| Watertour - Issues |
Nov 2005 / 3 |
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What transfers a tourist region to a tourist destination? – This
was the central question of the third international meeting of the
WaterTour – project partners in Hungary. In summary, it is the
tourist who decides if a tourist region is a tourist destination.
However, with the help of an efficient marketing and communication
strategy as well as with the help of fruitful collaboration of all
stakeholders this decision can be manipulated!
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| Third
International meeting in Pecs / Hungary |
From September 17th to 20th the Irish, Finnish, Portuguese and
German project partners exchanged experiences on watertourism in
the city of Pécs in Southern Transdanubia near the Croatian
border, which is at a distance of 2,5 hours from Budapest.
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| Discussions on the
internationalisation of touristic markets and destination
marketing displayed, that a better knowledge about reasons to
travel and habits of tourists is necessary to attract people
from foreign countries. In addition the regions are not
presented in a cooperate design with clear information about
attractive touristic areas and places. Furthermore there
should be a stronger emphasis on multilingual brochures. It
has to be considered that tourists always consume a bundle of
performances that is offered in the particular region. There
are always multiple components of the touristic services
supply that make up the satisfying stay: scenic attractions,
accommodation and catering facilities, possibilities for
recreation and the pleasure of cultural attractions, animation
etc. |
Mr. Valentien, Director of the Regional
Tourism Board Vorpommern presents
their case study |
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During the meeting each partner presented regional studies, that
were implemented within the project “Watertour”.The South
Transdanubian Development Agency (Hungary) established a manual
for touristic enterprises and marketing organisations to create
products and attractions in the National Park Drava-Danube.
New marketing strategies and branding recommendations which
include the development of bicycle and hiking tourism were
initiated by the Midland Regional Authority in Ireland.
The City of Lahti in Finland investigated several touristic
aspects on the basis of an ecological touristic enterprise, as
e.g. which measures can prolong the touristic season and thus
increase the touristic net product.
The Forest Producers Association in Portugal developed a
strategy for the establishment of watertouristic offers in terms
of conservation and environmental education. Sources of the
investigation were the capital Lisbon and the coast Costa Azul.
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The Regional Tourism Board
Vorpommern introduced a utilisation and efficiency concept for
small harbours. The partner displayed on the basis of Loitz,
which target groups are relevant for the river Peene, which
conflicts must be expected within the utilisation of a
harbour, which products and services are necessary for an
economical operation and what a cost-proceeds-model could look
like. The concept is appropriable for other harbours on the
river Peene. |
The group starts a boat trip at the
river of Drava |
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| Beside the theoretical part, the meeting included
an excursion. The partners undertook a boattrip on the border
river Drava to the National Park Drava-Danube, which experiences a
difficult economic situation, for only a limited number of
visitors is permitted and the region is surrounded by border
waters. The Southtransdanubian region is one of the most famous
Hungarian winegrowing areas. •
See here material from the 3rd international meeting in Hungary
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|
The development of a tourism region towards a tourism destination
– a comparison among European regions |
The project targets SMEs and community groups, which are already
involved or wish to become involved in the development of water
based tourism activities. The Regional Working Groups will promote
the activities of the project to both private and public bodies as
an opportunity to harness the potential of inland waterways in a
more effective and appropriate manner, thereby increasing the
tourist numbers to their regions.The international network
provided by the International Working Group affords the
opportunity for each region to benefit from the lessons learned by
other regions in the development of various water tourism based
infrastructures and quality of services offered.
The handbook developed in the course of the project is a tool
providing support for all partners involved in the project to
realise strategies to market their regions more effectively on
national and international markets. For this purpose various
topics have been included.
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| In the first part of the handbook
valuable insight in relevant tourism developments in each of
the project countries is given. In the second part each of
the regions is examined. In this section relevant aspects
regarding general tourism as well as water-based tourism are
discussed. Furthermore several means of marketing used to
market the regions have been analysed in order to define
possibilities for improvements in the design of the promotion
material. |
Tuomas Vuorio, Lahti: Presentation of
working group results
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In the third part of the handbook the case studies prepared by the
project partner regions are published.
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| The initial examination of the
most relevant data concerning maritime tourist offers and
potentials as well as about the marketing activities of the
partner regions were evaluated with the help of a survey.
The various tourism portals of the project regions as well as
the print promotion material were evaluated with the help of
the AIDA model. To ensure comparability only the English
versions of the Internet Presences have been analysed. |
National park area Drava-Danube
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The handbook is available in English language. For any further
information please contact the WaterTour project coordination.
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| Next
International meeting |
The 4th international meeting will be held in the City of Lahti/
Finland from 13th of June until 16th of June, 2006.The meeting
will divided into three parts: an international conference, a
study trip around the lakes of Lahti and the meeting of the
steering committee.
Objectives of the conference:
• Input presentation on the topic of marketing tools and sales
strategies in water tourism
• Working groups: discussion of marketing strategies and
elaborating of cooperations on regional and international level
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Contact address for additional information |
WaterTour project coordination
c/o Gesellschaft für Tourismusentwicklung Vorpommern mbH
Fischstr. 11
D – 17489 Greifswald
Tel. +49 (0) 3834 891 132
Fax +49 (0) 3834 981 130
E-mail: getev@getev.de
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