Almost all tourism business people in Pieriga or 98% are loyal to what they do, and only 2% would be ready to consider selling the business now, the Riga Planning Region concluded during a study on small and medium-sized enterprises conducted during the international project “Local Flavors”. for developers of average tourism products in Pieriga.
Inese Ozolina, a communication specialist of the Riga planning region, informed LETA, if she creates a portrait of a small and medium-sized tourism product developer, then it can be concluded that every third respondent acknowledged that tourism is his main occupation. Half of the respondents indicated that they have moved from Riga to develop a tourism product in the specific place. In turn, every fourth – that he has already lived in a place where it is developed.
The Pieriga tourism niche is developed more by women (63%) as opposed to men (37%). In more than half of the cases, the tourism product is developed by a family business and only 16% is a “one-man army”. 9% of them are the state and local government and the same proportion is the non-governmental sector.
“Small and medium tourism in Pieriga is very important for ensuring the circulation of tourism in the region. Therefore, we identified a situation that gives an idea of tourism product developers. Although they all face great challenges, they remain loyal to their work and see potential for their work,” Sabīne Skudra, representative of the planning region and project expert. She emphasizes that Pieriga is a place where for many years small tourism developed slowly, because in internal and external tourism people preferred to go from Riga to more remote regions. At present, it can be observed that the situation is changing rapidly, which provides an opportunity to successfully develop new tourism products.
About 50 small and medium-sized enterprises working in tourism in Pieriga participated in the survey.
The aim of the project is to promote the flow of tourists to less recognizable cultural heritage sites in the region, while ensuring a much more successful overall development of tourism and policy-making in the region, thus strengthening the overall competitiveness of the region.
During the project, the Riga Planning Region will develop an action plan to define a more successful set of actions for the development of the tourism sector in the next planning period in the Regional Development Program. The plan will assess the main challenges and identify the most effective forms of support. It is planned to organize knowledge and experience exchange joint training and co-creation workshops for local governments with the participation of experts.
Simultaneously with Latvia, eight more partners from Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland and Finland are participating in the project.
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