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The South Transdanubian Regional Development Agency had the possibility to introduce its region’s project financed eco-conscious accommodation developments to the ICER partnership in late October.
The three day long programme started with a regional conference, where more then 80 participants, the majority of the region’s accommodation providers were represented. They were informed about the local ecotourism strategies, possibilities and developments; the relevant regional tendering system and the investment supporting practices of the local municipalities.
As a remarkable part of the region is protected by the Danube Drava National Park, describing the requests environment friendly tourism activities and attitude was also an important part of the conference.
To give practical examples, an Eco-friendly accommodation system, i.e. „Eco-resorts in South Transdanubia” was introduced, which is a newly elaborated qualifying system for green accommodations. Several questions could be answered also by informing the audience on financing rural accommodation development in the frame of the South Transdanubian Operational Programme, which programme is managed by the Agency.
After presenting an example for eco-tourism cooperation that involves also Croatia in the frame of the Danube-Drava-Sava Euroregion, a success story – the eco-village of Gyűrűfű – was introduced to the participants.
On the second and third day of the event the project partners visited several project financed accommodations that are related to nature and environment friendly tourism. Among others the visitor centre of the National Park, a hunting lodge, water tourism facilities of the Drava river, the Villány-Siklós wine route, a medieval age lordship and a water tourism camp was introduced, describing the history of their development, the sources of financing, the use of renewable energies, the ways of protecting the environment in their surroundings and the potential threats of the maintenance of these facilities.
On the basis of the study trip and the presentations of the conference, partners collected the best practices of the region for the recommendation book. The partners highlighted that accommodation development can be successful if it has a well defined target group, focusing on a thematic branch of tourism. Local cooperation among the service providers (cooperative marketing, changing goods, lobbying together) is also a success factor of these developments.