 3D models in a web browser; MotionNotes for annotating movements, including semi-automatic gesture recognition in 3D space; WEAVE Experience for managing and documenting diverse Europeana content, both tangible and intangible cultural heritage; Techniques for automatic metadata enrichment.

In conclusion, augmented reality is transforming heritage tourism by offering new, interesting ways to discover and enjoy cultural locations. By keeping the stories of our past alive and relevant for future generations, this technological development is expected to maintain and stimulate interest in heritage tourism.