Flagship Products

For a long time the relaxed couple in the steaming hot tubs in the open air was a typical image for the tourism and thermal spring regions of eastern Slovenia and of Styria. Now this image could come from anywhere. Wellness areas have become a standard global tourist offer and so the region is being called on to raise its profile. A first step was the Regio Vitalis project, which allowed the region‘s particular landscape and cuisine to be recognised as important assets and to take centre stage. However, in order to stand out from other regions more is required, namely clear, regional unique selling points. An analysis has shown that the region of the project in Central Europe features by far the highest number of thermal and mineral springs, has the largest area of apple cultivation, and is the undisputed centre of pumpkin seed production. This is in addition to other leading products, such as elderberries or honey, which are typical of individual regions.
The aim of Flagship Products is to develop new tourist offers in combination with these leading products and to thus create extraordinary holiday experiences that cannot simply be copied by other regions.
The Flagship Products approach will for the first time enable a partnership to be established along the entire value added chain of a leading product, (farmer, host, business, tourism, etc.), to provide mutual support in development, marketing and sales. All activities will take place according to a standard approach, which will be developed bilaterally. Joint cross-border partnerships will be formed for thermal and mineral springs, apples and pumpkin seeds. The outcomes of the project will be raising the awareness of regional specialties, new kinds of cooperation, new qualification modules, new product and experience offers relating to leading products, and above all, new guests for the region!