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Watertour Newsletter - June 2005
| Watertour - Issues |
Jun 2005 / 2 |
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Do water tourism and nature conversation exclude each other? The
topic of sustainable development in connection with water tourism
activities will be discussed within the second Watertour –
Issues.
Typical Irish weather welcomed the participants of the 1st
International Conference on “Best practise reports from
regions concerning cooperation between SMEs and communities”,
which which took place in Athlone/Midland Region in Ireland from
May the18th until 19th 2005. About 60 people from the project
partner regions in Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Hungary and Germany
participated in the conference. These were representatives of
communities, watertouristic companies (e.g. canoe rental, hire
boats, carrier of Marinas), boating-, fishing- and angling
associations, representatives of national parks as well as
touristic organisations. •
See here the participants of the conference in Ireland in May 2005
(pdf)
•
Download the program of the
conference
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| Best
practise reports on water tourism infrastructure and marketing |
Objectives of the conference were the presentation of best
practise-examples, discussions and the exchange of experiences
between the participants of the conference.
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| Five speakers presented ideal
projects which maintain infrastructure and implement marketing
measures around inland waters. Mr.
James Daly, Chairman of the Midland Regional Authority opening
the conference -> |
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Mr John McKeown is Regional Manager of the Waterways
Ireland, which is responsible for the management, maintenance,
development and restoration of the inland navigable waterways in
Ireland. The Royal Canal – the connection between Dublin and
County Longford – was restored over a distance of 146 kilometres.
New bridges, landing jetties and slipways were constructed, new
lock-gates were installed, canal channels were dredged and canal
bog embankments were strengthened. Today the Canal is used for
touristic boating - in former times goods were transported on
these waterways.Ms Eileen McKeever is Waterway
Manager, River Thames Environment Agency. She talked about the
decrease of boating tourism at the river of Thames/ UK, as a
consequence thereof the infrastructure decays. The „Environment
Agency“ is a governmental organisation, that initiated the project
„Thames ahead“ in cooperation with touristic organisations, an
association of people who bestow and sell boats, an association
for passenger shipping and 25 communities as well as tourism
service providers.
Corporate marketing activities, brochures, newsletters,
WebPages and public relation-activities were started to market the
Thames as an attractive touristic destination with boating
tourism.
Ms Babette Schwerdtner is marketing director of
the Regional Marketing Saxony-Anhalt plc. She referred to the use
of the river of Elbe within watertourism, which shall attract new
tourism target groups. Infrastructure (e.g. landing stages,
services and Marinas) was allocated with the help of private and
public investments. They were placed on the market as „Blue
Ribbon“ by the Landesmarketing Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH. A common sign
posting system, targeted at the river, was thougt up. It gives
information about the landing stages, the local services as well
as touristic attractions in the surroundings.
Mr Colin Becker – Chairman, Boating & Leisure
standing committee, Inland Waterways Association of Ireland -
reported on the meaning of private boating in Ireland, for there
are more private boats on rivers and canals than hired boats. The
boats require the same services. The costs for maintenance,
purchase and transport of boats, equipment, safety measures and
clothing amount 50-75 million Euro a year.
Professor Heiner Haass gave an survey of the
structure of different Marinas and landing stages – starting with
harbours of refuge, which requires little infrastructural
equipment, up to an event harbour, which is used also for events.
The co-operation of public organisations, associations, companies
and touristic marketing organisations is necessary to finance,
build and maintain these harbours. The offer of touristic
services, gastronomy, information and attractions play an
important role – upt to 75 percent - for the construction of a
harbour.
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| The international meeting pointed
out the different development conditions and starting points
within the particular regions. There are lots of contacting
points concerning the implementation of activities and
measures as well. Namely the different background of
presenations and participants stimulate discussions resulting
in new perceptions. The participants agreed on an intensive
exchange of experiences and in strengthening the network to
develop and market watertourism across regional borders.
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Conference participants at a landing
stage at the river of Shannon |
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Contacts of Conference speaker |
Mr. John McKeown, Waterways Ireland,
john.mckeown@waterwaysireland.org,
www.waterwaysireland.org
Ms. Eileen McKeever, River Thames Environment
Agency,
eileen.mckeever@environment-agency.gov.uk,
www.visitthames.co.uk
Mr. Colin Becker, Inland Waterways Association
of Ireland,
enquires@knowledgetrade.ie
Prof. Heiner Haass, University of Applied
Science,
haass@loel.hs-anhalt.de,
www.d-marina-consult.de
Ms. Babette Schwerdtner, Regional Marketing
Saxony-Anhalt plc.,
babette.schwerdtner@lmg-sachsen-anhalt.de,
www.blauesband.de
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Lahti/Finland: High quality services in Lehmonkärki |
The river of Päijänne is located in the Päijät-Häme region, where
water tourism and tourism in general play an important role
because of the attractive landscape of the region.
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| Near the river of Päijänne in
Asikkala there is the Lehmenkärki Cottage Village, which is
managed by the young couple Mrs Marjo and Mr Ari Yrjölä. It
has been a family company since 1967, when it was founded by
Mr Ari Yrjölä‘s parents. In the beginning only accommodations
were offered, nowadays there are cottages, which offer
services for different tourist groups (e.g. interesting spare
time activities, wellness offers, accommodations, meeting
rooms, catering). |
Bonfire in Lehmonkärki
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The farmhouses near the river are at a distance from each other.
There is a sauna and private yard in each cottage. Most of them
have their lakeshores with a landing stage and a rowing boat. All
cottages are classified as high standard houses.
The close proximity to the lake allows a great variety of
activities for each season. In winter trips on snowmobiles and
dogsledding safaris are organised. People can go fishing or
hunting, or you play tennis, badminton. Those, who love sports,
can go paddling or do extreme sports and so on. Experienced
co-partners arrange games and adventures to meet visitors wishes.
Furthermore guided trips to the Kelvenne Island, which belongs to
the Päijänne National Park, are offered. All these arrangements
can be included into the programme of courses, seminars or
meetings.
Contact:, Phone 00358 3 766 6330, e-mail
lehmonkarki@lehmonkarki.fi,
http://www.lehmonkärki.fi
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Vorpommern/Germany: Water tourism and nature conservation do not
exclude each other! |
There are a lot of natural rivers beside the Baltic Sea and the
Stettiner Haff in the back regions of Vorpommern. Unique flora and
fauna near and around the waters are conserved with the help of
biotopes, reservations and protected landscapes.
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| People practice and strive for
nature-orientated tourism in this region to realise outdoor
recreation and to offer adventures in an attractive nature and
landscape at the same time. Several regulations about how to
cruise on waterways were established to ensure the
conservation of nature, e.g. speed regulations, prohibitions
of bank accesses, restricted cruising and clear instructions
about the right behaviour and considerateness by skippers. |
On a canoe through Vorpommern |
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Furthermore the “Ten Golden Rules about the Behaviour of Aquatic
Sportsmen in the Landscape” were thought up in cooperation with
the Ministry of Traffic and the Aquatic Sports Associations (www.kanu.de).
The World Wildlife Fund Germany (WWF) published WebSites to
realise a harmonical co-existance of water sports and nature
conservation in the Greifswalder Bodden
(www.wassersport-im-bodden.de). The rivers of Vorpommern have
ideal conditions for trips on canoes or kayaks. Further offers are
e.g. guided beaver safaris, angling, houseboat charter as well as
passenger shipping. Smaller and bigger touristic organisations
offer their services concerning questions about nautic adventures.
Adequate information on nature-orientated activities are
available on
www.vorpommern.de or in English on
www.vorpommern.de/1/english.
Contact: Regional Tourism Board Vorpommern,
info@vorpommern.de, Phone
0049 3834 891 0
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Possibilities of sustainable water tourism in the
South-Tarnsdanubian Region/ Hungary |
Summer holidays are primarily linked to water. Water tourism
includes: water-side holidays, water sports and fishing tourism.
The qualities of the South-Tarnsdanubian region are favourable.
Half of the Lake Balaton areas are located at the northern borders
of the region. The Danube and Drava rivers provide a frame for the
region, though they can be utilised only to a smaller extent
(pollution, national park, border river, considerable water
traffic). Only a few places are used for tourism beside the few
greater holiday lakes (Orfű, Deseda, mine lakes of Gyékényes).
The services and a good water quality must be improved, e.g. by
gradual investments, that are based on a development plan, for
they are very important for the touristic utilisation of lakes.
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| There are many fish species in
our rivers and lakes, but fishing tourism can only succeed if
the fish economy facilitates fishing and tourism. Attractive
touristic places are: the lakes of Balaton, Orfű and Deseda,
the gravel mines of Gyékényes, the backwaters of the Danube
and Drava. Sailing, surfing, kayak-canoe water sports (in the
backwaters of the Deseda, Danube, the lakes of Orfű and Pécs)
and diving at the lake of Gyékényescan could attract many
tourists. |
Drávai kikötõ |
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Furthermore the elaboration and marketing of the routes of
Balaton-Sió-Danube (joining the Danube could have an effect on
yacht- and adventure tourism) and Drava water tours are
emphasized.
If the service quality at existing tourism centres (Pécs,
Harkány, Siklós, Villány) is improved and products are
target-orientated (e.g. wine tourism, rural tourism), there would
be an affect on existing tourism centres, rural tourism and water
tourism close to the city.
Contact: South Transdanubian Development Agency,
bbalazs@ddrft.hu, Phone 0036
72 513 734
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| Living
Heritage & Sustainable Water Tourism Development in Ireland |
Ireland’s waterways heritage was created to promote the economic
development of the country through the improvement of the
transport infrastructure. The way we use the waterways - for
recreation and leisure - may be different to what the early
entrepreneurs had envisaged - the carriage of freight and
passengers - but it actually has the potential to achieve some of
their original objectives by bringing economic activity to the
areas that might otherwise be deprived of it. The Irish want to
preserve this unique heritage while allowing its use and enjoyment
by all.
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| Canals like the Grand and Royal
are entirely artificial constructs and if not used as
navigations and maintained as such they will deteriorate quite
rapidly. A canal, that has regular boat traffic, will suffer
less from weed problems and silting, because the boats will
keep the canal clear. But what kinds of uses are
“sustainable”? Boating, but not all kinds of boating. In order
to maintain the ecology of the water way, boats mustn’t pump
over board deleterious matter such as sewage or oily bilge
water. |
Landing stage in Athlone at the river of
Shannon
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This requires the fitting of holding tanks and bilge-water traps.
Furthermore there are other amenity and leisure uses for canals.
Walking is a low impact form of activity on the environment and
the guidelines for establishing approved walking routes are well
documented (e.g by the Irish Sports Council).
Angling, cycling, rowing and canoeing could become further
popular activities along the canals, though the establishment of
more interpretive signage along the canals is to be realised for
this.
However, people seem to like having waterways in their lives
and they are attracted to waterways that have boating activity on
them. It is quite possible, that a visitors experience of a canal
is improved if they see it being used for boating activity.
To summarise, in the future our canals will be working, living
navigations, and properly managed tourism could be a key part of
their future.
The conclusion of the World Canals Conference, which took place
in Dublin about four years ago was: “the way we interact with what
we have inherited from the past, to meet some need that we have to
day in a way that future generations can equally interact with
them” – which is not unlike the definition of sustainability.
Contact: Colin Becker/ Inland Waterways
Association of Ireland, 2 Kylemore Park, Taylors Hill, Galway
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| Water
tourism in Portugal |
AFLOPS assembles an extraordinarily representative patch of forest
and rural areas of the entire Setúbal district (approximately 40%
- 100 thousand hectares of the total forested area), in which its
activity is mainly developing. A priority in their work is to know
and perceive the whole touristic endogenous potential of the
properties, and the motivation and expectations of the forest and
agriculture owners and managers associated to the tourism
development of these areas.Consequently, they intend to
evaluate the present development and the touristic tendency of
their territories in the scope of the “WaterTour” Project, taking
into account their specific features in a way to contribute to the
configuration of a touristic utilization/offer matrix based on the
water tourism.
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| This work phase has been revealed
with a strategic importance, for in this way it was possible
to evaluate the real values of the visited properties, the
problems faced by the owners on the day-by-day management of
their exploitation land, their wishes and motivations.
Furthermore they want to know what the owners are afraid of
and intend to see resolved, being the “water tourism” a good
possibility for controlling some of the stated problems. |
Case studies – Herdade do
Zambujal / Sado Estuary |
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In the case of AFLOPS there are no doubts that the model that
might be developed will be a paradigm of the water tourism
spectrum in Portugal, on the level of the dynamics, the
initiatives, the plans and principally the necessary partnerships
for its setting up.
Contact: AFLOPS,
raquel.rosario@aflops.pt,
Phone 00351 21 219 8910
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| Second
International meeting |
The third international meeting will be held in the
South-Transdanubian Region from 27th until 30th of September, 2005. A major part of the conference will be an
international workshop with following objectives:• Presentation
of regional case studies
• Elaboration of common guidelines and strategies on water tourism
development
The next conference on innovative marketing tools and sales
strategies in water tourism will be held in the city of Lahti/
Finland in early summer 2006.
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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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Download this newletter in pdf |
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(c) Watertour 2005 &
Nordsys Oy |
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FINLAND
GERMANY
HUNGARY
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