Because we Latvians eat so many potatoes, why not celebrate the potato harvest?  Country Traveller has joined with the Latvian Association of Potato Growers and Processors and the Kalnciema Street Block to organize a Potato Festival!

The County Traveller information tent will be an embassy for the countryside.  Here you will be able to find the best places to find the widest variety of countryside goodies, from potatoes to grapes. The Putni folklore group will bring music to the celebration, and later the women of Rucava will demonstrate their song skills.  After that, potato growers will take the stage to share in their wisdom – which types of potatoes are best for crispy potato pancakes, which ones are most productive, which ones are in the greatest demand, which ones should be bought, which ones should be planted, etc. Ēriks Dreibants from the Trīs Pavāru Restaurant will offer a master’s class on using modern recipes to cook potatoes. Sandra Aigara from the “Zvanītāji” traditions centre and the women from Rucava will get busy with traditional dishes such as Kurzeme soured soup, potato packets with creamy bacon sauce, and crispy potato pancakes with bacon. You will learn many interesting facts about potatoes. There will be potato relay races and competitions. 

Festival programme here.

Media information here.

To promote countryside travelling and to give a presentation of what a visitor would experience and enjoy in the countryside we have produced 7 new videos http://www.celotajs.lv/cont/about/video_en.html. Each one is about half a minute story about a particular topic: seasons of a year, open farms and craft shops, Latvian symbols, etc. The videos are presented in our web site, social networks, and they will be demonstrated in rural tourism promotional events.

On 5th June in Brussels, the president of the Latvian Countryside Association "Lauku Celotājs", Asnāte Ziemele received an award Best Life-Environment Project for POLPROP-NATURA  project in EU LIFE programme. The project took place in the SlītereNational Park as a demo territory from 2009-2012. "Lauku Ceļotājs" executed the project together with the people and organizations of Slītere. The sustainable tourism development model was created by attracting local entrepreneurs, inhabitants, local authorities and administration of SlītereNational Park. This experience was used for making proposals for environmental protection and tourism development policy. 

The new Executive Committee will lead and manage EuroGites during the period of 2013-2016: Andy Woodward, FARMSTAY UK - President (UK), Klaus Ehrlich, RAAR - Secretary General (ES), Asnāte Ziemele, Latvian Country Tourism Association, Jan Tjosaas, HANEN (Norway), Panos Poulos, Hellenic Agrotourism Federation (Greece), Linas Zabaliunas, Lithuanian country tourism association, Patrick Farjas, GITES DE FRANCE (France), Hans Embacher, Urlaub am Bauernhof in Österreich (Austria).

„Lauku ceļotājs” participate in Project „AcTour: Active Tourism for Sustainable Development” where partners from Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Latvia intends to transfer an innovative, tchnology-enhanced and job-related Training Guide and Curriculum on Active Tourism as a new professional profile for European rural regions. Project results will be available here http://www.activetourism.org/

Open AcTour project page in a new window

The  4th European Congress on Rural Tourism, organised jointly by EuroGites and our Romanian partners of ANTREC, is now officially launched to take place in Romania, October 7-10, 2012. Detailed programme here. Follow program updates in the congress web site: www.europeanrtcongress.org 

Lauku ceļotājs announces the results of the tender within the framework of project „Heritage Tourism“.

Description of Services: Arrangement of the study tour of Latvian rural tourism businesses and Lauku Celotajs project staff to Estonia, including accommodation and catering.

Date of the decision: 04.09.2012
Decision published: 07.09.2012

Winner: OÜ Reisibüroo MERE

Content of the publication reflects the author’s opinion and the Managing Authority is not responsible for the information published by project partners.

Within the framework of project „Heritage Tourism“ we are looking for following services:

Arrangement of the study tour of Latvian rural tourism businesses and Lauku Celotajs project staff to Estonia, including accommodation and catering.

Size of the group: 38 persons
Dates: 18.-20.09.2012
Description of the route:
18.09.2012: Laiksaare village/Pärnumaa-Paide-Vihi village/Viljandimaa-Intsu village/Viljandimaa
19.09.2012: Põltsamaa- Avinurme- Alatskivi-Mooste
20.09.2012: Obinitsa- Vastseliina- Rõuge

Description of services:
-    Arrangement of accommodation for 2 nights for the group on the route in 18.09.12 and 19.09.212.
-    Arrangement of 3 lunches for the group in 18.-20.09.2012 on the route
-    Arrangement of 1 coffee break per day in 18.-20.09.2012 on the route 

The price offer should be in EUR and include:
-    the price of 1 accommodation per night/per person and for the group 2 nights
-    the price of 1 lunch per person / for the group and for the group 3 lunches
-    the price of 1 coffee break per person / for the group and for the group 3 coffee breaks

More detailed programme here.

If You are interested to involve, please send us the price offer till 3rd September, 2012 to e-mail elina@celotajs.lv. For any questions please contact us +371 29135813.

Content of the publication reflects the author’s opinion and the Managing Authority is not responsible for the information published by project partners.

The 6th Pan-European Green Belt Conference took place in June 27. – 29., 2012 in Mavrovo, Macedonia.

The Green Belt conference is an annual event taking place each time in a different Green Belt site. This time the conference was hosted by Mavrovo national park in Balkan Macedonia. The conference gathered 100 professionals from 21 Green Belt countries. Asnāte Ziemele, the president of the Latvian Country Tourism Association presented the experience and results of the Green Belt Military Heritage pilot project in Latvia. The representatives of the Green Belt countries approved new territories joining the Green Belt. Asnāte Ziemele was approved as the Baltic Green Belt NGO representative. The European Green Belt initiative is presently headed by the EuroNatur foundation (Germany). There are the following sections in the European Green Belt:

1) Feno-Scandinavian Green Belt (the northern part with Norway, Finland and Russia);

2) Baltic Green Belt (the area along the Baltic coast);

3) Central European Green Belt (the Baltic coast to the river Drava)

4) Balkan Green Belt (from the river Drava to the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea).

12 European Green Belt coordinators meet twice a year. The next meeting will take place in Finland, in winter 2012. 

Press release see here.

Please fill in a questionnaire and help us to create a new rural tourism product oriented on local heritage and people. The respondents will take part in the lottery. The main award is gift card of EUR 500 for the accommodation in the Baltic States. Questionnaire "Local heritae in rural tourism" is in English, German and Russian here