Meeting of the UBC Commission on Tourism

22-23 of March, Palanga

During the period of 21-24 March 2007 a working meeting of the Commission of Tourism Union of Baltic Cities was held in the town of Palanga, Lithuania. The meeting was dedicated to summing up of the subsequent Commission work period and presentation of the projects scheduled for accomplishment this year.

The guests were welcomed by Mayor of Palanga, Mr Eugenijus Cilinskas, accompanied by Ms Irena Satkauskiene - (senior specialist for tourism Economic Development Division of Palanga Town Municipality), who was responsible for organizational matters. In total, 8 delegates of UBC member cities from 4 countries - Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland participated in the meeting. The sessions were presided by Mr Ryszard Zdrojewski, Chairman of the Commission of Tourism UBC.
Before the sessions commenced, the Commission performed study visits in "Auska", "Vanagupe" and "Gabija" hotels. Those were three significantly different cases, with totally different offers aimed at different target groups. The participants were accustomed with marketing strategies of the hotels, both at high season and outside. Then, in "Palangos Vetra" hotel the scheduled meeting commenced.
All those, who arrived, were welcomed by Chairman of the Commission of Tourism, who also extended his thanks to the authorities of Palanga for their invitation. Then Ms Irena Satkauskiene, took floor, and presented the town hosting the Commission, described the tourist infrastructure development, history of the SPA and the best attractions of Palanga. The next presentation performed by Mr Ryszard Zdrojewski pertained to Koszalin, the city hosting the Secretariat of the Commission of Tourism of UBC. The assembled company was presented with the best tourist attractions, tourist development conditions and the results of Koszalin tourist attractiveness research. The Chairman proposed, based on the presentations being made, the following issues to be discussed - how to identify the best attractions of given town/city, how to prepare the local tourist product based on those attractions, how to promote the product and how to asses effectiveness of the action taken.

The following persons took floor later on during the meeting: Innar Maesalu (Voru, Estonia), Agnieszka Pomaska (Gdańsk, Poland), Kristine Galdika (Liepaja, Latvia), Toiv Joul (Parnu, Estonia) and Indre Ziediene (Siauliai, Lithuania). They were presenting tourist attractiveness of their towns/cities trying to refer to the discussion issues. Questions were asked during each presentation and the discussion was held on the ongoing basis. Among the factors deciding about attractiveness of given town/city were identified, among other things, natural beauty, clean and well cared for environment, a possibility to go for sports and the so-called active leisure, rich SPA & wellness offer, rehabilitation and medical treatment offer, cultural events, rich entertainment offer, interesting history, famous people and local legends, good commercial offer, conference centres etc. In every case it was based on finding that "something" making given town/city exceptional. The meeting participants agreed that it was a precondition for success in tourism and they considered also that the key problem would be distribution of tourist offer directed to proper target groups. The Commission members decided to exchange in future, via internet, their views and experience associated with tourism, in particular, to inform each other about any interesting projects pertaining to this subject.

In the following part of the meeting programme Mr Ryszard Zdrojewski presented accomplishment of 2 projects - IIIrd edition of Fotosuch & Qiuzfahrt, which had just started on 15 March and the project called "Baltic Sea Region - Perfect Tourism Zone" the result of which was issue of a catalogue of the same name. In the first case the former two editions could be summarised and their effect could be assessed. The ever growing number of participants and territorial expansion proved high popularity of this project. It's been planned to gradually extend its geographic scope to include further regions so that in future the entire Baltic Sea Region be covered with it. Regarding the second projected project, 5 500 UBC member cities catalogue copies intended for tourists visiting BSR was issued. The catalogue is also aimed at increasing interest in this region among potential tourists. The publication was very positively perceived by UBC member cities and the Commission already announced issue of the IInd extended and updated edition. The catalogue will be distributed among the member cities, through the UBC office at Brussels, the Secretariat in Gdańsk, during G-8 Summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock and as well as during UBC General Conference at Parnu.
The Chairman presented the idea of organising this year a competition on knowledge about the Baltic Sea Region named "Meet BSR - your homeland". The meeting participants were accustomed with the competition regulations draft and detailed event schedule. The project provides for 2-tier competition i.e. eliminations in UBC region countries and rotating finals in respective member cities. The first finals were proposed to be held in December 2007 at Koszalin. The Commission approved this project for accomplishment. A decision was made to contact via internet in order to refine project details.

The meeting participants decided at the end that the annual meeting of the Commission of Tourism UBC will be held at the end of September 2007 in Parnu, Estonia, on the occasion of the General Conference of UBC. As the term of office comes to its end, it shall also be a reporting and electoral meeting.

It is a tradition that the Commission has been asking all sea-side member cities to take up efforts to get the "Blue Flag" status for their beaches. The Commission considers that UBC representing cities should lead in implementation of high quality standards and should set a good example for other cities located near the Baltic Sea. The appeal authors are convinced that clean and safe beaches are one of the most important factors having impact on development of tourism in the Baltic Sea Region.

Ryszard Zdrojewski

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