STAR Cities Final Conference "Let's Celebrate the River"

The final Let's Celebrate the River conference took place in Kaunas on Thursday, 8 September. The aim of this conference was to present the synthesis and results of the project, including the best actions that have been carried out. This was followed by a time for discussion and questions.

At this conference organised by Kaunas, European Capital of Culture 2022, the representatives presented a quick summary of the learning phase and the good practices guide. Then the STAR Cities partners presented the implementation phase of the project action plan.

Presentation and results of STAR Cities partners actions plan

Romena Puikyte presented the implementation of the River Festival in Kaunas and Kaunas district « Let’s Celebrate the River ! ». This action was about community involvement in the River Festival. Two cultural river routes with the purpose to connect the city and its surrounding districts by organising cultural and leisure activities along the river.

Camille Chowah, from Val-de-Marne Tourism Board, created a new event « Marne River Tour » and implemented a communication strategy to connect territories through the river with the collective Cap sur la Marne. People were invited to discover Marne River by walking, cycling or canoeing during two days.

Alessandro Drago (Lazio Region) and Elisabetta Romano (Municipality IX EUR – City of Rome, presented the creation of a new DMOs that were founded on River Tourism in Lazio. The creation of those new DMOs has allowed to connect different territories in order to develop this touristic destination.

Tanja Blatter, from the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, introduced the implementation of a river tourism strategy into the Tourism Development Concept of Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The municipality of Hamburg developed a joint strategy with all the DMOs involved along the river by implementing a process to make them work all together.

Katja Butina (Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region), presented two actions. First, the municipality has decided to create a new main entry point in the Ljubljansko Barje Nature Park and has created contents and documentation for the establishment of it. The second action was about the inclusion of the river tourism management and marketing in the new tourism strategy for Ljubljana Urban Region.

The conference was closed with a time of exchange and questions about the results of the project and its future.

Kristaps Rocans, from the Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat, welcomed the project and pointed out that STAR Cities was one of the few projects to have 3 pilot actions in progress.

Relive the conference through the video recording of the event: Let’s celebrate the River

After the conference, all the STARCities partners went visiting the cultural space – landscape design object « Nemuno 7 ».

Then the group has the luck to visit the Art Deco Muziejus of Kaunas. The day ended with the visit of the National M. K. Ciurlionis Art Museum.