News from the Commission on Tourism

On 3 September 2010 Koszalin KARR S.A. hosted the Agora 2.0 project partners (WP4) 2010 to discuss the development of a web-based heritage panel and heritage potentials in the Baltic Sea Region. Held on the Commission's initiative, which is Agora is associated project partner, the meeting gathered also representatives from Polish cities of Chojnice, Szczecin, Gdynia, Koszalin and Słupsk.

The meeting was chaired by Prof Przemyslaw Kulawczuk, President of Gdynia National Foundation for Enterprise Culture, project partner.

The meeting focused on the following issues: creating a product based on cultural and natural heritage, creating e-databank of heritage potentials (huge amounts of photos, very little text - 100 objects out of ca. 500-600 objects; definition of the term "heritage", selecting "6 wonders" of cultural and natural heritage, identifying and using more flexible classification of heritage potentials than that proposed by the UNESCO, highlighting the BSR image (sea, water, ports, fortifications, events, etc.). As a next step the panel will deal with the survey on the relevance of heritage potentials for business development which shall be distributed by the CoT.

Although originally planned for 21-22 October in Greifswald, the next meeting of the Commission is postponed until spring 2011 and it will highlight the BSR identity issues in the light of the UBC Strategy. Baltic identity and heritage, tourism destinations and cooperation projects are the buzzwords.