Culture & Tourism Group

Annual report 2001-2002

Since the 2001 General Assembly in Aalborg, the Culture and Tourism group has had two meetings: XVII Meeting in Bengtsfors (Västra Götaland region, Sweden) 4-7 October 2001 and XVIII Meeting in Ribe (Ribe Amt, Denmark)14-17 March 2002. The XIX Meeting will be held in Bruges (Belgium) 3-6 October this year.

Key items discussed at the two last meetings were

-          Culture and Tourism, co-operation with Business Development Group and organisation of seminar on culture and business development in conjunction with NSC General Assembly 2002

-         North Sea Youth Festival of Art, to be held under our auspices in Kristiansand 4-8 September 2002

-         Evaluation of On the Edge conference (2^nd North Sea Culture Conference, held at Banff 31 May - 2 June 2001)

-         Interreg: conclusion of IIC projects, ideas for IIIB projects, evaluation of programme

-         Action plan for Culture and Tourism Group, as a follow-up action of the North Sea Commission Vision Document 2002

1.      Culture, Tourism and Business Development

Culture and Tourism has been the main theme of the two last meetings of the group. At Bengtsfors, papers on local projects were delivered to the group, which also had the opportunity to experience some of the cultural tourism initiatives in practice during the meeting. Looking into cultural tourism projects was also a major part of the programme for the Ribe meeting, with excursion to a number of interesting initiatives.

The co-ordinator also attended a meeting of the Business Development Group 15-16 November 2001 to discuss how to increase co-operation between our two groups on cultural tourism.

The two groups have agreed to co-organise the seminar on culture and business development held in conjunction with this General Assembly.

2.      North Sea Youth Festival of Art, Kristiansand (Vest-Agder, Norway) 4-8 September 2002

The North Sea Commission, acting through the Culture and Tourism Group took the initiative to arrange a distinct North Sea Youth Festival of Art. The matter has been discussed at numerous meetings, both of the group and of the NSC Executive. Now, Vest-Agder County Council has agreed to host the first North Sea Youth Festival of Art, in Kristiansand this autumn.

The festival will attract youth from a number of the NSC member regions. The programme includes workshops, joint performances, and performances by the individual groups attending.

The Festival has been funded by generous contributions from Vest-Agder County Council, the North Sea Commission and the Norwegian National Youth Festival of Art organisation.

Hopefully, this first festival will be followed-up by similar festivals in the future.

3. Evaluation of the On the Edge (2^nd North Sea Culture) Conference, Banff 2001

The conference was highly successful, and now there is a need to follow-up the recommendations from the conference in relation to NSC work. Much of this will be incorporated into the action plan described below.

4.      Interreg

Now, all Interreg IIC projects in the North Sea Region have been concluded. The projects initiated and/or sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Group all seems to have achieved their main objectives. They all report successful results and partner satisfaction. Most of these projects will be followed-up with Interreg IIIB initiatives.

The Culture and Tourism Group has expressed some concern though over the Interreg system itself. It is felt that the complexity of the programme favours projects initiated and led by national authorities (or with national authorities heavily involved) and that bottom-up initiatives find it hard to compete. The lack of "seed-money" (or micro-projects or preparatory projects, as they are also called) in the North Sea Region also seems to be an obstacle for several initiatives to develop into applicable projects. The focus on large projects with major spatial impact and the allocation of great funds to projects with large investment needs, should probably had been coupled with a continued possibility to fund minor projects.

5.      Action plan for the Culture and Tourism Group

The Culture and Tourism Group has participated actively in shaping the new NSC Vision Document. The culture and tourism has now embarked on the work to follow up the visions with an action plan for culture and tourism. This will be a major item on upcoming meetings.