In cooperation with VisitDenmark, Baltic Development Forum approached all National Tourist Boards in the Baltic Sea Region with the below Letter of Intent. The aim was to encourage the National Tourist Boards to cooperate more in the future. The letter was the point of departure of the meeting on 23 May in Timmendorfer Strand and was signed by all representatives at the meeting.

An exclusive meeting on tourism cooperation took place on 23 May organized jointly by VisitDenmark and Baltic Development Forum (BDF). The initial idea behind the meeting was to encourage the heads of national tourist boards to discuss and commit to future cooperation in the cruise industry. The meeting brought very positive and concrete results. Participants were from 5 tourist boards (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Latvia and Finland) and the Russian and Polish representation expressed their sincere support, yet had to cancel their participation last minute. 

Conclusions from the Meeting

 All participants strongly supported and signed the Letter of Intent, which was sent out to all tourist boards in the Baltic Sea Region in March 2007. The intention of the letter is to get support from the headquarters of the national tourist boards for joint marketing & PR activities of cruise tourism in the Baltic Sea Region.

 After the successful cooperation model on the U.K. market, it was suggested that the same activities should be repeated on the U.S. market in autumn 2007 and eventually in Italy in 2008. With joint marketing & PR activities highly effective promotion of the cruise industry and the entire Region as tourist destination can be achieved with limited budget. A concrete proposal about the forecasted manpower and budget each tourist board would have to allocate will be prepared by VisitDenmark and follows soon.

 It was also clearly expressed that further areas of cooperation should be sought. Ideas included activities on food around the Baltic Sea, marketing of the Baltic Sea Region and developing tourism activities/products together in the Baltic and Nordic countries. The three Baltic countries are already working on a common marketing project targeting the population of the three countries and it was suggested by VisitDenmark that this kind of internal marketing initiative should expand to the entire Baltic Sea Region and its 10 countries. The project could be financed through EU funds, just like in the Baltic example. There was also a specific suggestion to create a common regional tourism product with food in the centre. The title could be “Taste the difference around the Baltic Sea”, which refers also to other cultural aspects than just food. The Nordic Council of Ministers has already been using “food” in Nordic promotion and the possibility to connect to this initiative should be investigated.
          
 BDF was given the role of a mediator in the initiative, as a neutral regional platform that is the initiator and coordinator of the overall branding process of the Baltic Sea Region. This is mostly to secure a united vision, perception and voice in the branding process of the Region.

 The possibility of Interreg funding of the joint branding/marketing of the Baltic Sea Region was also brought up. The new Interreg program includes an area called “Branding the Baltic Sea Region”. BDF investigates this possibility and the procedures of application.

Action:

• A press release of the meeting and the initiative will be prepared by BDF and spread to a wide network in the Baltic Sea Region, as soon as the other tourist boards have expressed their support.

• Uldis Vitolins from the Latvian Tourist Board will talk to the Lithuanian and Estonian Heads of Tourist Boards and will act as an ambassador of the initiative. It was suggested that an invitation is sent to Henrik Kahn (VisitDenmark) to the next meeting of the Baltic Tourist Boards, where he will present the Cruise Baltic cooperation on the U.K. market and will supply the Baltic directors with sufficient information on why cooperation is important on other markets, such as the U.S.

• Dorte Kiilerich from VisitDenmark will personally contact the Norwegian colleague, Per Arne Tuftin and will encourage him to get on board.

• Kinga Valeria Szabo from BDF will take contact to all directors who could not participate in the meeting to brief them of the outcome and to encourage them to sign the Letter of Intent. 

• A detailed forecast on the needed resources of similar cooperation in the U.S. than in the U.K. will be conducted by VisitDenmark, as a concrete proposal on budget allocation.