(FEZ) - Industry Park & Logistic Centre

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Through implementation of this project, almost 150
tourism administration specialists have been trained, including
15 representatives of county administrations, 80
of municipal administrations and 55 working in tourism
information centres. The implementation of the project
will continue in 2007.
2006 is the year of completion of the PHARE investment
project Development of the Bicycle Circle in
Western Lithuania, covering the municipalities of Neringa,
Klaipėda Town and Region, Palanga Town and
Šilutė Region. The total value of the project amounts to
10.5 million Litas (3.045 million EUR). 590,428 Litas
were allocated to marketing of development of the Bicycle
Route in Western Lithuania; 856,294 Litas will go
to preparation of Special Layout of the National Bicycle
Routes and 9,317,116.12 Litas were spent on construction
works.
The project funds have been used for construction of 200
km long bicycle route including newly developed and existing
bicycle paths and roads of low intensity starting
in Būtingė and reaching Nida in the South, as well as
along the coastal area from Klaipėda to Rusnė, the Manual
to the Bicycle Circle in Western Lithuania and other
educational material has been published, in addition,
the Special Layout of the National Bicycle Routes has
been prepared. The newly developed bicycle routes make
24.33 km. Marking works have been performed on the
entire bicycle route. 533 signs have been erected in total.
The bicycle route at the seaside is a pilot bicycle route of
this kind in Lithuania: it is fully protected from the automobile
caused danger. This route is popular among the
tourists and local cyclists.
The Department has been further engaged in implementation
of PHARE investment project the Pilot Development
of Infrastructure on the Nemunas Tourist Route.
The project funds have been used for construction of
19 piers (7 stationary and 12 mobile) alongside the river
Nemunas, starting from Druskininkai and reaching
Rusnė. The project covers 12 municipalities in five counties
those of Alytus, Kaunas, Marijampolė, Tauragė and
Klaipėda. In 2005 all technical documentation required
for construction of piers was prepared.
Alongside the pier construction, the following other infrastructure
development works will be carried out: construction
of parking lots and camping grounds, arranging
outdoor furniture, arbors, benches, etc. Plans are
being made to publish a guide for the Nemunas Tourist
Route in Lithuanian and foreign languages; prepare
maps; advertising booklets, leaflets and a video film.
Invest in Lithuania
To encourage municipalities and counties to carry out
activities in the area of tourism, in 2003-2006 the Tourism
Department prepared feasibility studies for tourism
development. About 30 per cent of recommendations
presented in the feasibility studies have been implemented
already. Tourism development on a municipality level
started from the development of rural tourism sector.
At present this sector is one of the most intensely developing.
Recently the Department of Tourism has been paying
a lot of attention to Lithuanian tourism image formation.
The Lithuanian Tourism Marketing Plan for 2006
has been successfully completed. Co-financing from the
state budget, municipalities and business community has
been applied to implement this Plan.
To encourage the incoming tourism and form the image
of Lithuania as a country attractive for tourists, Lithuania
took part in 23 international tourism exhibitions
held in 12 countries. Tourism possibilities in the Baltic
Sea region were introduced in three exhibitions. A special
success was the 11th International Tourism, Leisure
and Sports Exhibition Vivattur.
Several dozens of information and promotion publications
on tourism have been published in 600 thousand copies
run and 9 foreign languages. A few tourism business missions
were organized in 2006, including in Saint Petersburg
(Russia), Kiiv and Lviv (Ukraine) and London (United
Kingdom). Working in cooperation with the Lithuanian
Tourism Association, the Department has also organized
business missions in Germany and France.
Apart from attempts for more efficient use of marketing
funds and holding more effective common marketing
measures on the remote markets, continuous cooperation
with neighbouring countries has been carried out,
including Latvia, Poland and Estonia. The Memorandum
of Cooperation has been signed between four countries:
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland; and common
marketing projects designed for 2007, including
business missions, exhibitions, journalist visits and publications.
International tourism marketing cooperation
has been further continued with countries of the Baltic
Sea region: common business mission of the Baltic
States and Poland has been presented to the USA market;
common Baltic States business missions have been
held in France and Spain.
Intensive work has been performed by introducing tourism
possibilities to foreign travel operators in Lithuania.
In September 2006 a business mission by Spanish travel
operators was carried out in Lithuania. Working in