On 8 April 2021, a kick-off conference was held with the participation of the partners of the cross-border project ‘Development and Promotion of Green Tourism in the Danube Sector of the Black Sea Basin (Cahul District, Republic of Moldova; Reni Territorial Community, Ukraine; Galati County, Romania)’.
The project is part of the Joint Operational Programme for Cross-border Cooperation ‘Black Sea Basin: 2014-2020’ and is co-financed by the European Union through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. Participating countries: Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.
The objectives of the project are related to the development and promotion of cross-border tourism for mutual socio-economic benefits of local communities in the Danube sector of the Black Sea basin: Galati – Cahul – Reni.
The project has an integrated approach that directly addresses the tourism sector. The project’s activities focus on policy development and the creation of a cross-border tourism cluster between Cahul (Republic of Moldova), Reni (Ukraine) and Galati (Romania), which will stimulate the development of cross-border tourism, including green tourism, improve the quality of tourism services, increase the number of tourists in the region, and improve the quality of life of local communities.
The conference presented the vision and schedule of further joint work of the partners, focused on the project results, qualitative and quantitative indicators, and presented project teams from each partner.
Vitalii Sokirka, Chief Tourism Expert (Republic of Moldova), presented the main activities to be implemented within the project, in particular:
1) Research on the traditions of good neighbourliness of the three entities along the Danube.
2) Development of three cross-border tourist routes – ‘Eco-tourist water route “On the waves of the blue Danube”, “Historical and cultural route ”In the footsteps of ancient civilisations’, ‘Ethnographic and gastronomic route “Real gastronomy of the Danube Delta”.
3) Publication of an information guide on cross-border tourism in the Danube sector of the Black Sea basin: Cahul – Reni – Galati.
4) Implementation of the Joint Programme for the development of cross-border green tourism in the Cahul region, Moldova; Reni territorial community, Ukraine; Galati county, Romania.
The conference participants were greeted by the Executive Director of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives ‘Viitorul’, Lubomir Kiriak, Project Manager of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020, Anna-Maria Munteanu, and the Mayor of Reni, Igor Plekhov.
In his welcoming speech, Ihor Plekhov spoke about the relevance of the project for the Reni amalgamated territorial community and expressed the readiness of the Reni City Council to be involved in the project implementation process.