Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2023-11-11

Description

Description (EN):

Lakes are an important part of culture in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia. They have a significant recreational value, business value and potential as a tourist attraction. Joint challenge is how to harness the economic and tourism potential of the lakes and their surroundings sustainably and make them easier to reach for local and foreign tourists. The Lakesperience project aims to connect the Central Baltic lakes as a joint tourist attraction through developing lake service packages, joint map service including information on the services and an awarding system for tourists visiting several lakes, organising lake festivals, developing joint marketing materials and above all a Nordic-Baltic lake brand “Lakesperience”. Project will increase the attractiveness and visibility of the Finnish, Swedish, Estonian and Latvian lakes and their environments as sustainable natural heritage tourist attractions and products. The partners will develop the service packages for all seasons of the year and their marketing through organising local and joint workshops for lake tourism service companies and sharing experiences and challenges in each location. The project connects lakes Pyhäjärvi and Näsijärvi in Tampere Finland, lakes Åsunden, Järnlunden and Stora Rängen in south of Linköping, Sweden, lake Peipsi in Tartu, Estonia and lake Burtnieku in Latvia as a joint tourist attraction. The project will involve and enhance business and marketing cooperation between at least 20 Finnish, 20 Swedish, 15 Estonian and 15 Latvian companies that provide services for lake tourists. As a result the number of lake tourists will increase by 5000 altogether in the involved locations during the project.

Achievements (EN):

Lakesperience succeeded in creating a joint Central Baltic tourist attraction: The project managed to develop partnering lake areas into a joint sustainable tourism attraction with joint values and to connect the lake tourism service products to it. In the core of the joint tourism attraction and products was the joint positioning theme/brand Nordic-Baltic Lake Trails that was developed in the beginning of the project. Joint positioning theme was utilized in the product development workshops and in developing sales manuals. Based on the joint positioning theme, a Lakesperience marketing strategy was developed. As its main achievement, the project has succeeded in creating a joint Central Baltic tourist attraction. The project achieved 26 000 new visitors to the developed sites, while only 5000 were planned. Regarding communication, the project had two main target groups identified in the project application. They managed to reach a larger amount of small and medium sized companies than planned (93 reached, 70 planned). The German Tour operators were also reached, but due to Covid it was no possible to see the German tourists coming to the developed sites in the partner regions. The project’s work reached domestic target groups well and increased the popularity of lake/cycling tourism. The cross-border work was significant. Ideas and views were shared, and that helped to see different perspectives and how things were being done in the other regions. The exchange of experiences between the project partners contributed to the assessment of the quality and potential of the services, a better and wider understanding of nature tourism and its promotion opportunities. This all cemented the work well, as the common objectives were set together. The created network will work beyond the timeframe of the project. Also cross border cooperation added value to entrepreneurs’ work via the joint marketing in Germany. They found the joint study visit to Mecklenburg Lake District very useful. The region offers one of the best infrastructures for cycling tourists in Central Europe and was useful place for the exchange of experiences. They also got a change to meet with the companies from other partnering regions. Concrete outputs to promote the joint attraction include maps, sales manuals, trail signs and marketing material such as videos. These will live on also after the project. The partners also organised lake festivals. In communication there was also some cooperation with bloggers which resulted to blog posts promoting the project topics. Promotional videos: Overall project video and all other videos: https://lakesperience.eu/ Direct links: From Estonia: https://vimeo.com/478788556/a8e66c4e75 From Finland: https://vimeo.com/478789477/7ddfc5aa96 From Latvia: https://vimeo.com/478790515/e9916a8807 From Sweden: https://vimeo.com/478791029/e39264aa75 Sales manuals: https://lakesperience.eu/news/

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R2.1. More sustainable joint natural and cultural heritage based tourist attractions

Expected Outputs (EN):

The project will develop the involved lakes and their environments as a Central Baltic natural and cultural resource into a joint sustainable tourist attraction and products, branded as the Nordic-Baltic Lakesperience. As a result the number of lake tourists will increase during the project by 5000 altogether in participating locations. The results of the project will be evaluated through digital questionnaire that the lake service companies such as renting services, hostels, B&B and camping will provide for the lake tourists. Also the regional annual statistics of the hotel and hostel overnights will be utilised in the evaluation.

Thematic information

Cultural heritage and arts Tourism

Specific Objective: Natural and cultural resources developed into sustainable tourist attractions

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06c) Conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage

Partners (7)

Lead Partner: Suomen Itämeri-instituutti

Department: -

Address: Kelloportinkatu 1B, 33100 Tampere, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.baltic.org/

Total budget: EUR 263 571.73

ERDF budget: EUR 197 678.80

ÖstergötlandsLänslandsting

Name: ÖstergötlandsLänslandsting

Department: Visit Östergötland

Address: Drottninggatan 26, 60224 Norrköping, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://visitostergotland.se/

Total budget: EUR 227 193.00

ERDF budget: EUR 170 394.75

Länsstyrelsen Östergötland

Name: Länsstyrelsen Östergötland

Department: Department of Natural Resources

Address: Östgötagatan 3, 581 86 Linköping, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.lansstyrelsen.se/ostergotland

Total budget: EUR 87 970.80

ERDF budget: EUR 65 978.10

Peipsi Koostöö Keskus

Name: Peipsi Koostöö Keskus

Department: -

Address: Puiestee 71A, 51009 Tartu, Estonia

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.ctc.ee/

Total budget: EUR 161 515.00

ERDF budget: EUR 137 287.75

Ekokumppanit Oy

Name: Ekokumppanit Oy

Department: -

Address: Valssipadonraitti 3, 33100 Tampere, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ekokumppanit.fi/en

Total budget: EUR 201 904.45

ERDF budget: EUR 151 428.34

Visit Tampere Oy

Name: Visit Tampere Oy

Department: -

Address: Kelloportinkatu 1B, 33100 Tampere, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.visittampere.fi

Total budget: EUR 197 005.00

ERDF budget: EUR 147 753.75

Burtnieku novada pašvaldība

Name: Burtnieku novada pašvaldība

Department: -

Address: Vanagu Street 4, LV-4219 Valmiera parish, Latvia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.burtniekunovads.lv

Total budget: EUR 71 336.32

ERDF budget: EUR 60 635.87

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Region Östergötland

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

County Administrative Board of Östergötland

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

Ecofellows Ltd.

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

Visit Tampere Ltd.

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

Burtnieku County municipality

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Partners and Projects info

Suomen Itämeri-instituutti

Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Project acronym: Lakesperience

Project start date: 2018-01-01

Project end date: 2020-12-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 210 496.30

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 931 157.36

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 931 157.36.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

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Explore the Nordic-Baltic lakes

Description

Thematic information

Partners (7)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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