ECTN President addressed Cultural Routes Forum in Vilnius
President of European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN), Mr Raitis Sijats (who is also VTA's Chairman of the Board), addressed the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Forum, which took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva from 26 – 27 October 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. This year`s forum focused on ‘Expanding the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe: challenges and opportunities’.
R.Sijats joined more than 50 speakers at the forum, coming from the national, regional and local authorities, certified cultural routes and candidates, academics, experts and tourism professionals, along with representatives of International Organizations and European Institutions.
He spoke during the session entitled ‘Developing new themes and topics: Sustainable and cultural tourism’. Specifically, R.Sijats presented ECTN’s view on Cultural Routes and presented a new project ‘Cultural Routes as Investment for Growth and Jobs’ (Cult-RInG), in the Interreg Europe inter-regional cooperation programme (2nd Call), which highlights the value of investments in European Cultural Routes, in terms of their contribution to Growth & Jobs, with capitalization of good practices, policy learning, policy implementation, development of new Cultural Routes, monitoring and capacity building.
Also, addittional emphasis was placed on the EuriVelo 13 - The Iron Curtain Trail, as the possible official European Cultural Route in the future.