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Baltic Sea Cooperation - Strategic group meets in Vilnius

BSTC News

On 4 September 2019 tourism representatives from the Baltic Sea region met for a strategic meeting in Vilnius (Lithuania). One day before the Lithuanian National Tourism Forum, a draft convention for the Baltic Sea Tourism Center, which is to be institutionalised in future on the basis of a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), was presented in a small group.

Strategic Meeting Baltic Sea Cooperation in Vilnius/Lithuania on 4 September 2019 | ©Ministry of Economics and Innovation Lithuania

In this context, bilateral talks with potential BSTC members will be held in the coming weeks and months in order to secure and further expand the current areas of responsibility of the Center of Expertise. It is planned that 10 partner institutions from at least 2 EU countries will join forces for cooperation within the EGTC and help shape the further development of the BSTC's areas of responsibility in the medium term. Under the framework conditions specified in the agreement, macro-regional tourism cooperation in the Baltic Sea region is to be more firmly anchored and tourism development in the region is to be promoted in the coming years as well. Institutions from the public and semi-public sectors can contact the BSTC staff directly if they are interested. Further information on the project and contact information can be found at www.bstc.eu

In addition, the current programme for the 12th Baltic Sea Tourism Forum, which will take place on 13 November in Brussels (Belgium), was presented and coordinated in Vilnius.  With the title SHARE | INSPIRE | CREATE the BSTC together with the policy area tourism of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy and strongly supported by the European Commission invites to the annual tourism forum in the "capital" of the European Union. The aim this year is to position tourism in the Baltic Sea region more strongly at EU level, to present past results of macro-regional cooperation, but also to highlight future fields of action in tourism.

Besides these two core topics, the participants of the Strategic Meeting last week got an insight into the revision of the EUSBSR Tourism Action Plan and the future topics for the EUSBSR flagship projects.

The meeting was followed by the Lithuanian Tourism Forum, hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation Lithuania, which took place on 05.09.2019 in the Vilnius. The diverse agenda included representatives of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the European Travel Commission (ETC) as well as political stakeholders from Vilnius and the whole country.

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