About Us

The Baltic Tourism Academy (BTA) is the working name of a consortium of research and didactic institutions and experts in tourism in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Following the political transformations that took place in Europe in the late 20th century, tourism became one of the most important factors in the social and economic development of the Baltic Sea Region. In 2004 the Baltic Sea became an EU internal sea. A macroregion which is an attractive transnational destination with unique tourist products was born. Tourism-related issues have been addressed by numerous governmental and non-governmental organisations. Many international projects supported by EU funds have been dedicated to tourism development.

In the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) tourism is one of the 13 priorities. Every year the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum is held; it has become the most important forum for tourism stakeholders in the Region. In order to coordinate activities for tourism development, the Steering Group which gathers key stakeholders was established under the EUSBSR in 2013.

In the system of multistage tourism governance, the research and didactic community plays a significant role in the BSR. Cooperation mechanisms for this community must be developed in the Region. It is advisable to inspire, support as well as to coordinate interdisciplinary research work in a transnational system. Sharing research and didactic experience would be beneficial to all involved. Current solutions must be used and improved by new ideas that address the contemporary challenges faced by Baltic tourism.

The Baltic Tourism Academy will take a form that will make it independent of external funds. Unquestionably, obtaining such funds is advisable. The development of the BTA is to take place in two stages. The organisational stage will provide information about research, development and educational activities in the BSR. This task will require to designate contact persons in all countries (preferably researchers or teachers dealing with tourism). Contact persons will submit a list of tourism experts from their country. In this way a database with key information will be created. The most important resources that will be available in the database are:

  1. regulations on tourism;
  2. statistics systems;
  3. conferences, seminars and other academic tourism-related events;
  4. research works and projects;
  5. publications dedicated to tourism.

The idea of the Baltic Tourism Academy has an open and flexible form. It is intended that the Academy will be combined with current initiatives in order to minimize office activities in favour of substantive activities. It can be institutionalised in the future. As regards organisational solutions, the form of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) can be taken into consideration. This kind of operational form would make it easier to obtain financial support from the funds of the European Territorial Cooperation. A meeting for BTA members is to be organised. It could be held at the same time as a conference or a seminar (e.g. the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum). This meeting would identify specific tasks and set further development.

Initial tasks aimed at the establishment of the Baltic Tourism Academy will be conducted by the Gdynia Maritime Academy in collaboration with the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.

Members

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Prof. dr Valentin Korneevets – Kaliningrad, Russia
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Tomasz Studzieniecki - Gdynia Maritime University
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Prof. Barbara Marciszewska - Gdynia, Poland
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Prof. Tadeusz Palmowski - Gdańsk, Poland
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Prof. Beata Meyer - Szczecin, Poland
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Prof. Andrey Manakov - Pskov, Rusia
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Dr Juulia Räikkönen - Turku , Finland
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Ms Maija Mäki - Turku, Finland
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Ms Telle Tuominen - Turku, Finland
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Ms Katharina Poser - Rostock, Germany
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Dr Michael Schwaiger - Schwerin, Germany
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Ms Susanne Marx - Benitz bei Rostock, Germany
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Prof. Dr. Björn P. Jacobsen - Stralsund, Germany
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Ms Christine Zhang-Lippert - Berlin, Germany
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Prof. Eduardas Spiriajevas - Klaipeda, Lithuania
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Prof. dr. Inese Lusena-Ezera, - Liepaja, Latvia

Recommended Publications

Crossing Perspectives Baltic Sea Region

Edited by Arne Ellefors, Erik Hofrén
Cultural Tourism Institute (Sweden), 2009

The publication present the Baltic Sea Region as a transnational destination with its own brand. Baltic branding is a process of creating and implementing in recipients’ awareness of a brand the philosophy representing a specific product, idea and in this case here – the region of Europe through the use of a visual message (logo, flag, symbol), a verbal and semantic one (a catchword, slogan, thought), a sound message (a tune, anthem) or their combination in the context unambiguously associated with marketing.

The authors believe that the book will inspire and motivate readers, especially in universities to take brave initiatives of their own and explore new horizons in the Baltic Sea Region

Events

XII Forum Europa Nostra

Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management in Gdansk,
Gdynia Maritime University, University of Gdansk,
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and
Academia Europa Nostra
extend an invitation to the scientific conference:

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more information


Silver Tourism Conference - Darlowo 7 June 2019

Poland's 2nd International Conference, devoted entirely to the issue of demographic turn, in the context of tourism development.

This topic has long been discussed in Europe, but also in America and Asia. Years ago, there were formulated some recommendations for all responsible organizations, regardless of business interest: who miss and underestimate the importance of economic conditions, associated with aging, can suddenly lose a position in the market and will have no chance to make up financial losses !

The European Union recognized the huge potential of the "silver market" and pointed special priority in tourism in this context; age friendly workplaces and generation’s gap at the labor market are also an issue of the acute European and gloabl interest ! Tourism industry faces this problem, as well and the Conference will allow to consider these challenges, this time from the perspective of employers and employees.

more information

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The 10th Annual Forum of the EUSBSR will be held in Gdańsk on 12-13th June 2019. The Forum will be hosted by the Pomorskie Region together with the Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation in close cooperation with the European Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland and other partners.

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About 800 participants from governments, international organisations, NGOs, universities, local and regional administrations and businesses will come together to discuss developments and challenges in the Baltic Sea Region.

Please book the date in your calendar and visit Gdańsk – city of freedom and solidarity - in June 2019! More information will soon follow at the EUSBSR website.

logotypes The Annual Forum is co-financed from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2014-2020 programme.
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Scientific Journals

Scientific journal “Economic Problems of Tourism”

The Journal «Economic Problems of Tourism» (up to the end of 2015, Scientific Bulletin of the Szczecin University «Economic Problems of Tourism») presents results of research carried out by scholars from Polish and foreign academic centres concerning economic aspects of tourism. The Journal has been appearing since 2002, and since 2012 as a quarterly.

There are three main thematic sections in the Journal:

  1. Theoretical problems of the development of tourism.
  2. Problems of the market of touristic services.
  3. Regional problems of the development of tourism.

The journal applies an open access policy.

The journal allows readers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full texts of its articles.

The journal allows authors to hold their copyrights without any restrictions.

According to the announcement of the Minister of Science and Higher Education dated December 12th, 2015 concerning the list of scientific journals together with numbers of points granted for a publication in those journals, the Journal «Economic Problems of Tourism» has been included in List B with 13 points.

The Journal is indexed in reference bases:

  • BazEkon,
  • Indeks Copernicus,
  • CABI,
  • BazHum.

More info: https://wnus.edu.pl/ept/en/page/home

Journals

Research And Project

Contact

Baltic Tourism Academy secretariat
Gdynia Maritime University
ul. Morska 81 - 87
81 - 225 Gdynia
www. bta.umg.edu.pl
BTA Secretary - dr Tomasz Studzieniecki
tel/fax +48 58 55 86 210
e-mail: t.studzieniecki@wpit.umg.edu.pl