Within the Framework of the Project “Community Works III” finaced by the Council of Europe Bank (CEB), a series of activities which aim to build capacities of the Local Government Units participating in this project are envisaged. A component part of this activity is the management of the local development plans on tourism. In relation to the above mentioned, the Local Development Plan Unit at ADF in cooperation with the Albanian Tour Operators Union in Poland and Polish Chamber of Tourism(PIT) enabled the participation of a group from Albania in a study-tour. This info-tour took place from 20th to 24th February, 2009.
The participants in this study-tour were as follows:
- Local Development Plan Unit at ADF
- Council Chairman of Korça Qark (Circle)
- The Mayor of Kuçova Municipality
-The chairmen of the Communes: Petrele, Ishem, Margegaj, Ulez, Petran and Drenove.
- Polish, Albanian and other International Tourist Agencies
- Polish LGU-s at all levels (Qark'Circle’; Region; Municipality and Commune)
- International LGU-s from Belgium; Ukraine; Rumania; Slovakia; Hungary etc.
The main goal and focus of the participation in this study-tour was the introduction to the approaches and techniques in the promotion of tourism by Polish and International LGU-s. It is worth mentioning the International Tourism Fair attended by the participants. The participation of the LGU-s in this Fair was achieved through individual billboards,which displayed promoting materials such as brochures, catalogues, maps presenting cities, regions or special tourist attractions as well as informative leaflets of the hotels and tourism agencies operating in the respective LGU-s. This Tourism Fair is an interesting example of the public and private sector interrelation; In other words, it was the LGU, on the one hand, which provided the billboards and on the other hand the tourist agencies supplied these bill-bords with the promoting materials.
Each Participating LGU was focussed on the promotion of special tourist products according to their respective values such highland, natural or cultural tourism, etc. , which might be classified as belonging to the traditional spheres of tourism. However those LGU-s which did not possess such tradional tourism assets had developed new alternatives of tourism by providing new and innovative products in this sphere such as the industrial tourism developed in the city of Zabrze (Poland); a city whose past was closely connected to the coal-mining industry but nowadays as this industry has collapsed, the city is developing an innovative tourism by making an attraction park out of the “GUIDO coal mines”. Zabrze city has thus become a pilot city where international conferences are held to promote the development of the industrial tourism as an opportunity for the ex-industrial cities possessing few traditional tourism assets.
Another Tourism Category which is strongly promoted is that of agro tourism. A remarkable development of this tourism was observed not only in the Polish communes but in the other international communes as well. The tourism values such as the clean environment, natural tourism and the participation in the agro tourist farms were mainly promoted.
During their stay in Poland, the representatives of the ADF participated in some meetings with special representatives from Polish LGU-s with whom they shared experiences and opinions.
Some of the contacts established with Polish Authorities were as follows:
- The Promotion Department in the Municipality of Zabrze; It was agreed to invite representatives from Albania to participate at the International Conference organized by this Municipality on Industrial Tourism.
- The chairman of Mierzeçice Commune, member of Silesia Qark.
- Director of Promotion Department at Krakow Municipality
- The Deputy Minister of Tourism in Poland Mrs. Katarzyna Sobierajska;This meeting dealt with the recent progress of the Polish-Albanian Cooperation in the sphere of tourism.
Other meetings were held with individuals and private institutions, from civil society and universities.
