Agora 2.0 (2009-2012)

Project web site www.agora2-tourism.net
Project leaflet (pdf)
Project presentation
2. Project presentation (pdf)
BASTIS (Baltic Sea Heritage Tourism Information Service): www.bastis-tourism.info

The aim of the project is to focuss on fostering the common identity of the Baltic Sea Region by highlighting, developing and marketing substantial parts of the Baltic Sea Region natural and cultural heritage as business environment and outstanding strength of the region.

The project includes NGOs, government institutions, representatives of business and scientific institutions all of them representing 10 countries which surround the Baltic Sea. The Country Traveller rural tourism association is one of the partners, and its task in this project is to organise a pilot project in co-operation with the Latvian Fund for Nature.

This project is partly financed by the European Union (ERDF) within the Baltic Sea Region Programme

Project progress:

Project closing event - presentation of the Forest Guide, Active and Wildlife tours

On December 5, the project closing event and presentation of the Forest Guide, Active and Wildlife tours took place at the guest house "Valguma pasaule" . The participants discussed the project activities in development of the common Baltic Sea region identity. The publication "Forest Guide - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus" helps tourists to get to know different types of forests and their inhabitants - birds, animals, plants, trees, mushrooms, berries, and to enjoy the forest in recreation trails and sites. The Active tourisng routes and Wildlife routes were presented as a product giving tourists an access to forest as one of the Baltic Sea Region treasures.

Presentation by A. Ziemele here
Presentation by J. Smaļinskis here

Nature based tourism products

To show the forest as the Treasure of the Baltic sea, two transnational product groups have been developed together with the Latvian Fund for Nature:

3 Active touring routes (pdf, 3675 kb):
1. Cycling from Riga to Tallin through the Gauja and Soomaa national parks and the largest Estonian islands,
2. Nature trails in Latvia and Estonia,
3. Along the national parks of Latvia and Estonia
5 Wildlife tours (pdf, 5449 kb):
mushrooming - from picking to cooking, birdwatching in autumn, botanical tour - 32 species of wild orchids, wildlife experience.

Forest Guide

We have published the "Forest Guide" togeather with the Latvian Fund for Nature, the Belorus association "Country Escape" and involving Estonian and Lithuanian rural tourism associations. The goal of the publication is to promote forest as a specific feature in the common Baltic Sea Region identity and facilitate nature tourism products based on forest resources. The guidebook tells about forest history, special values, lists about 400 species of plants, fungi and animals, describes attraction sites, nature trails, bird and animal watching sites. See electronical version of the guide here.
Press release here.

Project promotion in travel fairs

In spring of 2012 our Inese Riekstiņa disseminated the Baltic Sra Breezes and other project materials in ITB Berlin and Hamburg Reisen trade fairs. She also met with project partners and discussed the nature and culture tourism products with good potential to maintain the BSR identity. Inese observed market trends and opportunities for the Baltic Sea Region products.

Baltic Sea Breezes

The first issue of our magazine Baltic Sea Breezes is ready and available now. It was made in close cooperation with Baltic Sea Tourism Commission - for tourism professionals and experts. The magazine wants to promote the Baltic Sea Region as a wonderful place for tourism. Besides articles about natural and cultural heritage or about contents of AGORA 2.0, you will also find contributions by other stakeholders, for example referring to the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum or to projects like Parks & Benefits or Enjoy South Baltic! Find the magazine as a pdf-file here.

Member assembly of “Lauku ceļotājs”

In November 15, 2011, the members of “Lauku ceļotājs” had their assembly at the guest house “Medzābaki”. The topics covered rural tourism trends in 2011, marketing in social networks, and discussion of rural tourism provider problems that have to be addressed. Information on AGORA 2.0 project, its goals and activities was disseminated to nearly 100 assembly participants.

Survey "Whar do we have in common in the Baltic Sea Region?"

The leading partner of the project is doing this online survey to find out the common features of the Baltic Sea Region countries on which the BSR tourism product image should be based. Fill in the survey form here.

Practical seminar on making nature tourism products

On May 19, at the "Brūveri" guesthouse, a practical outdoor seminar will be held demonstrating how nature tours are organised and nature presented to visitors in captivating way. Professional nature guides will share their knowledge with rural tourism providers. See the photo gallery here.

Work started on the Forest Guide of Latvia

The Forest guide of Latvia will present protected forest areas as a tourism resource and product. The guide will feature protected forest sites in Latvia with some visitor infrastructure - picnic or rest sites, nature trails. The sites are now inspected, information gathered and photos taken. All information is put in the Forest Guide database for the becoming Forest Guide under these sections:
Protected forests
Secular trees
Nature trails

23.03.2011 - Nature Tourism Conference

On 22nd and 23rd March the Baltic nature tourism conference took place in Riga to illustrate management models of protected areas adapted in Europe and the Baltic Sea Region countries to balance economic activities, including tourism, and nature conservation. The event was attended by 260 registered participants, including 100 foreign guests.
Nature tourism is now the tourism industry topicality, and it has high competitiveness. It's time for professionally developed nature tourism offer, which allows city people to enjoy nature, and educating them about its values in entertaining way. By protecting nature, it is equally important to respect the people's needs.
Within the Agora2.0 project on the second day of the conference there was held a workshop "Tourism as a Part of the EU Strategy for the BSR” to present the project progress and results to national and international participants. Workshop summary see here.
More about the conference see here.

11.11.2010 Stakeholder seminar on sustainable nature tourism product development

There was held a stakeholder seminar of the project "Nature Tourism Product Development" on 11th of November, 2010, in the guesthouse Dzintarkasts, Roja district. The meeting gathered 84 participants - local residents of rural areas, tourism business representatives, tourism experts as well as authorities of nature protected areas and representatives of Latvian Country Tourism Association "Lauku celotajs". During the seminar there were highlighted the main guidelines in development of successful nature tourism offer development.

07.-10.10.2010 Joint BTC & AGORA 2.0 Project Meeting

The second project partner meeting was held in Minsk, the capital of Belarus on October 7 to 10. Project progress, financial aspects and planned project activities were discussed during the meeting. The WP groups presented the achievements and shared their experiences on the work for common identity of Baltic Sea region. After the project partner meeting all the participants were invited for the annual conference of Baltic Sea Tourism Commission. More about the event see agenda. The presentation of Lauku celotajs at the BTC conference see here.

06.09.2010 WP5 workshop in Copenhagen

Project partners of all pilot project groups met again for the workshop on strategic planning in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The progress of WP5 and common activities were discussed during the meeting “SWOT Analyses and Vision, Mission and Objectives”. All participating project partners presented their work and planned further actions.

What do you associate with forest?

Latvian Fund of Nature within the project AGORA 2.0 has started a questionary to find out what do people associate with forest - What do you associate with forest? Read more about the activities of Latvian Fund for Nature - www.ldf.lv

9.06.2010. Changing concept for quality

There was held international rural tourism workshop bringing together Europeand profesionals in rural tourism to summarise and avaluate the changes in the sector and gighlight innovative, constructive and succesful approaches to win the challenges presented to rural tourism by the economic situatuin in Europe. Participants of the workshope were also introduced with the Agora 2.0 project and activities of the project.
More about the workshop see here.

4.06.2010. Project partner meeting in Copenhagen

Continuing the project "Agora 2.0" project partners will meet to discuss the implementation of the pilot projects. The meeting will be held in Copenhagen, organized by the Copenhagen Business School.

06.05.2010. International workshop on rural tourism in Belarus

Representative of Lauku celotajs did take part in international rural tourism workshop in Minsk, Belarus on 6th of May. Project Agora 2.0 activities and planned results were presented during the workshop to the rural tourism providers and other specialists of the field. More about the event - agenda, list of participants, photo.

30.03.2010 First stakeholder seminar

On March 30, 2010, the first local stakeholder seminar took place at the guest house Valguma pasaule. 63 participants from tourism businesses, local representatives, specialists from ministries and other stakeholders took part in seminar. The seminar raised active discussions on prospects and obstacles in development of competitive tourism offers using local forest recourses. More information about the seminar – agenda (LV), photos.

Lauku celotajs visits international tourism trade fairs

Lauku celotajs has participated in international tourism trade fairs Balttour (Latvia), Tourest (Estonia), Vivatours (Lithuania) and ITB (Berlin, Germany) were the Agpra 2.0 project planned activities in Latvia were disseminated and existing nature tourism market of other Baltic Sea Region countries investigated.
See photos from Tourest
See photos from Vivatour

11.-13.02.2010. Project Kick-off meeting. Greifswald, Germany

By starting the new Interreg IVB project Agora 2.0 all project partners representatives met to disscuss the project tasks, administrative and financial issues. Agenda of the kick-off meeting see here.