New EU funded project approved: GreenWays Outdoor
Vidzeme Tourism Association, partner of the Consortia led by the European GreenWays Association, will participate in a new European Commission project GreenWays Outdoors. The project is expected to start in summer 2015 and will last for 18 months. VTA's project budget is EUR 28 800, and members from several Northern Latvia municipalities that have former railway lines traversing their territorries have already shown great interest to take part.
The "Greenways Outdoor" objective is the creation and transnational promotion of an outdoor tourism product linked to European greenways, and on the improvement of the capacity building of SMEs located in their vicinity, so that they can tailor their services to the demands of customers and so become more competitive.
The project will result in the creation of special tourism packages related to outdoor sporting activities; a European catalogue of “greenways outdoor” tourism products will be created together with a “catalogue of professional services and equipment around greenways” to be used by tour operators and end users. Mass participation events will be held (e.g. marathons, cycle tours, Nordic walking, for all) to attract new customers. Joint dissemination and promotion activities will be implemented on a pan-European scale through workshops and conferences, participation in specialized fairs, the creation of a European greenways outdoor award, a European photo competition, web page, blogs, press trips. The competitiveness of the companies related to greenways tourism will be enhanced and their integration in tourism products promoted.
Public-private collaboration will be encouraged to facilitate the creation of a greenways tourism product. The sum of the actions to be developed will make substantial progress in achieving recognition for the European greenways brand as a suitable product for outdoor tourism.
EGWA members will have the opportunity to participate directly in activities that will be carried out within Greenways Outdoor project (inclusion on the catalogues, participation on workshops and specialized fairs, great promotion) and furthermore will benefit from the result of the project from a whole.