Presentation held on cross-border cooperation in tourism between Hungary and Croatia

The purpose of the umbrella tourism plan for the border area Hungary-Croatia, one of the projects from the Instrument of Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) programme of cross-border cooperation between the two countries for the period 2007-2013, is to create conditions for the development of tourism in the border area of eight counties of continental Croatia and four Hungarian counties, it was said at a presentation of the project in Osijek on Tuesday.

The project is worth around three million kunas, including around HRK 650,000 for the area of Osijek-Baranja County, said Stjepan Ribic, head of the Slavonia and Baranja Regional Development Agency.

The project is expected to be completed in March this year. Participating in it are two Hungarian partners, the Slavonia and Baranja Regional Development Agency, and the Cakovec Town Development Agency.

The tourism plan for the border area Hungary-Croatia will be the basis for all future tourism projects to be funded by the European Commission in the Mura-Drava-Danube region, because its results will serve as starting documents for defining tenders for future projects in the said programme.

The making of a general framework for tourism development in the project area includes making a marketing strategy and detailed plans for individual tourism products judged to be particularly important and requiring special attention, such as cycling, mountaineering, equestrian tourism and water sports.

Ribic said that entities from Osijek-Baranja County had been awarded EUR 2.65 million for various projects in the first tender of the Croatia-Hungary cross-border cooperation programme. (Hina)

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