Perspectives of Tourism Development

Cesis, the cradle of the Latvian National flag, is situated in the very middle of North Latvia. It is the town that delights both visitors and inhabitants with its unique charm, rich cultural heritage, winding medieval streets and the magnificent landscapes of the GaujaNational Park. This charming city hosted the annual meeting of the Commission on Tourism this year.

24 people from 16 UBC cities gathered in Cesis on 23-25 of August to discuss perspectives of tourism development. The meeting was opened by exhibition, jointly with the Baltic Welcome Center - members of the UBC Commission on Tourism had a possibility to get acquainted with the results of the Interreg IIIB project, in which Cesis Tourism information centre participated as a partner.

The meeting informed about the possibilities to participate in the INTERREG IIIC program with tourism development projects for Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and changes when these countries enters the European Union. The useful information was presented by Ms. leva Kalnina from Interreg IIIC Secretariat. Ms. Romy Sommer brought information from Animare Tourism Project Management and shared experience in preparing and running of Tourism projects.

During the meeting was presented and discussed the Baltic Cultural Tourism Policy Paper that has been prepared over the past year by the Baltic working group, headed by national consultants of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and supported by UNESCO. Everyone agreed about the importance of development of cultural tourism and initiatives to create policy for cultural tourism development in national level.

The Commission on Tourism had also discussed the tourism situation for disabled people. During discussion the problems, which trouble disabled people to feel free during traveling were held. The members described situation in their home cities and shared experience, what is possible to do on municipality level for improving situation.

One of the questions in agenda was elections for a Steering Committee (October 2003 - September 2005), so the new Steering Committee was elected. The members, who will work in Steering Committee for two coming years are: Vladislav Andreev (Kaliningrad, Russia) Kyrre Dahl (Kalmar, Sweden), Armands Muiznieks (Jurmala, Russia) and Irena Satkauskiene (Palanga Lithuania). Kyrre Dahl was elected as a Chairman of Commission on Tourism.

Armands Muiznieks offered to host next annual meeting of Commission on Tourism in Jurmala. But before meeting in Jurmala members of Commission on Tourism are looking forward for the meeting during VII UBC General Conference in October 2003 in Klaipeda.