Hanseatic Approach to New Sustainable Alliances

As its main result, the project connected several historic Hansa towns:  Cesis, Limbazi, Koknese, Kuldiga, Valmiera, Pargaujas/Straupe and Vidzeme from Latvia, Pärnu and Viljandi from Estonia and Visby from Gotland and developed a joint tourist attraction based on their Hansa history.

All participating cities made research about their Hanseatic history and heritage. It brought pride to towns and citizens to belong to a strong brand and an important European context. Through the research, also historic recipes were found and are now produced as local Hanseatic specialties.

Project organised seminars and events to make stakeholders and citizens aware about Hansa heritage of their towns. In addition, gastronomy festivals were developed which help to prolong tourism season. Project representatives participated at several international tourism fairs, Hanseatic Days, other international and national events to promote the participating towns as a joint historic Hansa towns destination in Gotland, Estonia and Latvia.

Project used sustainable solutions whenever possible throughout its implementation. IT-solutions were in use to provide historic and tourist information as web information, on info screens, downloadable brochures and apps. When preparing tourist information, environmental-friendly biking, walking and hiking products were kept in mind. By supporting locally produced food, transports of goods are diminished and has given impetus to growth and development of SMEs. The cultural and social sustainability was supported by the involvement of stakeholders and citizens in local Hanseatic events and festivals.

Real cross-border value was achieved by increasing cooperation between Gotland, Estonian and Latvian Hansa towns. Joint tourism development and marketing makes them more attractive as a joint tourism destination.
Information about Hansa history of participating towns, tourism offers and brochures are available on the web page https://www.hanse.org/en/projects/explore-hansa/ and thereby give the project results European visibility.