588
Arctic Yearbook 2014
The “Eco-Efficient Tourism Project” is a concrete example of local, people-to-people
cooperation that has the potential to reinforce cross-border relations, create closer relationships
between regional/international stakeholders, and engage collaboration around a common
objective with beneficial impacts on local economies. For some people, having lavatories or road
signs for tourists are pretty common things back home. For others, like in Karelia, building such
infrastructures are a complete change of culture that can only be initiated, implemented and
sustained through cross-border cooperation for region building and knowledge sharing in such
an important borderland between Russia and the European Union. Hopefully more projects
similar to this one will be funded and implemented in the years to come.
About “Eco-Efficient Tourism Project”
Khabarov & Plouffe