Promotion of low-cost and youth tourism in the cross-border areas (KA346)
Funded by Karelia ENPI 2007-2013

Objective of the project

The aim of the project is to create a youth tourism network consisting of colleges and higher education institutions in the Republic of Karelia and Northern Ostrobothnia in order to promote low cost, convenient, safe tourist services for international youth travel.

Main activities

• Creation of a web-based portal for centralized booking www.hostel.karelia.ru. • In-service training programme for the professionals working in the field of tourism, hospitality and entertainment. • Tourism-related curricular development for the colleges taking part in the project. • Limited investments and renovation works in the accommodation facilities of the hotels participating in the project. • Promotion of low-cost and youth tourism in the cross-border areas. • Drafting of the recommendations for the youth tourism to be utilized in the municipal development strategies.

Achievements

The project succeeded to achieve the major goal of the project which was to promote low cost, convenient, safe tourist services for youth and independent travellers in the Republic of Karelia and Finland. The crucial media to achieve the young and independent travelers created in the project is hostel portal and on-line booking system www.hostelranta.com. At the moment there are altogether 13 hostels in both sides of the border in the network. The second important result for achieving the major goal was the hostel renovations in Karelian colleges. Without these improvements of the facilities it would be much more difficult to promote low cost tourism in Russian side. Project has also succeeded to develop and transfer the tourism-related knowledge and expertise in order to train both the relevant professionals and students with the most updated tourism technologies and knowledge.