Russian, Finnish trans-border regions develop ethnic-cultural tourism

Russia and Finland are launching an international project on the development of ethnic-cultural tourism with the use of literary and ethnographic materials of the world famous Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala" in trans-border regions - the Republic of Karelia and Northern Karelia union of communes, said the Karelian State Sport and Tourism Committee, which elaborated the project together with the city hall, the polytechnic institute and the regional development campaign of the town of Kajaani /Finland/.

The project outlines tourist routes over the villages where legendary rune singers lived. The epic was created on the basis of these ancient runes. In addition, the project implies the holding of an ethnic-cultural festival, dedicated to Kalevala epic, the development of fishing tourism on the basis of old fishery traditions, the issue of a photo album and training of tourist experts.

The TACIS international programme has allocated 250,000 euro to support the project.