About the project

Tourist traffic is slow without promotion!

Our region is perfect for holidays in every season of the year. Unfortunately, many local attractions will never be really discovered by tourists due to lack of professional promotion or information. One of the major problems related to development of the holiday offer is its low accessibility and attractiveness. Tourist information in the area is also limited.
Five municipalities with advantageous landscape virtues and interesting holiday facilities decided to present their tourist offer in order to counteract against the barriers which block the development of local tourist products. Żywiec, Czernichów, Lipowa, Łodygowice and Wilkowice prepared a project concerning creation of a modern tourist information system to attract visitors from Poland and abroad. Apart from the activities of Silesian Tourist Organisation, our project is probably one of the largest in the region. Its implementation is possible owing to financial support from the European Regional Development Fund.
The project called ‘Improvement of Quality and Accessibility of Tourist Information in the Districts of Bielsko-Biała and Żywiec’ received co-financing from the Śląskie Regional Operational Programme for 2007-2013. The financial support was granted within activity 3.3. Tourist Information Systems.

Project objectives:
The value of the project is 1 458 279,84 PLN including the grant of 1 235 457,85 PLN. Contribution of the partners is in line with their share in the project.
The project, implemented from January to December 2011, includes complementary activities related to the creation of an integrated tourist information system in the municipalities of Żywiec, Czernichów, Lipowa, Łodygowice and Wilkowice.
The aim of the activities is to improve access to tourist information and to make the local tourist offer more recognizable. The activities indirectly increase tourist competitiveness of the region, especially of the municipalities included in the project, and foster development of the tourist market. The project is implemented in partnership of the above mentioned municipalities with Żywiec as the project Leader.

Material scope of the project:
1. Creating and equipping a network of four cooperating and exchanging information tourist information centres: two centres in Czernichów, one in Łodygowice and one in Żywiec.
2. Producing and distributing in the tourist information centres free publications including thematic leaflets, maps of the area of project implementation and DVDs with tourist information on the area of project implementation, fabularized films about some of the attractions and other materials making a compendium of tourist offer in the project area.
3. Creating and developing a tourist website with a wide range of information including such elements as a virtual map, virtual panoramas of selected tourist attractions, fabularized films about selected attractions and other materials being a compendium of information on tourist offer in the region within the scope of the project.
4. Creating and developing a system of marking tourist areas and attractions, including production of information boards along main transit roads, signs directing to tourist centres and attractions, information boards for selected tourist attractions and signs fostering access to tourist trails/bike routes/educational paths.
5. Production of other elements of the tourist information system, such as: information stands, a model presenting the centre of Żywiec and marking tourist objects and attractions, 3 plans of Żywiec, an audio guide system related to the Old Castle in Żywiec with basic information about the historical site.

Direct effects of the project implementation:
- creating the first integrated local tourist information system including the five municipalities - a system open to include other municipalities in the future,
- developing a network of tourist information points and providing them with free-of-charge promotional materials for tourists,
- constructing a tourist website to become a space for creation and exchange of tourist information by the five municipalities and a place of future cooperation with commercial tourist agents operating in the area of the project implementation; the website is devoted to on-line service on level 3 – Bilateral interaction,
- significant widening and diversification of information tools available to tourists, including development of different types of marking systems and other complementary promotional activities improving competitiveness of local tourist products (a model of the centre of Żywiec, a plan of Żywiec, an audio guide system in the Old Castle in Żywiec).
Long-term benefits stemming from the project:
- an increase in number of people using tourist information points in the area of project implementation (estimated amount in 2012 is 26000 people);
- an increase in number of users of on-line service at the tourist website created within the project (estimated of users per month in 2012 is 4366);

- an increase in number of tourist information system users (estimated amount in 2012 is 37300);

- an increase in number of people using new marking systems (estimated amount in 2012 is 36500 people)

- an increase in number of tourists using the tourist offer of the municipalities included in the project;

- creation of a group of loyal tourists spending their holidays in the project implementation area regularly;

- further development of common tourist market as a result of closer cooperation among the municipalities, e.g. stimulation of further improvement of public tourist infrastructure quality and development of commercial investments concerning accommodation, gastronomy and other tourist facilities;

- an increase in recognizability and competitiveness of tourist offer of the cooperating municipalities;

- improvement of tourist image of the municipalities;
- improvement of social, economic, tourist and investment attractiveness of the area within the scope of the project;
- an increase of income from tourism and creation of new workplaces;

- improvement of life quality for inhabitants of the municipalities.