EU Baltic Sea Strategy - Tourism

Flagship Project 12.10 - Develop strategies for a sustainable tourism

"Develop strategies for a sustainable tourism" by using available sources of information such as the YEPAT database or the Nordic Culture Point. Efforts shall be made in order to improve the accessibility to the natural, cultural and historical heritage for tourism and to enhance a common identity of the Baltic Sea Region.

The focus of this flagship project is mainly on developing and supporting sustainable tourism, whereas a special emphasis will be placed on rural areas as well as on the accessibility and use of natural & cultural heritage. Another aim is to enhance the process of developing a common identity of the Baltic Sea Region.

Topics to be covered in this flagship project include i. a. a strategic cooperation with BSR stakeholders and organisations, a collection of good practices on sustainable tourism (data base) and the upgrade of a sustainability check for tourism projects. For 2010 the following activities are envisaged: establishment of work groups on sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage (tourism sector, business sector, heritage organisations), creativity workshops on the development of innovative sustainable tourism product ideas based on heritage potentials, empirical study on visitors perception of heritage potentials.

Strategic cooperation with stakeholders from the entire Baltic Sea Region is one of the most important actions and shall be permanently continued - to influence policies and to strengthen activities for sustainable tourism development. In this concern the lead partner has to take over a coordinating function. Especially the collaboration with ongoing projects as EcoRegion, Parks & Benefits, AGORA 2.0 or Baltic Green Belt (all co-financed by the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013) enables synergies and possibilities to realise relevant actions. For example

- The project EcoRegion collects good practices on sustainable development – among them tourism. A free accessible database will provide that information to the interested public and give support to use existing knowledge, methods and experiences.

- Eight National Parks from different countries around the Baltic Sea are involved in the project Parks & Benefits. All of them want to get certificated as an “EUROPARC” in the future, depending on the current state of preparation. That means all National Parks have to comply with the requirements of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas.

- AGORA 2.0 aims at creating solutions for sustainable use of heritage potentials. Cross-sector working groups follow a new approach to deal with this subject – involving tourism professionals, business associations, scientific institutions and green and cultural organisations. Market research and studies on visitor behaviour provide basic knowledge to support small and medium sized tourism enterprises developing sustainable tourism products and models. A common identity profile is to support marketing activities. The kick-off event of AGORA 2.0 took place on February 12, 2010, a second meeting takes place on October 7-9, 2010 together with the Baltic Sea Tourism Commission (BTC) in Minsk (BY).

In his function as lead partner of the AGORA 2.0 project the University of Greifswald has committed itself to provide input into flagship project 12.9 on cultural heritage while flagship project 12.7 will contribute with its know-how as to the question of accessibility.

In January 2010, Baltic 21 –including its former Tourism sector- was integrated in the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) as a new “Expert group for sustainable development”. Flagship project 12.10 becomes a relevant part of its new strategy.

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