Estonia, Latvia, Russia expand joint tourism program to new destinations

TALLINN - Via Hanseatica, an international tourist route linking Estonia, Latvia and Russia, is getting a number of new destinations as part of an expansion.

During a recent project, activities focused on expanding the tourist route that runs from St. Petersburg to Narva and from there on to Riga via Tartu towards Rakvere and Viljandi in Estonia and towards Vyborg and Pskov in Russia. Several historical areas and tourist attractions were added to the route, the Tartu city government said in a press release.

Helen Kalberg, marketing manager of the city of Tartu, described international cooperation as the main assets of the Via Hanseatica Plus project.

"The project has enabled the partners to get to know each other better and the cooperation has developed significantly as a result. It gives hope that it will be possible to do great things also in the future in the format of cross-border cooperation," Kalberg said.

The tourist clusters of South Estonia and the East-Viru region will help to maintain and develop the Via Hanseatica tourism route in Estonia in the future. In Latvia, Via Hanseatica is the responsibility of the Vidzeme Planning Region and in Russia, the partners of the Pskov and Leningrad regions.

The aim of the Estonia-Russia cross-border cooperation program 2014-2020 is to promote cross-border cooperation between the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Federation in order to facilitate socio-economic development on both sides of the common border.