Integrated and sustainable development of Emajõgi-Peipsi-Velikaja waterway as a tourism destination

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The original idea to compose Interreg project derives from the cooperation of Tartu County Tourism Foundation and Association of the Local Authorities of Tartu County. In May 2005 representatives of Pskov state were presented the idea and in June 2005 during the Hanseatic Days there was a more official meeting to discuss the common interests. The municipalities of both, Estonian and Russian, project partners, have overcome the Soviet era, which has constrained the natural economic development to a large extent. Indirectly it influences the non-municipality project partners, which are to a large extent financed from municipality budgets. For Pihkva region, Vara municipality and Meeksi municipality the problem also rises from being situated on border areas, which makes it more difficult to involve investments for area development. Also the development of tourism servicing and assurance of overall welfare of inhabitants have been constrained. The main objective of the project is to develop cross-border tourism cooperation between Tartu county in Estonia and Pihkva state in Russia, on the assumption of common vision and synchronization of activities. The cooperation and knowledge exchange must result in greater tourism attractiveness of both regions and in greater welfare of the local population. In addition to main objective there are several sub-objectives: to improve and develop cooperation between two historically connected regions, create possibilities for new tourism companies to come to the region and also help to develop the existing companies; make it easier for tourists to obtain information and increase their satisfaction; indirectly increase employment in companies. The project is planned to be financed by the ERDF, Tacis, NGOs and municipalities. The project activities are divided into five packages: 1) management and project coordination, 2) Emajõgi-Peipsi-Velikaja waterway infrastructure development: planning harbours and access ways, 3) small investments: improving of a tourism information accessibility in Tartu and Pihkva regions, 4) internationalisation of marketing activities and realisation of common marketing approaches, 5) destination management and profiling. The major results of the project will be tourism cross-border network creation, which is the base for cooperation between two regions and helps to connect municipalities, companies and tourists. In addition possibilities are created for future development of common waterway and it is introduced as new tourism resource to all target groups, using also new interactive possibilities.

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