New Tourism Project to Link Slovak Zemplin and Ukraine's Zakarpattia

Michalovce, February 23 (TASR) – Zakarpattia Oblast, with its main centre in Uzhhorod in Ukraine, and the Slovak informal region of Zemplin will be connected by a crossborder project focused on supporting tourism and information flows between the regions, Michalovce (Kosice region) town hall spokesperson Iveta Paleckova informed TASR on Tuesday.

“A project entitled SK-INFO-UA Innovative Information Products of Crossborder Cooperation was supported with resources from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and Slovakia’s budget with a total of €189,764,” said Paleckova.

According to Paleckova, Michalovce is the recipient of the Norwegian grant and is the coordinator of the project, which will be cofinanced by the Zakarpattia Agency for Investment, Innovation and Development, the city of Uzhhorod and Uzhhorod’s Centre of Development for Innovations, Investment and Tourism. The Norwegian associate is the Arctic University of Norway in Alta.

The focus of the project is to create electronic and printed information sources to make data on both regions available online and via Bluetooth wireless technology. There will also be ‘blind friendly’ sites and audioguides to enable access to information for the visually impaired.

Also planned are multimedia guides, advertising and film and photographic publications on the Zemplin and Zakarpattia regions. “Various parts of Michalovce and Uzhhorod will feature information signs with QR codes with links to other sources,” said Paleckova.

According to Paleckova, the crossborder partners plan to promote themselves at various forums, presentation days, tourism exhibitions in Bratislava and Kiev in 2017 and at the concluding project conference.