LLI-313 “Four Seasons Exciting Journey in Manor Parks” / “4SeasonsParks” Kick-off Zemgale Planning region (PP2) activities Anna Builo-Hoļme 15.05.2018

Zemgale Planning Region, one of 5 Planning Regions A state institution supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Regional development ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH INTERESTS OF LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES! Includes 20 local municipalities and 2 cities – Jelgava and Jēkabpils

Research on manors' and castles' parks Document on state of the art of manors and castles parks Research territory: Zemgale region, Paņevežis, Siauliai counties. It is additionally planned in cooperation with other partners and stakeholders to define research sub-themes, their scope and structure of the document. Research will include detailed information about manors' and castles' parks, their existing situation, potential, needs, best practices in maintaining and operating of similar objects, recommendations for improvement of manors' and castles' parks and their better exploitation. Implementation time: 03.2018-02.2019

Training for manors' and castles' parks maintainers Participants of the training (7 days, split in 2-3 month period, 25 participants) will be parks’ maintainers: governors, territorial planners, chief gardeners, other staff responsible for parks’ development and management. Implementation time: 09.2018-11.2018

Training for manors' and castles' parks maintainers Themes included are: 1) Historic development of parks and their values: architectonic and landscape values, principles of functionality of historic parks, renewal of parks observing their values; 2) Expediency of parks development: requirements of nowadays visitors, planning and implementation of improvements, development of infrastructures; 3) EU and national policies, legislation and mechanisms to be used for parks development: relevant policies and financial instruments for their implementation, guidelines and methodologies to be applied, 4) Regional and local level instruments for parks’ development and maintenance: guidelines for inventory of parks, elaboration of parks’ development plans, 5) Best national and international practices on parks development.

Study visits to partners sites In between of those training sessions joint all LV partners study visit to partners in Lithuania. Participants will be parks' maintainers, tourism sector professionals, other professionals. Number of participants of study visit – up to 20. Duration– 2 days. Implementation time: 05.2018-10.2018

Training for tourism sector professionals 2 days training for tourism sector professionals (Koknese,Jelgava). Training will include themes such as: 1) measures and activities in ‘’out of season’’ period, 2) the newest trends in maintaining and promoting tourism sites combing culture and nature values and elements, 3)methods and mechanism for identification of manor parks’ tourism potential and target audiences, 4) methods and tools for addressing and reaching the target groups, 5) marketing channels, 6) products and services developed in clustering for increase of tourism routes visibility, attractiveness. Implementation time: 04.2019-06.2019

Identification of target groups’ interests and requirements 5 internal meetings about experiences and practices in work with defined target groups - entrepreneurs, tourism associations, tourism professionals, national associations of guides, restaurants and hotels entrepreneurs, other tourism bodies, media, non-profit travelers' organizations and interest groups, etc. Target groups are: 1) families travelling with children, especially three generations travelers (grandparents, parents, children), 2) seniors, 3) tourists preferring active travels (including physical activities, open air stay), 4) tourists travelling out of season period (end of September – end of April).

Identification of target groups’ interests and requirements Summary will include findings on experiences of target groups and evaluation of services, their content and quality standards, which create visiting experience; recommendations, what and how to offer for the each target group in order to satisfy demands and requirements; as well manor parks’ tourism potential from the point of view of each defined target group Collected information will be used for definition and elaboration of at least 5 joint tourism packages and will support the consortium in selecting 3 the most promising thematic domains to be developed as joint routes Implementation time: 04.2018-10.2018

Development of joint 4SeasonsParks tourism routes and packages Printed and digital brochure with 3D animation in 5 languages: LV (5000), LT (5000), ENG (7500), RUS (5 000), DE (2500) = 25 000 copies total. Brochure will be made as package of several separate materials, to be used as a the whole set or only specific part, being subject of interest of visitors. Implementation time: 03.2019-01.2020

Development of joint 4SeasonsParks tourism routes and packages The idea is to create 3D animation of each partner park and make it alive with the help of animation elements. Tourist/ visitor scan the booklet aperture with downloaded application and it will work in the following way – 3D park model “comes out” with the help of animations and starts growing – trees in the wind, bushes, water, paths, benches and some (3-4) more interesting elements are standing out. By clicking on them, there appears the photo of the objects. Implementation time: 03.2019-01.2020

Development of joint 4SeasonsParks Discount Pass After routes and packages will be defined, all partners and other involved sites will work on development of joint 4SeasonsParks Discount Pass. The Pass will offer discounts and privileges for its holders. Consultations with stakeholders, who have implemented such system before, will be provided. Implementation time: 09.2018-04.2019

Trip of foreign journalists to involved sites and routes One trip of at least 6 foreign journalists (foreseen Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Norwegian) will be organized to involved sites and routes. The foreign journalists group will spend 3 days in Latvia and 3 days in Lithuania (managed by PP2). It is expected, that after the trip journalists will create and publish article in the media they represent (magazine, newspaper, internet portal). Implementation time: 05.2019-07.2019

Joint Latvia's and Lithuania's tourism operators and journalists trip to involved sites and routes 3 days trip of at least 15 tourism intermediate bodies and journalists from Latvia will be organized to Lithuania. During the each trip the group will attend sites, will take part in organized events, will meet parks’ maintainers, guides and other specialists, who would provide information and give experiences which are developed for defined target groups. Implementation time: 05.2019-08.2019

Elaboration of video Elaboration of digital advertisement materials for 3 new tourism routes - production of video, including info about sites and their surroundings, recording in 4 languages (LV; LT; ENG; RUS) Implementation time: 03.2019-08.2019

Participation in international tourism fairs All partners will take part in two international tourism fairs: Balttour (in Riga) and Adventur (in Vilnius) in 2020. All partners will take part in events, will do promotion of sites and new tourism routes. Tourism specialists trained within the project, will do advertisement of routes, tourism packages and sites. Implementation time: 02.2020

Thank you for your attention ! Anna Builo-Hoļme Anna.builo@zpr.gov.lv +371 63028457