Snow was not an obstacle for a successful kick-off workshop of Danube Bike&Boat project partners

After a long and thorough 2-year project preparation, Danube Bike&Boat (registration number SKHU/1601/1.1/014) got a green light in the PA 1 “Nature and Culture”, SO1.1 “To increase the attractiveness of the border area” in July 2017. The approved total budget is close to 3 million EUR and will contribute to increasing the attractiveness and number of visitors to the Danube border region. The project will focus on the use of rich natural and cultural heritage of the border area and on creating a unique, attractive and competitive European tourism destination “Danube inland delta”. It aims at the development of Little Rye Island (Szigetköz, Malý Žitný ostrov) and Great Rye Island (Csallóköz, Žitný ostrov) to a common cross-border eco touristic brand.
On 29-30 November 2017, representatives of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region (Bratislavský samosprávny kraj - Lead Beneficiary), the Municipality of Mosonmagyaróvár (the one and only Hungarian partner), and the other 7 Slovak beneficiaries, as well as external tourism and municipal development experts met in Lipót (HU) to kick-off the project. After the general introduction of the participants and their organizations, three common activities were identified and discussed in details: 1. Lining up the common marketing strategy along the “Danube inland delta” concept, development of the brand, ecotourism supply bundles as well as the common image; 2. Common events and actions to shaping attitude and for environmental education; 3. Communication activities that will involve a comprehensive webpage and related mobile app and Facebook profile development based on the outputs of two workshops.
Although kick-off workshop participants were surprised with a heavy snow on the second day, it did not really prevent them neither from a successful strategy creation nor taking the “water” with a canoe.