- 11-05-2017 11:36
- Velizar Petrov
INSiGHTS - A project with a proven need
Internal
thematic meeting in Vienna on development of tourism strategies
Partners from Austria, Bulgaria,
Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia met at the 2nd internal thematic
meeting within the INSiGHTS
project - “Integrated Slow, Green and
Healthy Tourism Strategies”. The meeting took place in Vienna, Austria on the
10th May 2017 and was hosted by
the University of Natural Resources
and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU).
Partners were discussing the
progress of work packages on Local Strategies, analysing the answers of their
pilot destinations on the Self-Assessment manual. The manual was prepared by
BOKU under the expert guidance of prof. Ulrike
Pröbstl-Haider for mapping local resources, analysing strengths and
weaknesses, and setting sustainability goals in the respective destinations: »With the help of ‘smileys’ the
workshop in Vienna was dedicated to the evaluation of the Status Quo analysis and
the exchange of information between the various partners. Each destination
explained the outcomes of their stakeholder involvement. This first step shows
that all study regions in the project want to improve their destinations’
strategy, the socio-economic benefit for their region and the quality of visitors’
experiences through product development. The workshop also made visible that
the awareness of local offers and the unique products in the piloting regions
are quite different – it is not so easy to see what is your own “beauty” and
extraordinary offer«.
During the project meeting in Vienna
partners also discussed the Stakeholder involvement activity presented by the
director of Pons Danubii, Zoltán Bara, and the State-of-the-art good practices
approach, moderated by Krisztina
Campbell and Michael Mayer from
the CEEweb for Biodiversity. The
research of good practices has proven to be important. “Young regions can learn
from those with well-established offers. Others may learn how to make shoulder
seasons (spring and autumn) more attractive”, explained prof. Ulrike Pröbstl-Haider.
The focus of the meeting was also on
designing a concept of walkshops, including study visits, a critical classroom
and a master class. The first bilateral study visit will be organized in June
2017 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where the Regional
Development Agency with Business Support Centre for Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises will be hosting project partners from Serbia. A walkshop
combined with the 3rd thematic meeting of the project is planned for
June 2017, when the Regional Economic
Development Agency for Šumadija and Pomoravlje will host all INSiGHTS
project partners in Aranđelovac, Serbia.
About
the project
The 30-months long project (January
2017 – June 2019) was approved within the Interreg
Danube Transnational Programme financed by the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF) and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
The INSiGHTS project is about finding solutions for making regions more
attractive to tourists by developing tourism strategies that keep in the
focus the protection of natural and cultural resources. Regions in INSiGHTS all
have outstanding natural and cultural resources, and at the same time they have
a great potential related to the fast-growing recreational trend of slow, green
and healthy tourism.
Partners are working in close
cooperation with stakeholders in eight regions to gain relevant local feedback
on the current situation of tourism and also ideas and proposals for new
opportunities for slow, green and healthy tourism. There will be eight integrated sustainable tourism
strategies developed by the partner regions and they will be adaptable all
across the Danube Region.
For more information about the INSiGHT project please visit: www.interreg-danube.eu/insights
Contact:
Emőke Tóth, Pons
Danubii European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, Slovakia
Lead partner
Námestie generála Klapku 1, Komárno, Slovakia
Email: komunikacia@ponsdanubii.eu,
telephone: +421 353 811 327
Eva Vovk,
Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia, Slovenia
Coordinator of Communication Activities
Kidričeva 1, 1270 Litija, Slovenia
Email: eva.vovk@razvoj.si,
telephone: +386 1 896 27 17