Two workshops were held in parallel in Rusenski lom Nature Park from June 10th to 12th: Within DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0, project development with special focus on the future DANUBE TRANSNATIONAL programme was in the focus. Within DCC-DANUBEPARKS Biodiversity & Tourism, a training on marketing in tourism was held.
Within the DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0 workshop, the DANUBE TRANSNATIONAL programme was in the focus, although Life+ and Erasmus+ were mentioned and shortly discussed too. The participants debated on the draft Operational Programme as well as a potential DANUBEPARKS input to the DANUBE programme consultation that was going on this week. Own priorities for future joint projects were also shared within the group and merged into a first transnational project draft. In this way, the training on project development and application writing was not only a theoretic exercise, but had a concrete hands-on approach.
Within the DCC-DANUBEPARKS workshop, the focus was on marketing and sales: The tourism supply chain was repeated again from the first workshop, and marketing materials (e.g. print materials, website design) were discussed. Additionally, the experiences from cooperation with regional tourism stakeholders and incoming agencies – both in the pilot destinations and at ITB 2014 – were shared, so that all partners could learn from them. The approach of the whole training was to discuss the practical experiences from the regions and future plans, and to complete this exchange with consulting from our tourism marketing trainer.
As it was the first workshop of the DANUBEPARKS Network in Rusenski lom Nature Park, the excursion gave a broad overview on the main natural and cultural values in the area. Both workshop groups visited jointly the Ivanovo rock churches and Basarbovo monastery. At the first stop, a walk in the hills provided an excellent overview of the deep-cut river valley with its rocky slopes. The whole group could learn about the rock-dwelling bird and bat species and the geology of the area. A visit to Ruse even let us visit a nature exhibition that is currently under construction at the museum, and participate at a public awareness-raising event that Rusenski lom implements within another project.
