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rd Association of European Border Regions

Enscheder Str. 362 D-48599 Gronau Phone: +49 - 2562 – 70219, Fax: +49 - 2562 - 70259 E-Mail: info@aebr.eu Internet: www.aebr.eu Application form “AEBR-Cross Border Award” 2014 Deadline: 31.07.2014

Please, fill in the grey gaps and return this form by e-mail!

INNOVATION AND RESEARCH – CROSS-BORDER REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

1. General information

1.1 Applicant border / cross-border region:

Estonia-Latvia-Russia

Title of the cross-border measure* [project(s), programme(s) / strategy(ies)]:

Via Hanseatica: Advancing remote areas by development of cross border Via Hanseatica tourism route on basis of local resources

1.3 Period:

Present phase period is 1.01.2012-31.12.2014 with and extension beyond 2015 with public-private partnership.

However initial development of Via Hanseatica cross-border tourism route began in 2004 with preparation of strategic doc-uments, branding and first promotional tools.

1.4 Lead Partner: Contact:

Vidzeme Planning Region Dagnija Ūdre (dagnija.udre@vidzeme.lv)

Jāņa Poruka iela 8, 108. kab., Cēsis, Latvia Sille Talvet (sille@gravitas.ee), Project Coordinator

1.5 Partners: Contact:

Committee for Culture of the Leningrad region Administration, Russia Alexandra Tsurban

NCO “International Centre for Social and Economic Research “Leontief Centre”, Russia

Elena Belova

Foundation Valga County Development Agency, Estonia Sille Roomets

Foundation Tartu County Tourism, Estonia Katrin Loss

Foundation Jõgeva County Development and Enterprise Centre, Estonia Teele Kaeramaa

Foundation Ida-Viru County Enterprise Centre, Estonia Kristina Ernits

Koceni Municipality Council, Latvia Evija Nagle

Municipal agency “Cesis Culture and Tourism Centre”, Latvia Ilona Asare

Sigulda district council, Latvia Inese Jegere

Strenči Municipality Council, Latvia Ilona Pinzule

Valka Municipality Council, Latvia Gunta Smane

Valmieras City Council, Latvia Maija Zalamane

Palupera Municipality Council, Estonia Terje Korss maakond

Foundation Luke Manor, Estonia Gea Järvela

Jõgeva Municipality Council Uuno Laul

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Saare Municipality Council Tamor Erikson

Avinurme Municipality Council

In addition 27 associated partners including municipalities, foundations and NGO’s of Estonia, Latvia and Russia.

Aivar Saarela

1.6. Financing of the cross-border measure (e.g. INTERREG):

Remark: It should be explicated how the financing of the strategy(ies) / concept(s) / project idea(s) has been or is realised.

Via Hanseatica is at the moment partly financed by the Estonia – Latvia – Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme within European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument 2007-2013. Total eligible cost of the project is 1 803 966.30 euros of which 90% is financed by above-mentioned cross-border programme. 10% of the budget is covered by Partners.

The most positive aspect of Via Hanseatica tourism route development is that it has grown way larger than a project itself. Already several initiatives have been launched that are growing beyond project activities and are also financed outside of project budget. For example, large bus operator Luxexpress is preparing with the help of Via Hanseatica team a special Via Hanseatica tour package involving bus transport and stay in Via Hanseatica region.

Also, as the project has created many innovative tools for marketing and travelling along Via Hanseatica, it has been de-cided to promote these tools among wider target group through three Facebook communities - in Estonian, Latvian, Rus-sian and English version to follow. On the Facebook community pages award games are organised, including prizes as en-trance tickets to Via Hanseatica sites or free meals/accommodation at restaurants and hotels. And the prizes are provided by entrepreneurs as additional financing for Via Hanseatica.

1.7 Links to other projects, measures and/or programmes (only if applicable):

Via Hanseatica project does not have direct link to any other project, however as the tourism route covers tourism infra-structure in Via Hanseatica area then several other Estonia – Latvia – Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme within European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument 2007-2013 projects are benefitting from or supporting Via Hanseati-ca route development (e.g. EstRusFortTour-2, Narva-Ivangorod LSP6).

2. Contents

2.1 Objectives of the cross-border measure:

Via Hanseatica is the name attributed to the trans-European transport corridor from Lübeck to St.Petersburg. Cross-border areas in Estonia, Latvia and Russia realized that this transport corridor can be used also for other purposes especially for advancing regional development in remote areas.

Based on previous cooperation experience between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 18 partner organizations together with 27 associated partner organizations from Estonia, Latvia and Russia joined forces to advance the creation of cross-border tourism route Via Hanseatica with all necessary structures and instruments for its sustainability. The well known name and positive image of Via Hanseatica was used to create a route that connects areas and main regional cities of several countries - St. Petersburg, Narva/Ivangorod, Tartu, Val-ka/Valga, Valmiera and Sigulda.

Tourism is one of the sectors closely related to regional de-velopment. Creating an enabling environment both for busi-nesses and tourists, the region becomes a suitable place for entrepreneurship and local people, and a popular destination for tourists.

Thus, the main objective of this cooperation is to make max-imum use of the cross-border Via Hanseatica (VH) tourism route in the territories of Estonia, Latvia and Russia to apply the potential of pre-defined cross-border tourism product and provide an incentive for sustainable regional and local develop-ment of those adjacent areas.

To achieve overall objective several specific objectives have been set, including:

(1) Elaboration of joint thematic VH tourism packages/routes covering whole VH route and including at least 90 local tour-ism products, objects and services;

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(2) Raise awareness and visibility of VH tourism region, objects and services via targeted innovative marketing tools and actions leading to increase in tourism sector income;

(3) Advance accessibility of VH objects/services, and increase readiness for further infrastructure investments in VH territo-ry in EE, LV & RUS (road signs, road maps, object signs);

(4) Establish strong cross-border partnership of regional and local authorities, entrepreneurs and tourism development or-ganizations along Via Hanseatica area in EE, LV & RUS for enabling coordinated and sustainable product development and tourism service provision.

2.2 Organisational structure and activities to implement the objectives (e.g. joint secretariat, contract, etc.):

Via Hanseatica project has 18 official partners from three countries (2 from Russia, 9 from Estonia and 7 from Latvia) and 27 associated partners (4 from Russia, 22 from Estonia and 1 from Latvia). In addition, a network of service providers con-sisting of over 1000 service providers has been created for more efficient information exchange and cooperation (approx. 15 % from Russia, 60% from Estonia and 25% from Latvia).

The management of activities is divided into different levels. Main advising body - Steering Committee (SC) – consists of representatives of main financing and implementing bodies and tourism sector. SC is responsible for overall monitoring of project towards achievement of its objectives, also bringing and representing VH territorial development issues at political and decision-making level.

Daily project management is done by the Working Group (WG). WG consists of overall coordinator, thematic coordinators and country coordinators (CC). WG meets regularly and is responsible for carrying out or dividing tasks among partnership to ensure efficient and sustainable implementation of activities. It is also responsible for monitoring and evaluation of pro-ject activities and outcomes.

In order to achieve set objectives activities of the project have been divided into thematic activity packages, but instead of listing them all we would like to highlight these activities that are more linked to innovative and efficient approach to cross-border regional development involving also public-private partnership. Mostly these concern communication and visibility, product and network development and physical accessibility.

Among the communication and visibility package main activi-ties are:

� Creation of travel story-book, with fictional characters travelling along Via Hansetica and experiencing its val-ues. This book is also a travel guide, but in Via Hanseat-ica it was decided to present travel book in more innova-tive and new format, so the traveller could get both a good holiday reading and travel advises in one reading. The book covers the territory from St. Petersburg, Rus-sia to Riga, Latvia. It can be read on paper in 5 lan-guages (English, Estonian, German, Latvian and Rus-sian) and it is also available online http://issuu.com/viahanseatica. The book is promoted and disseminated in local Tourism Information Centres, travel fairs, Facebook communities and through Via Hanseatica entrepreneurs.

� Creation of Via Hanseatica web-page www.viahanseatica.info, which is easily viewable from all devices (including smart-phones) for disseminating main travel info for entering Via Hanseatica territory in Estonia, Latvia and Russia. The web-page is created in 5 languages (English, Estonian, German, Latvian and Russian). It has a direct link to Via Hanseatica travel planner and mobile application. It is promoted at travel fairs, through entrepreneurs and Via Han-seatica partners web-pages.

� Creation of innovative and practical travel planner travel.viahanseatica.info enabling individual travel planning simultaneously in 3 (three) countries. Present day travel planners are prepared by indi-vidual countries and do not allow cross-border travel planning. Now it is possible! The travel planner allows to use Via Hanseatica pre-defined routes or plan total unique trip, it allows to see time-line of travel and print out its full itinerary. Trip can also be downloaded to smart-phone ap-plication to ease location search while travelling on Via Hanseatica. Similar to other tools, travel planner is also created in 5 languages.

� Creation of Via Hanseatica travel related mobile application both for Android and iOS systems. The mobile applica-tion also covers whole Via Hanseatica territory and enables to view map, insert traveller’s own route created in travel.viahanseatica.info or travel using Via Hanseatica pre-defined thematic routes. One of the additional bigger benefits of this application is that it works well both on-line and off-line to reduce roaming costs of the traveller when

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making cross-border trips and it also has small phrasebook to provide language assistance when travelling. As usual also this tool is made in 5 above-mentioned languages.

� Among other communication and visibility activities are also or-ganization of FAM tours to journalists and tour-operators involv-ing whole area; preparation of Via Hanseatica route-maps, partic-ipation in travel fairs, promotional articles in travel newspapers and even stories in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian versions of the National Geographic magazine.

Second important activity package is related to product development and networking:

� Elaboration of separate thematic routes along Via Hanseatica. For setting up thematic routes, tourism entrepreneurs and tour-ism organizations were involved (supported by regional tourism statistics), which resulted in setting the following main themes: Family Fun, Adventure in Nature and Culture to Greet and People to Meet. The concrete routes are created by tour-ism experts, involving service providers, tourism organizations and infrastructure owners. Routes are promoted in www.viahanseatica.info and travel.viahanseatica.info and they work also as appetizers enabling traveller to get a fast and easy overview of thematic offers of Via Hanseatica in all its areas. Each of these thematic routes have min-imum 90 objects/sites/services included, among which min 50% is privately owned.

� Establishment of Via Hanseatica co-ordination structure and network. Via Hanseatcia coordination structure allows to plan sustainable and continuous development of the region including its financing outside the project initiatives.

VH network creation allows to bring together stakeholders of similar interest and provide better service for traveller and also create new products for remote areas. Main principles of cooperation structure are being set and already over 1000 service providers are included into Via Hanseatica network.

� To allow entrepreneurs and guides to get more inside information about the route, they are involved in long-term module trainings, which were tailored within the project. Over 200 network members have thus been individually met, trained and informed and for advancing future cooperation also entrepreneurs of different countries have been brought together.

Third important set of activities is related to physical visibility, as it is needed to advance both object accessibility and promote objects/sites physically on the road, so the tourists can find it.

� Along the whole route of Via Hanseatica VH road-signs, outdoor territorial maps and object signs will be installed. This advances the accessibility of the object, but also promotes Via Hanseatica as one joint route throughout the trip.

� For allowing tourists to plan the next part of their trip, also when finding out about Via Hanseatica only while visiting Tourist Information Centres, interactive information termi-nals will be installed at the main visiting points along the route.

2.3 How far has the measure been implemented?

Present project (2012-2014) ideas have been realized and planned outputs are mainly achieved – Via Hanseatica as prod-uct and trademark has been developed and marketing of Via Hanseatica tourism region started actively at the beginning of year 2014. Hereby, we may say that project itself is in finalization phase and its implementation period ends in December 2014. Activities that are still on-going are related to physical visibility and finalization of all aspects of future cooperation structure.

But it can also be surely stated that Via Hanseatica has grown out of a project´s status and partners (NB! not only project partners) are already making additional activities outside of project boundaries. The cooperation structure and planned fi-nancing scheme allows the network to become also financially sustainable. Further financing is negotiated and the plans are based on the input of both private and public sector, with possible 50/50 division of contribution needed.

2.4 Special framework conditions (a. geographical, political, etc. / b. only rural area (no regional metropolis))

Via Hanseatica joins three countries: Estonia, Latvia and Russia, two of them belonging to the European Union and one being its neighbouring country. Distance from the centre of Europe and also being one of the border areas of the whole Eu-ropean Union already creates challenges for these distant areas. However, also in these remote European countries there

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are their own peripheries with even larger challenges concerning living conditions, employment possibilities and entrepre-neurship.

Via Hanseatica tourism route is mainly passing remote areas of Russia, Estonia and Latvia – regions which do not get many visitors, but have extensive cultural heritage, breath-taking nature, well established tourism infrastructure and will of local people to offer good visiting experience to visitors. Via Hanseatcia has connected tourism development organizations, municipalities, entrepreneurs and individual guides, stimulating their cooperation not only locally, but also over the borders between border areas. Thus it balances level of services, helps to avoid the duplication of work and uses resources in sus-tainable way. Joint promotion of the region strengthens both the identity and opportunities of the Via Hanseatica region. Joint development planning allows to be more targeted to actual needs and create contacts with different actors, so we in-crease the visibility and visits of tourist to Via Hanseatica.

Politically it is important to maintain good relations across borders to develop further both personal and business contacts. Via Hanseatica development has created positive cooperation not only among Estonian and Latvian border areas, but also between European Union countries and Russia.

3. Contribution of the measure (added value) to the development of the border/cross-border region:

All the activities mentioned in this application (creation of tourism package and modules based on the Via Hanseatica route, marketing of the VH, creation of joint tools for travelling on Via Hanseatica) and achievements of the mentioned ob-jectives have been done jointly on a cross-border level.

This approach is essential, as one of the main advantages of VH is its cross-border character, while most of the functioning tourism products in Europe and also in Via Hanseatica countries are local, regional or national at best. It also gives com-petitive advantage compared to other tourism development networks, which are mostly of regional or national nature, as VH is a tourism route passing Russia, Estonia and Latvia, and its potential is based on the diversity of these countries.

Creation of public-private and private-private tourism development partnerships brings greater benefits, when carried out on a cross-border level, as the networks have wider geographic scope, i.e. there is wider basis for experience exchange and other mutual benefits, e.g. joint offers to the travellers.

Via Hanseatica has also been the main tool for linking Russian partners to cross-border cooperation activities in the field of tourism development and supporting their active role in these processes, which has led to better relationships with Russia. Also promotional tools used to advance tourism services in Estonia, Latvia and Russia have rapidly become relevant to present IT requirements now allowing these cross-border areas to promote them to wider audience (especially beneficial and innovative in the Russian areas).

For cross-border areas, VH provides increased tourism incomes, valuable living environment, better relationships between private and public sector. Joint marketing helps to increase awareness of remote areas and quality of offered services. Via Hanseatica has raised region’s competitiveness and made it more attractive both for local people and entrepreneurs, who also have benefitted from it. In other words, the project aims at bringing more life to the remote areas along the VH route, which could not be done by single organisations/institutions alone. VH has contributed to socio-economic development of cross-border areas via tourism development.

4. Added value for the development of cross-border cooperation at European level

Via Hanseatica started a joint initiative of Estonia, Latvia and Russia, and while doing that has strengthen relationships be-tween these countries, involved organizations and other partners.

Considering that all countries are located in the EU border area and one of them being EU neighbour country, Via Hanse-atica creates positive value not only to cross-border regions, but on the European level. As a whole, Via Hanseatica transport corridor passes also Lithuania, Poland and Germany, so it could have a positive impact on creating Via Hanseati-ca routes beyond present area. The future plan is to add to travel planner southern part of Latvia and Lithuania, so these Via Hanseatica regions could also benefit from elaborated tools and structures.

5. Further annexes yes no

Which ones?

a) Short overview of the project – The story of Via Hanseatica

31.07.2014 Sille Talvet, e-mail: sille@gravitas.ee; Phone: +372 510 9278

Date Signature

(if submitted by e-mail please also insert your name and contact details!)

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