Kick-off meeting in Idrija, Slovenia from 13th-15th March 2017

Last week the first get-together of the project partners at the Kick-off meeting took place. All partners of the Danube GeoTour project started together in Idrija, Slovenia and presented the project to the public. The subtitle shows the goal and the challenge which the 11 partners from 8 countries are facing over the next two and a half years: »Valorisation of geo-heritage for sustainable and innovative tourism development of Danube Geoparks« The project is co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA).

The main project result will be joint Danube GeoTour designed to strengthen cooperation between the Geoparks regions and act as an innovative tourism product to accelerate visibility and tourist visits in the geoparks. Sharing experiences, testing pilot geotourism products and new interpretative approaches should increase local inhabitants’ engagement, Geopark management capacities and lower the quality gap between Danube and other EU Geoparks.

During the Kick-off Meeting the partners set the first tasks and activities and got furthermore inputs from the three associated strategic partners in the project. They will help to ensure the high quality of implemented actions: Humanpolis ltd / Rokua Geopark (Finland), Naturtejo – Tourism Company (Portugal) and finally the Global Geoparks Network (France). In addition, the partners learned more about Idrija heritage and history during the fieldtrips and visited a local school which is working on local handmade GeoProducts.

More information about the project is available within this link: www.interreg-danube.eu/danube-geotour

Group Picture of the Kick-Off Meeting with all three associated strategic partners and the project partners: Idrija Heritage Centre- Idrija Geopark (SLO), Balaton-felvidéki National Park Directorate (H), Styrian Eisenwurzen (A), Public institution »Nature Park Papuk« (HR), ARGE Geopark Karavanks (A/SLO), Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation (SLO), Bakony & Balaton Regional Tourism Nonprofit Ltd. (H), Bohemian Paradise Geopark non-profit organization (CZ), University of Bucharest (RO), University of Presov (SL), Public Enterprise National Park Djerdap (SRB).