Agora 2.0

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AGORA 2.0 – Heri­tage Tourism for Incre­ased Bal­tic Sea Region Iden­tity is reali­zed from The Euro­pean Union’s Bal­tic Sea Region Pro­gramme 2007–2013.

Partners

24 part­ners from 9 Bal­tic Sea Region coun­tries (Bela­rus, Den­mark, Esto­nia, Fin­land, Ger­many, Latvia, Lithu­ania, Poland, Swe­den & Rus­sia — Kali­nin­grad as an Asso­cia­ted Organization)

the Lead Part­ner : Uni­ver­sity of Gre­ifswald, Insti­tute of Geo­gra­phy and Geology

Duration of the project

Decem­ber 2009 – Decem­ber 2012

Budget

2 834 054 EUR while Kosza­lin Agency for Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment Has a bud­get of 50 882,35 EUR

Description of the project

AGORA 2.0 aims at impro­ving the com­mon iden­tity of the Bal­tic Sea Region based on its rich natu­ral and cul­tu­ral heri­tage. Heri­tage assets are not only inte­re­sting tourism attrac­tions, but also rele­vant pre­con­di­tions to enhance the busi­ness environment.

AGORA 2.0  com­pi­les exi­sting data and mar­ket rese­arch results, iden­ti­fies source mar­kets and respec­tive tourism demands. A web-​​based Bal­tic Sea Heri­tage Tourism Infor­ma­tion Service (BASTIS) shall pro­vide that infor­ma­tion – free acces­si­ble to tourism SME (small and medium enterprises).

Aims of the project

• impro­ve­ment and streng­the­ning com­mon iden­tity of the Bal­tic Sea Region based on the natu­ral and cul­tu­ral heritage
• incre­ase in awa­re­ness of resi­dents of the Bal­tic Sea Region about the cul­tu­ral and natu­ral heritage
• stu­ding the poten­tial of cul­tu­ral (histo­ri­cal) heritage
• making the region more visible
• supor­ting the coöpe­ra­tion between BSR partners
• deve­lop­ment of heri­tage tourism as a tool to the valo­ri­sa­tion of cul­tu­ral heri­tage reso­ur­ces in a susta­ina­ble way
• making mar­ket rese­arch and pro­vi­ding access (WWW) to a data­base for the SME sector

Structure

The struc­ture of the pro­ject is 5 work pac­ka­ges  defi­ned as WP. Five trans­na­tio­nal pilot gro­ups are going to deve­lop new solu­tions and inno­va­tive tourism pro­ducts, based on ana­ly­ses and stu­dies on visi­tor per­cep­tion con­duc­ted previously.

• WP1 – Pro­ject management.
• WP2 – Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and information.
• WP3 – Tourism Infor­ma­tion Service— Bal­tic Sea Region Heritage.
• WP4 – Stu­dies, sear­ching for heri­tage in Bal­tic Sea Region.
• WP5 – Pilot solutions.

Responsibility of Regional Development Agency of Koszalin

Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment Agency of Kosza­lin is respon­si­ble for one of the acti­vi­ties of W4 pac­kage:  susta­ina­ble use of Bal­tic Sea Region heritage’s poten­tial — stra­te­gic coöpe­ra­tion between the tourism sec­tor and orga­ni­za­tions affi­lia­ted with the heri­tage of the BSR for mutual bene­fit. A survey about the impor­tance of heri­tage of the Bal­tic Sea Region for the busi­ness sec­tor was pre­pa­red, resul­ting from the meetings with the lead part­ner the Uni­ver­sity of Gre­ifswald and Employ­ers Asso­cia­tion Ros­tock. Kosza­lin Agency for Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment is able to reach the cities that are mem­bers of Union of Bal­tic Cities, thanks to run­ning the secre­ta­riat of the UBC Com­mis­sion on Tourism. Meetings which were orga­ni­zed to pre­pare the study took place in Ros­tock and Kosza­lin as well as during a semi­nar in Minsk. Kosza­lin Agency for Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment and its part­ners will be dealing with col­lec­ting exam­ples of good prac­ti­ces in the next stage of the pro­ject, func­tio­ning thro­ugh the use of various aspects of the natu­ral and cul­tu­ral heri­tage. Kosza­lin Agency for Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment will also par­ti­ci­pate in deve­lo­ping guide­li­nes for a com­mon stra­tegy. Kosza­lin Agency for Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment thro­ugh its cur­rent acti­vi­ties pro­mo­tes the pro­ject within the pro­vince of West Pome­ra­nia and Pome­ra­nian province.