The community of hiking enthusiasts continues to grow; therefore, the Latvian Rural Tourism Association "Lauku ceļotājs" has come up with an initiative to make long-distance hiking routes "The Forest Trail / Mežtaka" and "The Baltic Coastal Hiking Route / Jūrtaka" more accessible to various segments of the society, including families with young children, seniors, people with mobility difficulties, or other limitations. In collaboration with organizations representing these community groups and project partners from Latvia and Estonia, environmental accessibility solutions will be developed, providing the opportunity for a wider range of the community to enjoy the hiking experience.

>>> Summary (presentations, photos, videos)

From September 21 to 22, the team of the project "Change Creators. Innovative business models for the non-urban creative sectors" met in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. It was the second meeting of partners to discuss what has already been done in the project and what is still planned.

The Code of Conduct for nature travel in Latvia provides practical guidance to visitors on how to enjoy the country's beautiful natural surroundings while being environmentally friendly and safe. It answers all questions related to traveling in nature in Latvia.

On September 18th & 19th, in Riga, 10 Latvian and Estonian tourism organizations met together and started work on a new project - Forest and Coastal Hiking Trails' accessibility improvement for different social groups. The accessibility of hiking trails will be focused on 5 target groups - 1) people with functional impairments (movement, vision, hearing); 2) for seniors; 3) for families with small children, i.e. strollers; 4) for school-aged children; 5) for people with a language or cultural barrier. Trail accessibility will be improved in separate phases.
The project will be implemented over 3 years - from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026. The leading partner of the project is the Latvian Rural Tourism Association "Lauku Celotajs".

>>> Agenda (PDF, ENG)
>>> Presentation (Asnāte Ziemele, LC, PDF, ENG)
>>> Presentation (Iveta Šķiliņa, RPR, PDF, ENG)
>>> Presentation (Elin Priks, Setomaa, PDF, ENG)
>>> Presentation (Ilze Liepa, VPR, PDF, ENG)
>>> Photos (Aija Neilande KPR, PDF, ENG)

The cider-making tradition will be showcased at two international events in Riga: the NICA Cider Competition and the Cider Festival on the first day of the Riga Food exhibition. Diverse cider-related events are scheduled to take place from September 6 to 9.

The Latvian country tourism association Lauku Celotajs as project beneficiary of the Interreg Central Baltic project "Exporting Baltic Nature Tourism to UK - NAT-TOUR-EXPO" - participates as host organisation in the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) initiative.

The annual Nordic International Cider Awards (NICA) will be held from September 6th to 9th as part of "RigaFood 2023," the largest food industry fair in the Baltic region. Cider production is a new industry in Latvia, but already now Latvian natural cider competes on an equal footing with European, Nordic, and global ciders from countries and regions with long-standing cider-making traditions. By organising the NICA competition in Riga this year, we want to showcase the excellent quality and potential of natural cider to become a national beverage, similar to the Nordic countries where cider is served at state receptions as well as social gatherings.

The MOST project between Latvia, Greece, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan ends this June. Within the framework of the project, a round table discussion was held in May on the topic "EU Grant Project MOST - sustainable tourism development vector in Kazakhstan". Representatives from agencies, associations, hotels, travel and consulting companies gathered at the event in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. We also participated in it to share our experience with entrepreneurs both in relation to our environmental quality mark "Green Certificate" and how to overcome rising prices for services and how to develop infrastructure. Also, our expert Juris received many good words for the useful and valuable seminars he created and led during the project for entrepreneurs in the tourism industry in Asian countries.

Turpinot darbu pie dabas tūrisma produkta izstrādes, 10. un 11. maijā uz saulainās Prangli salas Igaunijā tikāmies ne vien projekta partneri, bet arī Latvijas un Igaunijas uzņēmēji, kas sniedz dabas tūrisma produktus, projekta vadības grupa un Apvienotās Karalistes dabas tūrisma eksperti. Esam uz pareizā ceļa un mums ir plāns kā aizsniegt UK tirgu. Projekta partneru tikšanos papildināja iespēja iepazīties ar Prangli salas dabas tūrisma piedāvājumu - braucieni ar jūras kajakiem, velo maršruti iepazīšana, pārgājienu takas, u.c.

We have started work on the project "Change creators. Innovative business models for the non-urban creative sectors.". The main aim of the project is to contribute to innovation, sustainability and resilience of the alternative cultural and creative places located on the sparsely populated areas through discovering, testing and introducing new business models and audience development models. The project brought together partners from four countries: Poland, Sweden, Italy and Latvia.