Ms. Maja Uskoković said at the working meeting: “Boka Kotorska represents a natural link between the Maritime Museum Kotor, which cherishes its cultural heritage and maritime tradition and the Institute of Marine Biology, which takes care of its natural values. The cooperation between the two institutions is more than logical.”
Dr. Aleksandar Joksimovic pointed out that in addition to cooperation within the framework of the Blue Pass, both institutions will work on a comprehensive agreement on program cooperation. The first step will be a joint spring exhibition at the Aquarium Boka on the maritime tradition and the marine life of Boka, which is planned for April 2023.
About the Blue Pass. The Blue Pass is a new tourist product, purpose-developed as part of the EXChAngE project for visitors to the cross-border area of Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro, which allows the purchase of discounted tickets for thematic routes.
About the digital tour guide. The Blue Card is accompanied by the digital tourist guide Blue Pass EXCHANGE which enables exploration of the cultural and natural heritage of the cross-border area Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro, especially the cross-border aquatic biodiversity. To make it easier to read and navigate through the content, the guide is structured into sections – each dedicated to a thematic route. Each section has four chapters, representing (1) natural heritage, (2) cultural heritage, (3) one thematic route, and (4) transportation to the site. Chapters are structured into thematic topics, keeping as similar as possible outlines across the guide. The guide is available under the name “Blue Pass – EXChAngE” for Android on Google Play and for iOS mobile platforms on the App Store.
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After the signing of the agreement, Ms. Maja Uskoković said: “I am pleased that from today we will make the contents of the Maritime Museum in Kotor more accessible to all interested parties, especially visitors of Kotor”.
About the importance of the Blue Card, Mr. Jovan Ristic said: “The Blue Pass represents a significant incentive for diversification and digitization of the tourist offer of Kotor.”
The Blue Card is accompanied by the digital tourist guide Blue Pass EXCHANGE, which already shows the contents that can be seen in the Maritime Museum.
About the blue card. The Blue Card is a new tourist product, purpose-developed as part of the EXChAngE project for visitors to the cross-border area of Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro, which allows the purchase of discounted tickets for thematic routes.
About the digital tour guide. The digital tourist guide Blue Pass EXCHANGE enables exploration of the cultural and natural heritage of the cross-border area Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro, especially the cross-border aquatic biodiversity. To make it easier to read and navigate through the content, the guide is structured into sections – each dedicated toa thematic route. Each section has four chapters, representing (1) natural heritage, (2) cultural heritage, (3) one thematic route and (4) transportation to the site. Chapters are structured into thematic topics, keeping as similar as possible outline across the guide. The guide is available under name “Blue Pass – EXChAngE” for Android on Google Play and for iOS mobile platforms on the App Store.
]]>Video “EXChAngE Blue Pass SHORT” tells a short story about the main project output: a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass View this video on YouTube:
Video “Dubrovnik Aquarium Blue Pass” tells a story about the Aquarium Dubrovnik which you can visit at discounted rate with a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass. View this video on YouTube:
Video “Kotor Blue Pass” tells a story about the old city of Kotor which attractions you can visit at discounted rate with a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass. View this video on YouTube:
Video “Aquarium Boka Blue Pass” tells a story about the Aquarium Boka which you can visit at discounted rate with a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass. View this video on YouTube:
Video “Mostar Blue Pass” tells a story about the old city of Mostar which attractions you can visit at a discounted rate with a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass. View this video on YouTube:
Video “Hutovo Blato Blue Pass” tells a story about the Nature Park Hutovo Blato swamp which attractions you can visit at discounted rate with a new cross-border tourism product – the Blue Pass. View this video on YouTube:
The “Explore Cross-border Aquatic Biodiversity – EXChAngE” project is implemented in the period of 27 months, 14th August 2020 – 14th November 2022, by the international consortium composed of five partners: (1) The University of Dubrovnik, the Institute for Marine and Coastal Research (Croatia) as the lead partner, (2) Tourism Organization Kotor (Montenegro), (3) The Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Montenegro (Montenegro), (4) Tourism Organization of Herzegovina-Neretva County (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and (5) Nature Park “Hutovo Blato” (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The project’s main objective is to strengthen and diversify the tourism offer through exploring cross-border aquatic biodiversity and to enable better management and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage.
The project is supported within the Interreg IPA Cross–border Cooperation Programme Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro 2014 – 2020 and uses ERDF and IPA II funds of the European Union. The total project budget is 1,7 M EUR with EU co-financing of 1,4 M EUR. The project duration is from 15th August 2020 to 14th November 2022.
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Project partners also made an overview of achievements of project indicators and agreed on the final project press conference, planned for mid-November in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
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At the opening of the fair, the welcome words were delivered by: Mostar Fair Director Ms Dalfina Bošnjak, Mayor of Mostar Mario Kordicć, Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH Fadil Novalić, Zoran Tegeltija, Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers. Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, and Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, who declared the fair open. Partner country of the 23rd International Economy Fair in Mostar is the Republic of Hungary.
Project partners
Project partners
EXChAngE project is implemented by five project partners: The University of Dubrovnik – Institute for Marine and Coastal Research (lead partner), Tourist Organisation of Kotor, University of Montenegro – Institute of Marine Biology, Tourist Board of Herzegovina – Neretva Canton, and Public Company Hutovo Blato Nature Park, Čapljina. Representatives of all partners are present at the exhibition area of the project.
The main goal of the EXChAngE project is to strengthen and diversify the tourist offer through exploring of the cross-border aquatic biodiversity and to enable better management and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage.
Blue Pass
On the new cross-border tourist product – The Blue Pass, Dr Aleksandar Joksimović, director of the Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Montenegro, said: “It is much more than discount voucher for four thematic routes in three neighbouring countries. It promotes cross-border mobility of tourists end exploring cross-border nature and cultural diversity. Each tourist with the Blue Pass ticket will become a member of growing community for supporting sustainable use of the cross-border aquatic biodiversity”.
Bue Pass – EXChAngE
On the exhibition boot of the project new mobile application for Android and iOS platforms – EXChAngE Blue Pass e-guide was launched. With this guide users are discovering a part of the cross-border area Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro.
On this e-guide, Mr. Jovan Ristić, director of the Tourist Organization of Kotor, said: “It enables exploring cultural and natural heritage of the region, in particular cross-border aquatic biodiversity. For easy reading and navigation through the content, the guide is structured in sections – each dedicated to one thematic route: Dubrovnik and Aquarium (Croatia), Kotor and Aquarium Boka (Montenegro), Mostar Aqua Path, and Nature Park Hutovo Blato Aqua Path (Bosnia and Herzegovina).”
Each section of the EXChAngE Blue Pass e-guide has four chapters, presenting natural heritage, cultural heritage, one thematic route and transportation to the site. Chapters are structured into thematic topics, keeping as similar as possible outline across the guide.
Implementation period and funding
The implementation period of the project is 15.08.2020 – 14.08.2022, and the total value of the project is 1,686,047.15 euros, of which 1,433,140.05 euros is co-financing of the European Union. The project is implemented through the programme Interreg IPA CBC Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro 2014-2020, co-financed by ERDF and IPA II funds of the European Union.
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