«Eco-efficient tourism» project's partners accept important decisions on work meeting in Pryazha

On September 18, 2012 Pryazha hosted a working meeting of «Eco-efficient tourism» project's partners, that has become an important stage in the implementation of the project. The agenda included a number of urgent issues like preliminary selection of places for short- and long-term stopovers facilitation in the project's pilot areas along the «Blue Highway», cooperation with other projects of Karelia ENPI CBC Programme, communication and visibility plan of the project.

 

After the joint analysis of the report on the survey trip to pilot areas of the project that took place in July 2012, the partners managed to select the most attractive and convenient places for their development as tourist stopovers, as well as to elaborate preliminary outline of management models for these areas. Invaluable Finnish experience infield was also considered by the participants. The territories will be developed with the reliance on existing infrastructure and orientation on local business and authorities. Special attention was paid to the necessity of state of the art technologies application. The partners agreed upon considering the need of travelers in wi-fi or landline. All the technological solutions which are to be introduced will meet international ecological and visual requirements.     

 

According to Deputy Head of Pryazha national municipal district Oleg Ermolaev, the results achieved during the meeting allow the experts to proceed to designing and calculating costs of pilot projects. But he is also convinced that the project includes not only technical components. He proposes comprehensive solutions for the development of local infrastructure in near future. These plans include, for instance, such measures as elaboration of business plans for definite objects of tourist infrastructure, inclusion of the developed pilot areas in navigator maps, publication of guidebooks, etc.

 

The project partners also discussed upcoming events. The first one is a study visit to Finland, which is aimed at exploration of Finnish experience in development and maintenance of tourist stopovers. This visit will be held in the framework of a unique conference «Pearls of the coniferous forests», that will take place in Joensuu and Ilomantsi on 30.10-2.11.2012. According to the organizer of the conference Timo Hokkanen, North Karelia biosphere reserve coordinator, the participants will be able to explore tourist stopovers, as well as to get familiarized with up-to-date eco-efficient technologies. They will also try to understand Finnish way of human - nature cooperation that allows to develop nature tourism so effectively.

 

For more details explore the official web-site: http://www.kareliabiosphere.fi 

 

Further information about the implementation of «Eco-efficient tourism» project can be found on our web-site: http://eet-northcentre.ru.

The project is also will be presented on «Tourist Karelia» exhibition that will take place 19-20.10.2012 in Petrozavodsk.