Acronym

4_SEASONS

NUMBER

PBU2/0813/18

Project type

Micro-project

STATUS

Completed

THEMATIC OBJECTIVE

HERITAGE

PRIORITY

1.2 Promotion and preservation of natural heritage

PARTNERSHIP

PL-UA

LEAD BENEFICIARY

Volyn Oblast Business Support Fund (Volyn Oblast, Ukraine)

BENEFICIARY

Cieszanów Commune (Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland)

Project description

In the cross-border areas of Poland and Ukraine, the landscape is created by uplands with valleys and ravines. A large part of the territory is covered with forests, wetlands and swamps. Picturesque landscapes, untouched nature and authentic culture are the main assets of these areas. However, a lack of competitive tourism offer and effective promotion results in low tourism inflow and insufficient economic development. An example can be the Volyn lake area, where the tourist season is limited to the summer months.

The objective to be reached by 4_SEASONS project was to present the richness and diversity of the border area and to increase its attractiveness. Project partners set out to create a competitive cross-border tourist product, i.e. eight new tourist routes in Volyn Oblast and Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The concepts of routes have been generated within an open contest held in the project area. On the Polish side ornithological, running, mushrooming and PGR (former state farms) tours have been selected. In Ukraine, the selected tours included kayaking and boating tours in national parks, a winter forest tour and a honey tour.  Importantly, each route was designed for a different season so that the tourist season could last for a whole year. The winner teams were invited to participate at “Tourist Mixer", which was an opportunity for networking, sharing and gaining knowledge on how to efficiently promote their tourist products.  As a part of the promotional campaign, 9 short promotional films have been shot, a travel guide and a booklet have been published and distributed. Moreover, information boards with QR codes have been installed along the new routes.

Thanks to the project implementation, tourists visiting Cieszanów and Volyn are now able to benefit from new tourist offers available throughout the year. The strong involvement of local communities will ensure project sustainability, which will contribute to economic development through increased tourist inflow.