Conclusions from the 1st Round Table Meeting

Baltic Development Forum Secretariat, 11 January, 2005

Representatives from airline companies, passenger shipping companies, national tourist boards, official tourist organisation from the Metropolises, regional organisations, ports and airports from the Baltic Sea region met on 11 January in Copenhagen with the purpose of coordinating existing initiatives, defining objectives for regional cooperation and formulating a strategy for tourism cooperation in the region.

The project ‘Tourism Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region – a Win-Win Scenario’ is an initiative launched by Baltic Development Forum in cooperation with IKED with the aim of creating an impartial platform for developing a bottom-up, stakeholder-driven action agenda for regional tourism cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.

This initiative with its objectives to strengthen the cooperation and the general prosperity in the region should be seen in a broader perspective. Baltic Development Forum has also initiated the Baltic Sea Initiative 2010 to increase the competitiveness and innovation of the Baltic Sea region towards 2010 and which is linked to the goal set by the EU and the Lisbon Strategy to make the EU the world's most dynamic and competitive economy in ten years’ time. To read more about the Baltic Sea Initiative please see menu above.

The tourism industry has an important role to play in the achievement of a strong and vigorous economy in the Baltic Sea region with its 11 countries and more than 80 million inhabitants.

The 1st Round Table meeting in Copenhagen was the kick-start of a strategy-formulating process leading up to the Baltic Development Forum summit in Stockholm, 16-18 October 2005. After the presentations from Baltic Development Forum, IKED and Wonderful Copenhagen the participants discussed the most important objectives and obstacles for the cooperation, and how to move this process forward. The following conclusions were drawn at the meeting:

Baltic Development Forum got a clear mandate to go ahead and organise the project in cooperation with IKED, in close contact with Baltic Sea Tourism Commission (BTC), and together with the stakeholders define a joint strategy and create a win-win scenario for the tourism sector in the Baltic Sea region.
The main focus should be to work on common branding of the region with concrete projects creating the foundation for the brand, e.g. the Baltic Cruise Project and Kings Road. The discussion on “the chicken or the egg” in developing concrete initiatives and branding simultaneously will be further debated on the next meeting.
Whereas objectives and strategies developed by the Round Tables are long-term, the Round Tables process would initially work with a view towards the Baltic Development Forum summit in Stockholm, 16-18 October 2005, where the outcome of the Round Tables will be presented. At the summit, it is the intention to evaluate the process, create further awareness of the initiatives, broaden the stakeholder group, define concrete actions and seek commitment for the implementation of the action agenda developed from as broad a spectrum of stakeholders as possible.
The 2nd Round Table meeting will take place in March/April. Until then the involved stakeholders will get back to Baltic Development with suggestions of additional stakeholders (2-3 suggestions from each participant). It will also be considered where in the region the next Round Table meeting will take place. More information will be released later.

For more detailed information about the Copenhagen Round Table meeting, please read the presentations by Ole Frijs-Madsen, Matthieu Roest and Ole Andersen. For further information about the initiative on Tourism Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, please contact the Baltic Development Forum secretariat on bdf@bdforum.org or +45 33 70 71 30.