The team of the project “Rural Tour: Training Program for Sustainable Rural Tourism” met in the third Steering Committee meeting from 26 to 28 January. It was coordinated by the University of Almeria and took place in Almeria, Spain. For various reasons, some partners only joined online via Zoom platform.

On December 22, the round table between targeted MSMEs and local and regional authorities of Kazakhstan with the topic "Global and regional challenges to the development of a green economy" was held. Two people from Latvian country tourism association "Lauku ceļotājs", Asnāte Ziemele and Juris Smaļinskis, participated in it. They talked about state support for the development of sustainable tourism in Latvia.

From December 10 to 16 seminars for tourism companies were held in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. An expert from Latvian country tourism association "Lauku ceļotājs", Juris Smaļinkis, participated in them to share his knowledge about sustainable tourism and marketing. All the participants were divided in two groups. During the seminars they learned how to:

• analyze the current position of their business
• get tools to analyze tourism needs in the region
• explore marketing strategies to promote their business in the sustainable tourism market
• profitably represent and promote their business on the Internet.

The seminar participants also visited several places in Uzbekistan that have the potential to become tourist attractions.

Juris also gave an interview to the local media about the project and the seminars.

On December 2, 3 and 4 seminars for marketing support of the MSMEs were held for tourism companies in Kazakhstan. The seminars took place in Nur-Sultan, the capital city of the country. An expert from Latvian country tourism association "Lauku ceļotājs", Juris Smaļinskis, participated in them. The aim of the seminars was to share knowledge about sustainable tourism and environmentally friendly management. Also, Juris talked about marketing and communication with clients.

Juris also had the honor of visiting the Latvian Embassy in Kazakhstan and meeting with the Latvian Ambassador in Kazahkstan Irina Mangule.

The second partner meeting of the Nordplus Adult project was planned for December 4-6 in Kuldiga, Latvia. During the meeting, visits to the Abava winery, the ostrich farm "Nornieki" and the farm shop "Kuldīgas labumi" were planned, experiencing the Christmas market and gaining experience from local food distributors. During the meeting the work already done and planned for the future was discussed, such as the planned training material and its content.

On November 16, 17 and 18 seminars for marketing support of the MSMEs were held for Tajik tourism companies. An expert from “Lauku ceļotājs” Juris Smaļinskis participated in them.  Due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions he participated online via Zoom platform. The aim of seminars was to provide to the tourism MSMEs necessary knowledge and information about the methods that they could apply in order to promote their sustainable business and as a result to reach the special market’s segment of eco-travelers.

The Pan-Baltic hiking online conference on November 9, 2021will celebrate the success of the Baltic Trails (baltictrails.eu) connecting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with the European network of hiking paths as part of the routes E9 (Baltic Coastal Hiking) and E11 (Baltic Forest trail).

The conference will bring together stakeholders sharing experiences in planning, implementation, management and maintenance of long distance cross-border hiking trails. The keynote speeches will present experiences from the Baltics, Sweden and Norway. Presentations will be followed by Baltic panel discussions highlighting challenges and solutions in practical aspects such as local acceptance and support, benefits and sustainability of long distance hiking trails.

Please register to receive the conference Zoom link!

>>>The registration is open until 05.11.2021.
>>> Full programme (PDF).
The conference working language is English.

>>> Contacts and information: anna@celotajs.lv.

The first meeting of the Nordplus Adult project with project partners from Latvia, Estonia and Norway took place from 14 to 16 September in Bergen, Norway. The specific aim of the project is to facilitate adult learning in SME sector. The Online Training „Greener future practices for local food&drink producers and providers" will be a blended learning tool to educate SMEs in food & beverage sector for making their business practices greener and more competitive.

The Silver Travelers project is over. The project aims to close an existing gap in the provision of modern technology learning in the rural tourism sector facing new market challenges.

With a hiking tour on September 4 in Lahemaa national park, Estonia the Forest Trail will be launched as part of E11 long distance hiking path of the European hiking path network. Everybody is welcome to join the 13km opening hike from Vainupea to Oandu villages in Lahemaa national park: Forest Trail section #41.

Tallinn in Estonia is the final destination in the E11 long distance hiking path of the European hiking path network. The E11 route goes: Scheveningen (NL)–Osnabrück (D)–Potsdam (D)–Poznań (PL)–Ogrodniki (PL)–Lazdijai (LIT)–Rīga (LAT)–Tallinn (EST).

Event PROGRAMME and REGISTRATION.

!!!! Only people who can show a COVID-19 certificate will be able to participate or negative test not earlier then 72hours.