Culture & Tourism Group

XVII MEETING, BENGTSFORS, VÄSTRA GÖTALAND REGION, SWEDEN, 4-7 OCTOBER 2001

The XVII Meeting of the North Sea Commission's thematic group on Culture and Tourism was hosted by the Västra Götaland region of Sweden and was held at Hotel Dalia in Bengtsfors in the part of the region known as Dalsland.

In conjunction with the meeting, excursions to the company known as "Dalslandsaktiviteter" and to the Steneby University College were organised.

At Dalslandsaktiviteter, we got an insight into so-called adventure travels, team building activities and also had to row a large boat from one point to the tents were dinner were served.

At the Steneby University College, we had a thoroughly introduction into the activities of the college and its impact on local society and on preserving and renewing local arts and handicrafts.

Key items discussed at the meeting included

Culture and Tourism - two papers by local experts were delivered, focusing on different aspects of cultural tourism in the region. In addition, the group would investigate the possibilities of making cultural tourism a theme at the upcoming general assembly in Norwich next year. The group would like to combine this with a seminar specifically focusing on the subject.

Cultural tourism was also the subject of two study visits made during the meeting, to the adventure travel/team building activities of "Dalslandsaktiviteter" and to the preservation and development of traditional skills at the Steneby University College.

Festival of Youth - little definitive information was available. The group requests that an information back be sent to all member regions very soon, to enable all regions to assess the project, decide on participation, select a group of youth to participate and find the funds to send them to the festival in Kristiansand next year.

On the Edge conference - evaluation. This highly successful conference needs to be evaluated, based on the discussions held at the conference. These will be published in the conference report, which we expect to be available for our next meeting. It will then be decided if a second On the Edge conference should be arranged.

Final reports from Interreg IIC projects supported by the group, and launch of new project initiatives for Interreg IIIB. Reports were delivered by the Kings of the North Sea, the North Sea Cycle Circuit and North Sea Viking Legacy. New project ideas include the new Waves of Culture project, for which a separate seminar was held immediately following the group's meeting, and a new cycle project, a new Viking project and a Bronze Age project. Ideas for Culture 2000 projects were also discussed.

Minutes of XVII Meeting of the NSC Culture and Tourism Group, held at Hotel Dalia, Bengtsfors (Västra Götaland region) 4-7 October 2001

Present:

Apologies had been received from Mr Svein Schrøder Amundsen (Hordaland County Council), Mr Erik Bach Andersen (Viborg County Council).

1st session was held at Hotel Dalia on 4 October at 16PM-18PM. The group was welcomed to Dalsland by Kerstin Quentzer.

1. Presentation of Members and Observers attending
All members and observers present presented themselves.

2. Approval of Agenda
The proposed Agenda was approved, with the inclusion of the NSC Draft Strategy paper as a new item.

3. Approval of Minutes of XVI Meeting, Banff 3 June 2001
The Minutes of the XVI meeting were approved as true records of the proceedings.

4. On the Edge conference, final evaluation
A preliminary evaluation of the conference was made immediately following the conference, at the XVI meeting in Banff 3 June.

Not much was added to this, but the point of having members of our group directly attached to the planning of events like this, organised by our group, was emphasised. It was also underlined that the conference was a North Sea Commission conference, a fact that was grossly under-communicated at the conference and in all advance publicity.

The group also felt that the report of the conference ought to have been out already, as it would be difficult to made a full assessment of the conference and come up with recommendations and possible follow-up measures without the conclusions of the conference.

It was also felt that the costs of participating were prohibitive for artists and other cultural workers to attend. The attendance from the North Sea regions was low, probably because of the high costs.

The high number of contributions and participants from outside the North Sea region should be avoided in any future conferences. The focus should be on stimulating networking within the North Sea region. Smaller institutions and individuals working with culture on the edge should be offered better opportunities of attending at any future event organised by our group.

The decision to arrange any follow-up conference will be discussed when the report from the first On the Edge conference is out, and will be based on the recommendations from the conference itself.

Responsibility: Co-ordinator

2nd session was held at Hotel Dalia on 5 October, 9-10AM.

5. Conference/seminar on cultural tourism
The group had intended that the present meeting should have a special emphasis on culture and tourism. For different reasons, this was only partly fulfilled. It was therefore recommended that the next general assembly of the North Sea Commission takes up this theme for the thematic discussion, and that a seminar on culture and tourism be organised in conjunction with the general assembly in Norwich.

Responsibility: NSC Secretariat and co-ordinator along with Michael Knights

6. Festival of Youth, update
No additional information on this event had been received from Vest-Agder County Council.

The group strongly underlined that more detailed information is required should regional authorities outside Norway participate in the event. A good information package and preliminary registration documentation should be available by early November.

If authorities outside of Norway do not have sufficient time to explain and market the concept within their authorities, there would be insufficient time to go on with a selection procedure and to find funds for participation.

If this essential background information along with details on selection procedures, costs etc. are not out during early November, the group would withdraw its support for the festival 2002, and ask for a postponement until 2003.

Responsibility for contact with Vest-Agder: Co-ordinator.

7. Updates on Interreg IIIB/C and Culture 2000
Karen Greve Somerset reported on status on Interreg IIIB North Sea region, while the co-ordinator reported on the recent call for projects 2002 under Culture 2000. The call for 2002 focuses on visual arts.

8. Project reports, Interreg IIC
The Interreg IIC projects that have been supported by the group are now completed or nearly completed. The Kings of the North Sea project has delivered its final report to the secretariat, and has also published an evaluation report based on its evaluation seminar held in Esbjerg earlier this year.

The North Sea Cycle Circuit is also concluded. The opening relay has been a tremendous success, and plans are under way for a continuation project.

The North Sea Viking Legacy project is also finished, but still the financial reports from the 20 partners are partly missing and were in almost all cases received very late.

3rd session was held at Hotel Dalia, 6 October between 9AM and 11.30AM.

9. Project inititives under Interreg IIIB
Our own "baby", the Waves of Culture project would be discussed at a separate seminar following the meeting proper, and was therefore not discussed in detail on this occasion.

The North Sea Cycle Circuit proposes to make a new bid under Interreg IIIB. There will be two core elements in the new project:

• maintaining the web-site
• marketing, especially media-directed,

both requiring a kind of permanent structure. In addition to the two core elements, the new project will offer optional additional modules, like physical development of route sections, small-scale infrastructure investments, accommodation etc.

The Viking theme will now be developed under a new title, Destination Viking, which will comprise partner-projects in both the North Sea region and the Baltic Sea region. It is also hoped that partner-projects will emerge in the North West Europe region, and possibly also in the Northern Periphery Interreg IIIB region.

The current partnership of the Kings of the North Sea project has not planned to continue with new projects, but there are ideas to develop a Kings' Route around the North Sea, focusing on heritage sites from 500BC-500/800AD.

There are also plans for a Northern Bronze Age Route covering the area from Ireland to Russia.

The NorTrail project had an international planning meeting simultaneously with our group meeting, and this project was therefore unable to attend our meeting.

Giles Goyder took up the question concerning a guidebook. The cycle project had planned to produce such a book, but it could perhaps be a joint project involving the cycle project, norTrail and Destination Viking/other cultural heritage routes.

It was further commented that the ideas put forward by Svein Schrøder Amundsen concerning a North Sea language project ought to be followed up by more concrete proposals, and that Hordaland should try and develop these ideas further. It should also be considered if elements from his ideas could be incorporated into the Waves project.

10. North Sea Commission Strategy Document
A draft for a North Sea Commission strategy paper was distributed to delegates the previous day. A few preliminary remarks were made. The group's chair and vice-chair at the forthcoming executive committee meeting in Fife in December will present these remarks and improvement proposals.

Responsibility: Laus Coppoolse and Baroness Ros Scott, with the assistance of the NSC Secretariat and the co-ordinator.

11. Next meetings
It was decided that the two 2002 meetings would be held in Ribe and Bruges (Brügge). The XVIII meeting will be held in Ribe 14-17 March, while the XIX meeting will be held in Bruges between 3 and 6 October.

More info on Bruges can be found on http://www.brugge.be/toerisme/en/

while tourism information on Ribe is located on http://www.ribetourist.dk

Responsibilities: Ribe: Gyrite Andersen. Bruges: Laus Coppoolse/Conny Boersma.

12. AOB
There were questions about the follow-up of the North Sea Challenge. No progress has been made yet, but we hope to report back at the next meeting.

It was further commented that the invitations to our meetings ought to include a brief on all items to be discussed.

On 5 October, Maria Linde from Western Sweden Tourist Agency gave a paper on a project combining museums and tourism in Västra Götaland, and Anja Praesto from Västergötlands Museum gave a paper on the cultural tourism project "In the Footsteps of Arn".

At the Steneby University College, Gunilla Grundström, principal, gave a paper on the role of the college in the development of Dalsland.