Grant Map EU

“The South Baltic area is a hotspot for both coastal tourism as well as – around the lagoons and in the hinterlands – rural tourism in proximity to the coastline. For many holiday guests, maritime experiences are an essential part of their stay and one of the motivations to visit the region. For example in the evenings, during bike trips, as bad weather alternative or as “recovery” from beach life, they appreciate to “inhale” authentic maritime life & atmosphere, e.g. by observing fishermen at work or watching boats & ships entering the ports. With the decline of coastal fishery and commercial coastal shipping in smaller ports, however, it gets nowadays more & more difficult to find such occasions in the South Baltic area – and it can be expected that this development is set to continue in the next years. In order to maintain the current destination profile of the SBA, it is high time to find alternative ways to supply holiday guests with the authentic maritime experiences they appreciate. Potentials in this regards have e.g. marinas, small boater stops, commercial ports or on-land navigation infrastructure that is still in operation like e.g. lighthouses. A challenge is thereby to find a proper balance between the wishes of the land tourists and the needs of their “genuine” users. The main project “MariEx” seeks to develop such places into new kinds of maritime experience points, and to take them up into the “narratives” of the touristic marketing towards holiday tourists staying at the coast or the hinterlands of the SBA. The Seed Money project is used to jointly elaborate the approach for MariEx in dialogue with all Partners and on the basis of best practices & pre-work from different SBA countries. In particular, it shall enable to go beyond analytical & conceptual work in the main project, by including innovative pilot actions of a new quality, which derives from jointly selecting & shaping them with inputs from various SBA countries in the Seed Money phase.