Enjoying central European gardens and parks

ended

Main aim of the project is to develop new transnational tourism product for senior citizens (any person over 55 years old). With the product we want to contribute to increasing tourism flows in medium season for seniors between European Union Member States and broader. The new tourism product is based on parks and gardens. We want to take advantage of history, events, spotlights etc. of parks and gardens in border region at the crossroads of Slovenia, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. Through the project we will thus: - design and develop transnational thematic parks and garden tourism package offer for seniors; - improve professional skills of service providers along the route and make recommendations for improving the user experience; - foster clustering and networking activities in the chosen cross-border region; - exploit the results of the project after its lifetime. Our idea of designing and developing parks and gardens tourism package offer for seniors, to foster their flows in medium seasons, seems promising because: - parks and gardens are open all year (especially interesting in spring) and since seniors prefer to travel in off-peak seasons this is a great opportunity to move away from seasonality; - the tourist offer will consist of different guided packages and seniors are more likely to choose guided package tours; - visiting parks and gardens mainly consists of walking; thus the new tourism product will ensure seniors to have an active and healthy travel; - and last but not least, because by including other activities and entertainments – both in the parks and gardens as on a way to them – we will assure that less active travellers will not feel in any way deprived. Additionally, with cross-border cooperation we should also help overcome the weaknesses arising from the peripheral location of border regions, enrich the cross-regional tourist offer, stimulate the competitiveness of the local SMEs and improve the living conditions of the population.