Project No. C034
From 20 to 23 May, partners from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Åland and Sweden met in Klaipėda for the second partners’ meeting, to review the results of the surveys and plan future project activities.
One of the main objectives of the meeting was to familiarize ourselves with the surveys carried out by our colleagues. Klaipėda University has prepared an ambitious study “Nature tourists – who they are and how to reach them”, with a final delivery date in the autumn, but the project participants have already had the opportunity to look at the data. The survey results show a number of interesting correlations, for example that people living in cities in Latvia and Lithuania prefer to take shorter trips of 1 to 3 days, while UK commuters prefer longer trips. Partner Monika Birkle from Åland University of Applied Sciences presented a large dataset that allowed us to take a closer look at the challenges faced by tourism businesses during the low season. For example, the fact that in several countries, including Latvia, businesses are finding it harder to find staff during the low season, and the fact that other businesses in the area are not open during the low season, which reduces the supply for tourists, is also affecting businesses.
On the second day of the meeting we visited our partners from Nida Culture and Tourism Information Centre “Agila”, who hosted us in one of Lithuania’s most popular destinations – Curonian Spit. We visited several local businesses and attractions, such as the Mizgiris Amber Museum and the Dead Dune of the Nagliai Strict Reserve.
An important task during this meeting was to select three products/experiences from the results of the nature tourist survey to develop and pilot in the next steps of the project together with a number of selected coastal tourism operators who want to develop off-season services and work towards extending the usual tourist season.
Project “Light in the Dark”
Light in the Dark is an Interreg Baltic Sea Region project aimed at developing innovative experiences to extend and create new seasons beyond the traditional summer season. The Challenge Inventory survey is conducted in all participating countries: Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It is aimed at SME’s in the Northern Baltic Sea region and explores the interest of small and medium-sized businesses in expanding their operations beyond the traditional summer season as well as the challenges they face regarding seasonal variations in tourist flows.
More about the project: https://www.kurzemesregions.lv/en/projects/tourism/light-in-the-dark/
Project manager:
Anna Elizabete Upsava
+371 26369876
anna.upsava@kurzemesregions.lv
