Kalmar – Black Sea region

Profile issues: Local economic development and growth support for small and medium-sized enterprises, employment and tourism.

Actions and results so far

Actions taken have had three main phases: 

  1. To learn about each other in order to build a solid base and common understanding for the concrete actions and to learn about tourism management
  2. Creation of a common cooperation arena for development of the tourism sector, BSTN - Black Sea Tourism Network. (First named SAGONET - Samsun, Amasya, Giresun, Ordu network)
  3. Writing the Handbook on Establishing and running an inter-sectorial arena for win - win cooperation, based on Black Sea Tourism Network a result of  the TUSENET partnership Kalmar – Black sea region

Phase 1; To learn about …..

The BSR municipalities have made two study visits to Kalmar. The delegations have consisted of Mayors and other politicians, civil servants and representatives of NGO’s. Politicians and/or civil servants from Kalmar have visited the BSR partners at four occasions.

An example is the seminars and workshops (with 93 participants; 37 women and 56 men from the BSR municipalities) that were held in the BSR municipalities in March 2008 with focus on the political dimension of TUSENET in order to: 

  • Create a common view of the TUSENET project; its general focus, aims, horizontal themes etc. and its potential for the development of the involved municipalities
  • Exchange and discuss knowledge and experiences of  the political system in Turkey and Sweden with special focus on the local/municipality level
  • State the highest prioritized area/tasks for concrete TUSENET actions.

 Another example is the study visit to Kalmar in September 2008 which focused on cooperation in the visiting sector and small scale visiting sites, Living history and Public involvement and cooperation in the field of waste management and welfare.

 The results so far is that the partners have learned about each other, created a rather common view of the potential of the TUSENET project. The municipalities have also got an enlarged knowledge and insight on tourism management in the Black Sea Region as well as in the Kalmar Region.

 Phase 2; Creation of a common cooperation arena – BSTN (Black Sea Tourism Network)

BSTN was established when the of Letter of Cooperation was signed, at UMT in Ankara 16 October 2009, by the mayor of Amasya, the mayor of Giresun, the vice mayor of Ordu. The mayor of Samsun had not any possibility to take part in the ceremony, but shall sign the BSTN Letter of Cooperation as soon as possible.

It is important to have in mind that when TUSENET started the cooperation between the municipalities, in the filed of the profile issues of the partnership, did almost not exist.

The first idea of the BSTN (then named SAGONET) was created during the study visit to Kalmar in September 2008. The idea has since then been anchored in each municipality. Seminars and meetings were held with representatives from the private companies and associations, local and regional public authorities. Inventories of existing and potential visiting/tourism were made in the municipalities. Links to the national Culture and Tourism Strategy were also invented. A BSTN web site is almost ready for being opened.

The vision of SAGONET was discussed at that workshop in connection with the signing ceremony.  One of the outcomes was that the SAGONET became BSTN. In the future the cooperation arena needs to welcome partners from the whole Black Sea Region. Therefore the name was changed  to Black Sea Tourism Network. This is also in line with the “Tourism Strategy of Turkey – 2023” where two of the Tourism Development Corridors (No V. Black sea Costal Corridor and No VI. Plateau Corridor) are about the Black Sea Region. Amasya is also especially pointed out in the Strategy.

Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism took part in a workshop in Ankara They informed about the “Tourism Strategy of Turkey – 2023” and they were informed about TUSENET and the BSTN (former SAGONET). They invited BSTN to contact the ministry for further dialogs and they declared that they can give support concerning brochures etc.

Phase 3; Writing the Handbook

This phase has just started. A table of content is agreed on and writers are pointed out.

Actions on the Agenda

The work plan has three parts. The top priority is to deliver the output of the TUSENET BSR – Kalmar partnership; the Handbook. 

 

1.      The Handbook

·         First draft shall be finished by latest 2009-12-21

·         Final draft shall be finished by latest  2010-01-29

·         During the BSR visit to Kalmar in December a workshop shall be held to present and discuss the result of the writing so far

 

2.      Establishing BSTN

Local BSTN seminars are to be held as soon as possible in order to involve local actors. The work with the web shall go on.

3.      BSR visit to Kalmar

A visit in December was discussed. Focus should be how, why, who etc. Kalmar is working with support to small and medium sized companies. The time for the visit was proposed to be December 7 -11.

 
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