Prague, Oct 21 (CTK) – Representatives of the Saxon Switzerland and Czech Switzerland national parks presented a new three-year project, subsidised by 2.1 million euros from the European Union and focusing on support for tourism in the area, in the Senate on Tuesday.
After a meeting at the German Embassy in Prague, Czech senator Zbynek Linhart, who heads the administrative board of the Czech Saxony national park, said the project is a further continuation of a tested cooperation between the two parks.
German Bundestag member Klaus Braehmig, who heads the Saxon Switzerland Tourism Association, said the project promotes European tourism, measures for barrier-free tourism and cultural cooperation.
The project will begin in the spring and 1.2 million and 0.9 million euros will be invested in the German and Czech parks, respectively, in three years.
Linhart said the Saxon park is visited by more tourists than the Czech one, although the environment is picturesque in the Czech Republic as well. The problem is a lacking infrastructure, such as not enough hotels for tourists, he said.
However, the small north Bohemian town of Krasna Lipa, which became the park’s centre, invested a sum equivalent to 30 million euros in the development of infrastructure and tourism in the past 20 years, Linhart said.
The Czech Saxony national park (79 km2) was established in 2000, the Saxon Switzerland (93 km2) in 1990. The area of both parks is also part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and it is popular among mountain climbers.
