Matka merelle: Kotkan vesibussiristeilyt

Langinkosken Keisarillisen kalastusmajan ja Katariinan Meripuiston välillä alkoi kesällä 2023 risteilyliiketoiminta. Tämä uusi palvelu toi tullessaan innostusta ja eloa alueelle, ja sen takana oli kotkalainen yrittäjä Petri Luotio, NaviKotka. Hänen puolisonsa puolestaan otti vastuulleen Keisarillisen kalastusmajan kesäkahvilan, mikä oli keskeinen osa tätä laajempaa kokonaisuutta.

Luotion mukaan, vesibussireitti suunniteltiin palvelemaan sekä paikallisia asukkaita että matkailijoita. Monelle sisämaan matkaajalle 20 minuutin risteily riittää ihan hyvin. ja siinä pääsee vähän nuuskimaan meri-ilmaa, eikä reissussa mene koko päivää, hän toteaa.

Asiakkaat voivat saapua omalla autollaan Katariinan Meripuistoon ja siirtyä sieltä vesibussilla Langinkoskelle, jossa he voivat tutustua alueeseen ennen paluutaan. Vastaavasti bussikuljetus toimi sujuvana vaihtoehtona niille, jotka halusivat saapua Langinkoskelle ja risteillä Meripuistoon. Tämä joustava liikenneyhteys teki meren läheisyydestä helposti saavutettavan kaikille. Kilpailutilanne alalla on Luotion mukaan terve ja reilu, mutta hän haluaa erottua tarjoamalla yksinkertaista ja laadukasta palvelua. Hänen tavoitteenaan on aina huomioida asiakkaiden tarpeet yksilöllisesti.

Kotkan vesibussiristeilyjen ytimessä on Tuula-laiva, Suomen vanhin liikenteessä oleva puinen vesibussi. Alun perin Höytiäisellä seilannut Tuula herätti aluksi epäilyksiä ulkonäöllään, mutta Luotio näki siinä kuitenkin ainutlaatuisen mahdollisuuden. Hän remontoi Tuulan ja teki siitä keskeisen osan vesibussikokemusta. Tuula ei vain ollut suosittu risteilyvieraiden keskuudessa, Tuula on myös ainut puinen vesibussi, joka on hyväksytty Suomen Perinnelaivaluetteloon.

Kotkan vesibussiristeilyt eivät olleet vain matka merelle, vaan ne ovat tarina yrittäjän rohkeudesta, yhteistyöstä ja omistautumisesta tarjota asiakkaille unohtumattomia kokemuksia merellisestä Kotkasta. Ensimmäinen kesä osoitti konseptin menestyksen. Liikevaihto kaksinkertaistui, ja vesibussiristeilyjen suosio oli valtava. Toimintaa laajennettiin ympärivuotiseksi, mikä kertoo sen vakiintumisesta osaksi paikallista matkailutarjontaa. Luotio korosti yhteistyön merkitystä Cursor Oy:n  Vip&Ko-hankkeen kanssa, joka oli tarjonnut hyvää tukea ja apua yrittäjälle.

Tulevaisuus näyttää valoisalta, ja Luotio kannustaa muitakin yrittäjiä olemaan rohkeita ja uskaliaita omalla alallaan. Laajentumissuunnitelmia on jo ilmassa, ja uusia liiketoiminta-alueita on mietitty jo kesään 2024.

Saaristomatkailu kukoistaa: Yhteistyön voima

Yhteistyön avulla olemme onnistuneet luomaan uusia saaristotuotteita, jotka palvelevat niin yksittäisiä matkailijoita kuin ryhmiäkin, kertoo Cursor Oy:n projektipäällikkö Mats Selin. Hankkeen keskeinen opetus oli se, miten valtava osaaminen ja kokemus alueen saaristoyrittäjillä on. Heidän innostuksensa ja motivaationsa kehittämistyötä kohtaan olivat inspiraatiota, ja oli ilo tukea ja kannustaa heitä.

Lisätietoja Vip&Ko -hankeesta.

CBC Programmes are highlighting the results and impact of the projects together!

SEFR CBC Programme together with Kolarctic CBC and Karelia CBC are highlighting the results and impact of the programmes in social media and programmes webpages. The joint campaign started at the beginning of March and will continue for a few more weeks. You are welcome to join us!

During the first week we have highlighting results about the actions developing professional skills,  New generations, new skills.

 

 

 

 

Ex-post evaluation of the programme launched

The Regional Council of South Karelia, as the Managing Authority for the South-East Finland-Russia CBC 2014-2020 Programme, has commissioned an external ex-post evaluation of the programme from TK-Eval. TK-Eval will conduct a surveys as part of the evaluation for projects funded by the programme as well as for the stakeholders during winter-spring 2024. A primary focus of the evaluation is to closely assess the implementation of the program and the results and effects of the project.

In February 2024, questionnaires and interviews started with project beneficiaries. The analysis of the collection day will be done by the end of April, and the final evaluation is expected to be completed and published before the summer 2024.

 

The 17th meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee

On 14 December 2023, the 17th meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) of the South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 Programme was held in Helsinki, Finland.

The agenda of the meeting took an overview of the programme main activities, last activities related to final reports of the projects, final reporting and monitoring and evaluation, information and communication plan and financing of the programme.

 

Season’s Greeting

May the Christmas holidays warm your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

CBC team wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

 

Hiitolanjoki-Salmon river for locals and travelers of all times

The South Karelia Foundation for Recreation Areas, which owns the rapids of river Hiitolanjoki, and the municipality of Rautjärvi were happy to announced that the last rapid with its surroundings is now completed and open to the public. More than two decades of hard work have now come to an end, and we can finally enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Hiitolanjoki-Salmon river for locals and travelers of all times aim was to developing new attractive tourism destinations by restoring an impressive natural rapid with living stock of endengered Ladoga Salmon. Creating nature trails and historical water trail as well as design for an industry historical place. The old Kangaskoski hydropower plant owned by Ekvas was taken out of use during the project as the first hydro power plant on the Finnish side of the Hiitolanjoki River. A museum was planned for hydro power plant, so that the culturally and industrially historically valuable building got a new life and the tourism companies in the area can add content to their tourism products. Although the work at river Hiitolanjoki has been started from the beginning of nature conservation and it has always been a primary value, other perspectives are also needed in order to implement similar projects. In Hiitolanjoki it has meant investing in recreational use of the area along with nature conservation. New camping infrastructure has been built around each rapid, such as accessible walkways, accessible fire places and accessible outdoor toilets. An accessible bird tower was also built at Lahnasenkoski.

This enables the area to be used by people of all ages and fitness levels. A virtual museum Kangaskoski Mobile was created for Kangaskoski, which allows you to get to know the wood grinder that has already disappeared. A museumization plan has also been made for the Kangaskoski power plant, but additional funding must still be sought for its implementation. The further use of the Lahnasenkoski and Ritakoski hydropower plants has not to be planned yet, but the sites have already attracted a lot of interest from both students and entrepreneurs. By investing in recreation areas, we wanted to create more conditions for current and new entrepreneurs working in tourism. The river warriors of the area welcome everyone to get to know the completely free-flowing Hiitolanjoki in the summer season of 2024!

Photos:Hanna Ollikainen, Etelä-Karjalan virkistysaluesäätiö

Video: Removal of the Hiitolanjoki Ritakoski dam 2023

 

 

 

Cross-Border Safety; accident prevention and risk management

Cross-border safety, accident prevention and management CB-SAFE -project main objectives were to enhance the skills, safety knowledge, and safety attitudes of individuals crossing the border, produce safety information material, create a virtual learning platform for rescue services, and deepen the cooperation between the Finnish authorities in the border area.

One goal was also to create a virtual training platform for rescue services. The platform was named VR-HYPO (virtual training environment for operational decision-making of rescue services). The platform simulates risk and accident situations in the Saimaa canal and its surroundings. The virtual training environment is based on accident scripts, where decision-making related to risk and accident situations and the use of resources can be practiced with the help of gamification. The goal was to modernize the performance management of the rescue departments and pilot the functionality of the virtual training environment.

The implementation of the VR game environment was done with different softwares enabled a multi-game environment where rescue personnel working at different fire stations can participate in a training simulation using a VR-compatible computer and VR glasses. It was especially important to make the rescue personnel’s actions correspond to the real situation. The virtual platform is used to develop the performance and competence of rescue authorities. From the point of view of society, the results can be seen in the improvement of risk management and safety in the environments of emergency services. The virtual platform enables training in complex situations, for example, the Saimaa canal, where training opportunities are otherwise limited, and the combined result of this is enhanced service response in demanding accident situations. A similar digital learning platform has not been created before. The possibilities for the further development of the virtual learning platform in the rescue industry are limitless.

With the help of the project, a new ROV diving drone was acquired, which helps divers in their work and improves work safety. The ROV also serves as a tool in accidents and damage situations in the aquatic environment.

Based on the work carried out in the project, the proposal was that the Ministry of the Interior would be the body coordinating the border area cooperation and the rescue services would take responsibility for practical cooperation, for example by dividing the workload – each rescue service would be responsible in turn for the operation of the network in, for example, two-year cycles. The rescue agencies involved in the operation would have a unified situational picture and information about, for example, upcoming exercises in border area cooperation, as well as a clear situational picture of the situation in the border area in general. Authorities operating in the border area would be invited to the cooperation network, and already existing network structures such as EKTURVAA and Kymen Turvaa can be used in it.

CB-SAFE

Breaking barriers to cross-border cooperation in Brussels

“Let’s talk about cross-programme cooperation” event was successfully held in Brussels, during the European Week of Regions and Cities. Topic about the workshop was how three Finnish CBC programmes: South-East Finland-Russia CBC, Kolarctic CBC and Karelia CBC has supported beneficiaries and boosted programme implementation. During the CBC Programme 2014-2020 it has been funded projects relating to business, education, culture, environmental protection and border security approximately 184 M€ in 181 projects.

Call for tenders: Ex-post evaluation of South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 programme

The Managing Authority of South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 programme has published tender documents related to the ex-post evaluation of the programme. The purpose of the ex-post evaluation is to provide a comprehensive independent assessment of the effectiveness and effects of the programme implementation.

Tender documents:

GUIDELINES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF TENDER DOCUMENTS CONCERNING THE EX-POST EVALUATION OF THE SOUTH-EAST FINLAND – RUSSIA CBC 2014-2020 PROGRAMME

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE EX-POST EVALUATION OF THE SOUTH-EAST FINLAND – RUSSIA CBC 2014-2020 PROGRAMME

 

Answers to questions received by the deadline:

1) Tender documents must include list of references (max 5).  Can the reportable reference be an ongoing evaluation?

Yes, the reportable reference can be related to an ongoing evaluation.

2) Is there available information on the result indicator baselines and indicator descriptions?

Yes, the information is available in the Joint Operationl Programme (see document Programme Document JOP Engl – SEFR CBC 2014-2020 ), Tables 1-4.

3) Is the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for SEFR programme available?

Yes, please see attached document (“Monitoring and evaluation plan 1.7.2022-30.6.2023“).

“Let’s talk about cross-programme cooperation” workshop in Brussels, during the European Week of Regions and Cities

We will invite you to join our “Let’s talk about cross-programme cooperation” workshop in Brussels 12th October 2023, at 11.30 CET. The workshop is part of the European Week of Regions and Cities, which is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to cohesion policy.

Topic about the workshop is how three Finnish CBC programmes: South-East Finland-Russia CBC, Kolarctic CBC and Karelia CBC has supported beneficiaries and boosted programme implementation. In our workshop we share our insights and how working together can lower the barriers for cross-border cooperation. You’ll also hear how stakeholders have experienced our efforts.

More information related on European Week of Regions and Cities can be found here.

Registration is now open!