Central Baltic Project Database - Tourism

Innovative Service Points for Maritime Tourists were produced

marika.bogel-leino — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:06:16 +0000

The main objective of the project was to increase the service level of small ports in Stockholm and Finnish Archipelagos. The aim was to start providing better travel information also for tourist who visit islands without their own vessel but using public transportation and/or bicycles. Project equipped 13 small ports with digital screens to display tourist/travel information and timetables for public transport.

They built/installed 7 service buildings (Flexible Service Modules, FSM) that could be used both as a weather protection but also to help tourists with charge lockers, bike-service equipment and bag-lockers. FSM units and piers in harbours were equipped with digital screens that show visitor information such as public transport departures and arrivals, tourist maps and weather reports.
Project investments will attract more maritime visitors in the region.

Tags:

Coastal management and maritime issues

Tourism

Category:

Improved small port

At a glance text:

Better travel information points for tourists with bicycles or using public transportation
Flexible Service Modules were built in 7 harbors
Digital screens were installed in 13 harbors

Project link:

Arc Gate - Innovative Service Points for Maritime Tourists

Rural lifestyle project was creating attractive rural lifestyle destinations

marika.bogel-leino — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 08:40:17 +0000

New attractive and sustainable Rural Lifestyle tourism product was developed – destinations around the Baltic Sea (Estonia – Setomaa historic region, Vana-Võromaa historic region, Mulgimaa historic region, Onion Route – the shores of Lake Peipsi, Soomaa National Park, Lahemaa National Park; Latvia – Abava river valley, Sēlija, North Vidzeme, Gauja National Park; Sweden – Söderhamn; Finland –Åland, Archipelago of Kökar in Åland, Brändö island in Åland, Lappo island in Åland, Jurmo island in Åland, Lohja), altogether 39 new products. The project partnership developed a joint Rural Lifestyle destination and a new brand GORURAL which is very attractive in foreign and domestic tourism markets. First 39 RL products and more than six smaller destinations are promoted via the RL website, printed and digital marketing materials.

Regarding the increase in the number of visitors, the target value was 3000 visitors. Due to the different sizes of the regions and other conditions, each pilot region analysed the increased number of visitors as a result of the project according to its own methodology. The project reached and exceeded the set target value with 6555 new RL foreign visitors, and added 83850 domestic visitors.

Tags:

Tourism

Rural and peripheral development

Attachment:

Baltic Cuisine: Local food and drinks

Living with and within nature

Handmade products from the countryside

Sauna rituals

Guidebook for Rural Lifestyle destination and product development

Rural Lifestyle product manual 2022

External link:

GoRural website

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

a joint Rural Lifestyle destination and a new brand GORURAL were developed
to attract new foreign and domestic tourists
39 Rural Lifestyle products and more than six smaller destinations are promoted via different channels

Project link:

Creating attractive rural lifestyle destinations

Smart Marina improved 32 small ports

Ari Brozinski — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 11:15:24 +0000

The main achievement of the project was the improvement of 32 small ports and a Blue Flag certification of 17 upgraded harbours with a clear environmental signature.

Project improved conditions and service level in 32 small ports on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Åland. Ports invested in construction or renovation of service buildings including saunas, toilets, kitchens, etc., in improving quality of drinking water, wastewater and garbage treatment, green technology (solar panels), electrical pedestals, floating piers and pontoons. Safety training for harbour personnel was an important activity as well.

Project developed a Smart Marina app that can be used by boaters for finding location, get information about the destination and safety sailing guidance into the guestharbours. App can be downloaded from App-store or GooglePlay.

Sharing best practices between harbour owners and operators has been an additional value from the project. Joint marketing of the region, it’s ports and sailing opportunities is another valuable output of the cooperation.

Tags:

Coastal management and maritime issues

Tourism

infrastructure

Attachment:

Smart Marina Flyer

Summary of investments per harbour

Category:

Improved small port

At a glance text:

Improved conditions and service level in 32 small ports
Safety training for harbour personnel
Smart Marina app

Project link:

Contemporary harbours with soft energy technology

CAITO attracted Japanese tourists to the Central Baltic region

Ari Brozinski — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 10:37:46 +0000

The project targeted the increase in Japanese tourists visits to Central Baltic region by joint efforts of Estonian, Finnish and Latvian rural tourism clusters.

The project was led by Estonian University of Life Sciences and included relevant partner organisations working with rural tourism from Estonia, Latvia and Finland.

The project implemented wide range of activities relevant for attracting Japanese tourists to the Central Baltic region. Those activities included awareness raising and product development among tourist service providers, trainings, hosting media and tour operators visits, creating press articles, participations in JATA travel market, market analysis, new marketing materials, the landing page, itineraries and packages for individual tourists.

During the prorject 252 unique rural tourism secto companies actively participated in project activities. The participating companies represented fields as accommodation, restaurants, catering, leisure, culture and others.

The project emphasised the high value added related to the product development (packaging the rural tourism services into joint journeys and offers), following the Japanese tourists logic to visit more than 1 Central Baltic country while visiting the region and joining forces for active new market entry activities (joint FAM trips, participations in fairs, marketing materials,…).

The project resulted continuing cooperation by rural tourism organisations after the end of project, the use of landing page - https://balticsea.countryholidays.info/ and has led to new cross-border cooperation projects.

Tags:

clustering and economic cooperation

Tourism

SME and entrepreneurship

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

Project link:

Meta cluster for attracting the Japanese tourism market

SmartZoos created a game-based service to attract more people to visit zoos

Ari Brozinski — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 08:35:12 +0000

The project worked out the game-based service package to attract more people to visit participating zoos (Skansen, Helsinki Zoo, Tallinn Zoo).

The project was led by Tallinn University, Educational Technologies department and included the largest zoos from Estonia, Finland and Sweden. The Riga Zoo participated as associated partner.

The project targeted the increase in visits to the zoos and by the end of the project data was available that more than 700 users had used the service package application. In addition, the Smart Zoos service package received positive feedback from many educators and teachers.

The Smart Zoos service package included following functions:

4 types of location-based interactive assignments: quizzes, crossword and memory puzzles, augmented reality assignments and video/photo story telling assignments.
own assignments and challenge other visitors in the same or in another zoo (e.g., the visitor of Skansen Zoo can challenge visitor of Helsinki Zoo).
online environment for composing and conducting location-based GPS adventure games, challenges and tournaments that utilise all these different types of interactive assignments.
awarding the achievements (using Mozilla Open Badges Framework).
addition to service package the project implemented Investments to the zoos wifi networks.

Tags:

Cultural Heritage and Arts

Tourism

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

Location-based interactive assignments
More than 700 users
Investments to the zoos wifi networks

Project link:

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

NatAc established a chain of accessible nature tourism sites

Ari Brozinski — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 09:44:23 +0000

NatAc established a chain of accessible nature tourism sites in Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Existing nature sites were developed into accessible tourism objects by using up-to-date, modern and sustainable solutions on infrastructure. In cooperation with accessibility experts, the project improved or created 19 accessible nature sites which are now accessible to all, including people with disabilities, seniors, young families travelling with baby-strollers, people with temporary injuries.

The project developed new solutions for accessible products and services. For example tactile objects were developed that allow to understand the shape and details of nature objects. Braille and audio materials were created to allow the blind to read and hear the data, toolboxes with educational materials to comprehend and enjoy the nature through various senses - touch, smell, taste etc. Videos were produced to give information about the accessible nature trails and developed products for learning about nature. Information about the accessible trails is provided on the site in plain language on tactile info stands, cards, easy to understand marking system with accessibility pictograms.

Accessibility of all nature trails in project area were assessed using the accessibility checklist. The project issued a Travel Guide on accessible nature sites and launched an Internet Platform mapeirons.eu, which contains info on all identified accessible or partly accessible nature sites in the core Central Baltic area in Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The guide is available in Latvian, Estonian, Finnish and English.

Files:

The guidebook is available on NatAc web site.
Videos
Accessibility checklist for nature trails

Tags:

Cultural Heritage and Arts

Attachment:

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

19 accessible nature site utilising modern and sustainable solutions
Assessed accessibility
Braille and audio materials to comprehend the nature through various senses

Project link:

Nature access to all

SEASTOP developed small ports to raise the level of service and to attract visitors to small ports

Ari Brozinski — Tue, 24 May 2022 08:51:04 +0000

SEASTOP developed small ports to raise the level of service and to attract visitors to small ports.

It was achieved through:

Investments

The project developed ca 300 new mooring places, sustainable water and sewage systems as well as other public facilities (toilets, showers, etc.). These investments helped the ports become attractive stops for visitors. In addition, the investments lead to improvements in the local environment and in some cases also accessibility to disabled was improved.

List of the ports with short description can be found here: https://seastop.se/hamnar

Marketing and improvement of services

SEASTOP has successfully marketed the ports in fairs and helped to enable an increased cooperation between the ports. During the project a mobile application was developed for kids through which one can learn about the history of the archipelago. Each harbour has QR code to open this game.

The level of service in the ports have increased through the development of training videos and joint security plans.

The videos (in Swedish with Finnish and English subtitles) can be accessed here: https://seastop.se/filmer

Tags:

Tourism

infrastructure

Attachment:

Digital fish game - brochure

Category:

Improved small port

At a glance text:

Increased attractivity of small ports through investments

Project link:

Modern ports in historic waters

Forest Trail created a long distance hiking route

Ari Brozinski — Tue, 24 May 2022 08:15:57 +0000

The Forest Trail project created a long distance hiking route. It leads through the most forested lands, regional, nature and national parks of Estonia and Latvia. The total length of the Forest Trail Northern part approximately 1060 km.

The route is split in ca 20 km sections or hiking days. Each day of the Forest trail has a description, maps and downloadable GPX routes - start and end points, how long the expected walk will be, what the road surface is, and what will be worth seeing along the way. Hikers can read more information about the most interesting and significant places, landscapes, nature landmarks and see the photo, so as not to miss the views on the way, also find information on places to eat, buy water and snacks, and also spend the night.

The developed Forest trail route in the Central Baltic project is connected to the southern route (from the Lithuanian / Polish border through Kurzeme to Riga) developed in the Latvia-Lithuania Interreg programme project. Both trails will be part of the E11 route of the European long distance hiking trail network by ERA – European Ramblers’ Association. The total length of the Forest Trail in all three Baltic states will be more than 2000 km, and the trail will include all forest types and wildlife features typical of the Baltic States.

Name in Latvian: Mežtaka
Name in Estonian: Metsa matkarada

Direct link to the route guidebook (138 MB!).

More information about the route: https://baltictrails.eu/en/forest

Materials in all languages can be downloaded from the project website: https://baltictrails.eu/lv/forest/publications

Tags:

Cultural Heritage and Arts

Tourism

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

Over 1000 km of detailed hiking trails
Easy approach
Daily trips

Project link:

Long distance cross-border hiking trail “The Forest Trail”.

Archipelago Access made the archipelago and islands area more accessible

Ari Brozinski — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 06:25:36 +0000

The project created a web service and two exhibitions to act as entry points to archipelago tourism. The concept behind this is to strengthen the archipelago regions as a joint tourism attraction by jointly promoting, increasing awareness, and providing easier access to information.

The exhibitions will act as a gateway for visitors to gain necessary information for their travels around the Central Baltic Programme areas in Finland and Sweden.

The web portal, Explore Archipelago, gives visitors easier access and a unified view into tourist information as it expands the physical exhibitions by gathering the information on services and destinations under one address. At the same time, it provides a digital bridge over the Baltic Sea. The digital system is expandable and robust, and it sees no borders. The project partners are committed to developing the service further, and in the future, it can embrace a wider area still.

Tags:

Cultural Heritage and Arts

Tourism

External link:

Archipelago information portal

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

Easier access to archipelagos in Finland and Estonia
An information portal about sights and services

Project link:

Archipelago Access

URBAN ECO ISLAND investigated sustainable use of islands close to cities

Ari Brozinski — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 06:12:55 +0000

The URBAN ECO ISLAND project piloted new, innovative and smart solutions on two islands (Vasikkasaari in Finland and Aegna in Estonia), to ensure nature protection whilst increasing the attractiveness of the destinations.

The project developed a joint concept for sustainable island tourism. The development process included for example:

An island visitors’ survey to collect experiences and views
Testing of different smart solutions to analyse how increased used of destination will impact on its flora and
Small investments like benches, recycling facilities, improvement of walking tracks and signboards.

As a result, a Handbook for developing urban eco-islands was published and it is available in English, Estonian and Finnish. The handbook can be used when developing sustainable tourism on islands close to cities.

Tags:

Cultural Heritage and Arts

Tourism

Attachment:

Handbook for developing Urban Eco Islands

Opas kestävän lähivirkistysmatkailun kehittämiseen saaristossa

Kasiraamat Urban Eco Islands

Strategy development tool

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text: