Tourism

The well-preserved wrecks in the Baltic Sea waters are unique in the world. The underwater landscape is a special environment resulting from a long seafaring history and good preservation conditions. The remains of shipwrecks in Estonian, Finnish and Swedish waters often sit upright with masts and rigging still intact. In this aspect, the Baltic Sea is a giant underwater museum waiting to be visited.
 

The DefenceArch project created a tourism attraction consisting of existing, though almost untapped defence historical sites in the archipelago: the Gålö seal farm in Sweden close to the capital city Stokckholm, the Bomarsund fortress in Åland, the southern cape of Örö and Korpoström in Turku archipelago.

Preserving the spirit of a city whilst developing tourist attractions can be a challenge. Central Baltic project LiviHeri accepted it. As a result, the project established the following tourist attractions in the UNESCO World Heritage towns of Rauma (Finland), Visby (Sweden), Kuldiga and Aizpute (Latvia).

The tourist attractions the project developed are:

The project LightsOn! combined eight historical sites in Finland and Estonia into a joint attraction. This was achieved through activities that included e.g. themed events with light installations, a mobile application and an entrepreneur training programme. The training resulted in better involvement of local communities whereas the events (16 in total) helped raise awareness about the sites and attracted new target groups. The events advanced marketing as well which was done under a single visual appearance as an event locations. 
 

MASAPO raised maritime safety in coastal areas and small ports. The targeted areas include western Estonia and the Åland archipelago. Increased maritime safety was achieved through training and increased capacity of voluntary maritime rescue organisations. Additionally, infrastructure development took place and rescue equipment (rescue boats, personal safety equipment and so on) was purchased in selected small ports.