In the round hall, the former seat of the Bolesławiec County Office, a conference on tourism development in the cross-border area is underway, with particular emphasis on Bolesławiec County and Bautzen County. Participants include, among others, a delegation from Bautzen (headed by Matthias Knaak, a city councillor and employee of Bautzen County), entrepreneurs from Bolesławiec, local government officials, as well as students from the Maj. Henryk Sucharski Comprehensive and Vocational Schools Complex in Bolesławiec.
The meeting was opened by Renata Czerwińska, head of the Media and Promotion Office at the Bolesławiec County Office:
The partnership shows that persistence pays off. Every meeting and every sign of goodwill bring us closer together, teach us mutual respect and encourage us to get to know our neighbour, their culture, identity and uniqueness.
Next, Bolesławiec County Head Karol Stasik spoke:
Joint action in the local-government and business spheres, particularly in tourism entrepreneurship, can create a high-quality tourism offer.
The County Head recalled that in 2010, in the same hall, the Bolesławiec Business Association organised a meeting during which entrepreneurs stated that tourism is an economic sector and that its development therefore supports the development of the entire region.
K. Stasik added that an agreement had been signed on developing the infrastructure and creating a unified tourism offer. “Despite this agreement, practically nothing happened,” concluded the head of the County Board.
He added that in 2017 the county authorities decided to analyse the tourism offers of individual municipalities and then propose a method for creating one unified offer.
The project’s assumptions were presented by Deputy Head of the County Board Tomasz Gabrysiak, who noted that this is one of many projects implemented by Bolesławiec County in cooperation with Bautzen County, but the first concerning tourism.
The project includes:
- promotion of tourist attractions
- a trilingual website (in Polish, German and English; in the future, possibly also in Czech). It is already available at: b-tourist.eu
- a mobile application
- a printed guide to Bolesławiec County and Bautzen County.
The idea behind the project is that all of this will encourage people from Poland, Germany and Europe to visit Bolesławiec, the municipalities of Bolesławiec County, as well as the city and county of Bautzen.
We will return to this topic.