Culture & Tourism Group

Annual report 2000-2001

The Culture and Tourism Group since the General Assembly in Bergen have met 3 times, in
Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag 21-24 September 2000
Norwich, Norfolk 22-25 February 2001
Banff, Aberdeenshire 2-3 June 2001

In 1999, Councillor Jan Hallberg from Västra Götaland was appointed Chair of the group. In 2000, he took up the position of Chair of the Communications Group, and Councillor Laus Coppoolse from Zeeland, the Netherlands was appointed new Chair. Baroness Ros Scott from Suffolk has been Vice Chair throughout the period.
The meeting in Trondheim was partly chaired by Councillor Hallberg and by Baroness Scott, while Baroness Scott chaired the meetings in Norwich and Banff. The Group wishes to thank Baroness Scott for her gracious offer to show us the Houses of Parliament, which we did as an overture to our Norwich meeting.

The Group has addressed a number of important issues during the last year.

A major issue this year, as in previous years, has been the role of tourism in the group. We all agree that the group and its work should be more attractive for tourism officers to attend. To this end, our Norwich meeting confirmed previous agreements that our group will deal with cultural tourism and the promotion of the cultural heritage and concrete projects dealing with these issues. On the other hand, issues like image-marketing, development of tourism packages, product development and tourism as an important factor for socio-economic development in rural and remote areas should be dealt with in close co-operation with the Business Development Group.

Preparations for new Interreg IIIB initiatives have been a major task at all meetings. The group feel it utmost important for the North Sea Region to use the Interreg North Sea programme as a vehicle for increased co-operation also in the cultural heritage and cultural tourism sectors.

It has been very interesting to follow the development of the three Interreg IIB projects sponsored by our group, the North Sea Cycle Circuit, the North Sea Viking Legacy and the Kings of the North Sea. The North Sea Cycle Circuit has launched its opening relay with great interest from the public and media. The Viking project has organised a successful conference on cultural heritage and tourism and will soon launch a new guidebook to Viking attractions round the North Sea. The Kings of the North Sea exhibition has successfully toured six museums and an interesting conference on spatial planning and development.

The Group has also started investigating the possibilities for increased co-operation on arts and culture offered by the Culture 2000 programme. Here still much remains to be done, but no doubt the programme offers new opportunities in the museums sector and for arts, performing arts, youth culture etc.

Two specific issues have been on the agenda for quite a long time, the North Sea Youth Festival of Culture and the North Sea Sports Challenge. Now these initiatives seem to be realised. The Vest-Agder County Council in Norway has agreed to host the first North Sea Youth Festival of Culture in June next year. Preparations for the first North Sea Sports Challenge are also under way, and we hope to have the first challenge organised in 2003.

During our meetings, we have had the opportunity to have an in-depth look into the cultural activities of two of our member regions, the Sør-Trøndelag fylkeskommune in Norway and Norfolk County Council in England. In Sør-Trøndelag and in Norwich, the focus on our visits was on cultural activities in rural areas. The main objective of these initiatives has been to preserve and develop local heritage traditions, yet several of them have also had important economic revitalisation effects.

This was also the theme for the second North Sea culture conference, organised at Duff House in Aberdeenshire 31 May - 2 June this year. Called "On the Edge", this conference attracted in excess of 100 participants from a number of European countries, also outside of the North Sea region. A number of speakers delivered papers on success-stories from a number of countries how culture has contributed to economic and social growth and regeneration.
This conference was organised in co-operation with Duff House, Aberdeenshire Council and a number of sponsors, for which we are most grateful. There was also a considerable grant from the North Sea commission towards the costs of this most successful conference.