Ligatne (LV)

Contributor	Sabrina Vecchio Ruggeri
Country	Latvia,
Keywords	Cultural heritage protection Destinations-in-Europe Europe Local career opportunities Sustainable destination strategy
Release date	23/06/2014
Topics	Destination Management Natural Heritage & Biodiversity
GSTC Criteria for Destinations	A1 Destination management responsibility C4 Traditional access B2 Decent work and career opportunities
Type	(Best Practice Destination)

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Good Practice Innovation Sheet

Items	Description
1. WHO
Key people and organisations (initiator, leader, partners)	Ligatne region local government
	Culture and Tourism Centre of Ligatne

Key Figures	Surface	Inhabitants	Tourism arrivals	Tourism nights
	7,4 km²	1,000	170,000	unknown
2. WHY
Reason for taking the good practice action	1815 Konrad Kyber and Justus Storch, 2 German tradesmen from Riga came to Ligatne village and founded a Paper-Mill. 1890-ties factory is owned by the Mentzenforff family and an exemplary workers’ village and a developed social system is developed. 1960-ties industrialization in the USSR reaches its peak. 1 000 workers are employed in the mill 1990-ties USSR collapses, majority of factories in Latvia are going bankrupt, unemployment is growing, people are leaving towns and heading to the capital- Riga and abroad, the industrial village preserving its look from end of 19th Ct is undervalued, wooden architecture considered as old barracks
Issues and challenge	Paper-Mill facing bankruptcy or major changes; Village facing modernization or reconstruction and preservation; People facing moving to Riga, emigration or adoption to the new environment; Successful co-operation of local authority and private business; Local community benefits from tourism development; nature benefits from eco-friendly production
3. HOW
Methods /steps / tools used (to develop the good practice)	1. Owners of the Mill takes a decisive action and change the raw-material used in the production from wooden pulp to waste-paper moving to re-cycling . 1.1. The Mill gets involved in the tourism development allowing guided tours in the production and showing both the industrial heritage and also nature-friendly solutions of nowadays. 2. Municipality takes a decision to preserve the local industrial and cultural heritage and develop tourism as one of the priorities. 2.1. Major project, co-financed by ERDF is launched to build two tourism trails aimed to focus on cultural heritage of Paper-Mill village; 2.2. Tourism information centre is founded; 2.3. Local people are trained to work as the guides; 2.4. Marketing and public relation activities are commenced
4. RESULT
Specific/measurable results, benefits	1) 10 local people getting additional income working as guides in Ligatne village Indra Ramāne (29) mother of 4 years old daughter and 6 years old son, used to live in Latvian biggest resort town Jurmala, moved to Ligatne in 2009, works for tourism information for a half-time and is the best guide in Ligatne for children Edgars Viņķelis offspring of the Paper-Mill workers in 4th generation. Craftsman, demonstrates the wood-curving skills to the tourists of Ligatne and works as a guide. Rasma Vanaga (retired) Used to work as an economist in Paper-Mill, ended her career as the Deputy-Director of the Mill. Since 2006 works as a guide in Ligatne, the first person who understood the potential of the village as a tourism destination. 2) number of tourists visiting tourism information centre increased from 3 204 in 2010 to 11 459 in 2011 and 17 714 in 2012. 3) 2 new cafeterias opened, winery of local fruit and berry wines founded, 8 craftsmen selling souvenirs to the tourists, wood-working and eco-lifestyle park opened to the public 4) Paper-Mill of Ligatne continues to work successfully being the only working paper producing factory in Latvia and using only waste-paper as the raw-material. 5) 5. Together with other municipalities lying in the territory of the Gauja National Park a tourism cluster is founded and a new tourism brand «Enter Gauja» developed.
Recognitions (e.g. awards)	In 2011 Ligatne village wins the European Destinations of Excellence award. Theme of the year: reconstruction of physical sites.
5. REFLECTION
Lessons learned	Success of each individual player in such a small community depends on the efforts of others: if someone is successful, we all are winners, if someone fails, we all are losing.
Challenges met	Efforts taken by the local government have given the local people trust that tourism will be supported and a chain of new services have been founded connected to the tourism
Critical success factors	Only a common strategy aimed to reach long-term goals is going to be successful!
6. MORE
web-references, documents	www.visitligatne.lv