Hrastnik, 30th June 2020 – The Municipality of Hrastnik and Culture-recreation centre have officially opened new premises of Tourist information centre Hrastnik (TIC). Together with Regional Development Agency Zasavje and its project RAMSAT they have also presented to public a new tourist hiking trail ‘Pot Srečno’. The event was attended by the minister of public administration Boštjan Koritnik, who also took part in a tour of Hrastnik coalmine tunnel.
The opening of the “Miners’ hiking trail” Pot Srečno was of historical significance, since it is the first trail connecting the history and heritage of the three municipalities of Zasavje region, furthermore it is interregional, since a part of it runs through Municipality of Laško in Savinjska region. The trail is over 40 kilometres long and presents an important part of touristic offer in Zasavje region and a really important step towards including industrial heritage into tourism.
It is a very good example of connecting natural and cultural heritage with tourism, so the RAMSAT project manager in RDA Zasavje didn’t hesitate to participate in the activities establishing the trail: “This was a unique opportunity to promote the RAMSAT project and let people get acquainted with it and get to know more about its purpose and opportunity. We believe that opportunities and projects like this one can help the region’s municipalities connect and strive for common development.”
RAMSAT project has thus been put on Slovenia’s ‘tourist map’ since its logotype is printed on the 7 information boards that were put there to inform the hikers about sightseeing spots, significant to the mining heritage. The purpose of promoting the project, both at the opening event and on the information boards, is raising awareness of local community, as well as domestic or foreign visitors, about importance of preserving and revitalizing the natural and cultural – in our case mostly industrial – heritage.
We are proud to announce that RAMSAT project has also been a significant factor in establishing a stakeholder group that is being active in developing and establishing the so called industrial tourism, since it is one of the economic branches that the region is striving to succeed at. Next plans in this direction are to revitalize some of the former mining premises, develop the mining tunnel for additional tourism activities, repurposing the former mining apartment for tourist accommodation, and many more.
