Denis Cerić

Abstract

This article aims to explain where the cross‑border tourism cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) can be observed, and its specifical aim is to answer the research question: What are the spatial characteristics of cooperation in cross-border tourism projects in the Baltic Sea Region? Using the methods of spatial analysis in GIS, statistical methods and analysis of project documents, synthetic research was carried out on the cooperation of beneficiaries of tourism projects under the Interreg IV A, B and C programs in the BSR. The spatial nature of this cooperation was presented in a descriptive and cartographic form, taking into account the locations of beneficiaries, budgets, roles in the project, concentration, connections and topics of their cooperation.

Although the empirical study presented below is limited only to tourism cooperation under the EU‑funded Interreg IV program in the BSR, it is one of the first studies on cross‑border cooperation between entities separated by a sea border in general, as well as one of the first synthetic studies on projects from different levels of European Union funding in the Interreg program (A, B and C), which cover a larger area of research.

Ultimately, within 13 Interreg IV programs within the BSR consisting of 1157 projects in total, 89 projects directly related to cross‑border tourism crossing sea borders were selected for the study, including 71 Interreg A, 12 Interreg B and 6 Interreg C projects. Within selected projects 834 beneficiaries collaborated and spent a total budget of almost €150 million (Tab. 1). Beneficiaries from Sweden, Denmark and Germany account for more than half of all beneficiaries of tourism projects in the region (Fig. 3.a). Beneficiaries are located in 330 places in the region all across the region, but there is a large variation in their distribution. Most of the beneficiaries are based in places located on the coast, which is also indicated by the analysis of the concentration of partners, taking into account the number of beneficiaries within a radius of 100 km (Fig. 6.). Three large concentrations of beneficiaries can be observed: two are located in the western part of the region: (1) the coast of the narrow Danish straits – Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt (west coast of Sweden, coast of Denmark and northern Germany), (2) Kattegat and partly the Skagerrak strait (Sweden‑Denmark‑Norway), and (3) the regions of the capital cities of Helsinki and Tallinn, and the coast of the Archipelago Sea – the body of the Baltic Sea located south‑west of the Finnish town of Turku.

Cooperation is measured by number and distance of the relations between the beneficiaries. In the BSR the largest number of relations takes place within the distance of 200‑300 km, i.e. allowing to connect the opposite shores of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 9). Beneficiaries of tourist projects from the coast of the Danish straits form a separate system of relations, only to a small extent connected with other parts of the BSR, especially with beneficiaries from the eastern part of the region. From the western part of the region, only beneficiaries from Germany cooperate relatively intensively both with partners from Denmark and Sweden, as well as with partners from the eastern part of the BSR (Fig. 7 and 8). The most frequently chosen topics of cooperation in the BSR concerned expertise and research, promotional activities, knowledge transfer, technical development and the development and improvement of services. Although the distribution of beneficiaries according to the topics implemented was relatively even, beneficiaries who implemented projects related to networking and strengthening cooperation, development of the tourist product, creation of destinations and a tourist brand, as well as promotional activities and protection of cultural heritage were definitely concentrated in the western part of the region – on the coast around the Danish straits: Sound, Great Belt and Little Belt, as well as on the coast of the Kattegat (Fig. 10).

Comparison of the number of implemented projects related to tourism, the number of beneficiaries, the average amount of beneficiaries’ budgets and their concentration showed diametrical differences in the region between its western and eastern parts. It can therefore be said that the “Iron Curtain” is still visible, which in the second half of the 20th century divided the south‑eastern part of the Baltic Sea from its north‑western part. If we divide the countries of the BSR into the so‑called countries of “Old Europe” (Finland, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden) and countries of “New Europe” (Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Russia), there are huge differences between these areas, suggesting that EU projects cause the leveling of differences between the “old” and “new” Europe, Implementation of tourism projects definitely dominates in the countries of “Old Europe” (77.3%), where the beneficiaries are usually located in smaller towns. The opposite is true in the “new” EU countries, where most of the tourism projects are implemented by beneficiaries from medium and large cities. The vast majority of the tourism projects’ leading partners also come from the countries of “Old Europe” (79.3%), and their budget is at the level of as much as 83.9% of the budgets of all the leading partners (cf. Tab. 2). These data suggest that EU co‑financed projects still fail to significantly bridge the differences between countries that did not cooperate for most of the 20th century.

Keywords: cross-border cooperation, spatial features of cooperation, tourism, Interreg programs, the Baltic Sea Region, bordering-debordering-rebordering concept

Denis Cerić [d.ceric@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation, Polish Academy of Sciences Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw: Poland

Citation

APA: Cerić, D. (2023). Przestrzenne cechy transgranicznej współpracy turystycznej w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego. Przegląd Geograficzny, 95(1), 85-112. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.4
MLA: Cerić, Denis. "Przestrzenne cechy transgranicznej współpracy turystycznej w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 95, no. 1, 2023, pp. 85-112. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.4
Chicago: Cerić, Denis. "Przestrzenne cechy transgranicznej współpracy turystycznej w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego". Przegląd Geograficzny 95, no. 1 (2023): 85-112. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.4
Harvard: Cerić, D. 2023. "Przestrzenne cechy transgranicznej współpracy turystycznej w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 85-112. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.4