ERDF Interreg CB

Rural Lifestyle as a Tourism Offer

07/04/2022

As we observe public interest in a healthy and natural life environment, there is a new way of learning about countryside tourism.  This allows urban residents to “adapt” to a rural life model so as to think about a lifestyle change or simply spend a few days like a “rural resident.”  This is a story about a lifestyle that changes accustomed ideas about the countryside, creating a rural environment which merges traditional and contemporary values.


Guests can learn about various life models in the countryside by taking part in the everyday work of a farm. They can watch everyday processes or join with the owners in doing the work.  The hosts may include former residents of Riga who have returned to their childhood home and are now enjoying an unhurried and happy life.  There are present-day noblemen for whom local history and the restoration and maintenance of an estate are a matter of the heart. Elsewhere guests can enjoy the rhythm of a small and natural farm, where people care for orchards, berry gardens, greenhouses, chickens and bees.  Owners will allow guests to take a look at the lifestyle which involves an appropriate business niche such as meadow plant elixirs, soy wax candles or etheric oils.  Farmers who grow and process cranberries will be able to talk about the specifics of this type of business.  Farm women will offer master classes about how to prepare farm produce for the winter.  Life in the countryside is inviolably linked to nature, which means that the offer is related to seasons of the year.

A five-minute video is available on YouTube to learn about the countryside life in four neighbouring countries.  This is a digital trip through Latvia, Estonia, southern Finland and the Aaland Islands, and the west coast of Sweden.

The homepage https://balticsea.countryholidays.info/ in turn, offers a list of farms that offer country lifestyle experience to visitors Latvia, Estonia, and in small regions in Finland or Sweden.  Please make sure that you contact the venue in advance, because not all farms accept tourists, and their basic operations involve manufacturing or other activities.  For that reason, such venues have special times and/or days when guests will be welcomed.

The “Rural Lifestyle” guidebook in English, German and Japanese will provide offers related to Rural lifestyle.  Interest in “a different approach toward tourism” is small, sincere and real throughout the world, increasing all the time, and particularly since the pandemic. See https://www.celotajs.lv/lv/p/view/RL_manual_2022 to download the guidebook.

Rural lifestyle tourism offers peace and quiet which involves nature and calm activities which lead to tangible, beautiful aromatic and delicious results.  This autumn we plan to engage in marketing offers aimed at popularising this offer in nearby and distant markets, including Germany, the UK, Japan, Singapore, etc.  We will also talk to diaspora who live elsewhere in the world.


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This project is part-financed by the European Union and European Regional Development Fund Central Baltic Programme
This publication reflects the views of the author(s). The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein