Work Package 4: Involving the Services Sector
The services sector delivers intangible goods such as services in the field of travel arrangements, accomodation, food, recreation and entertainment to local residents, day trip visitors, long-stay visitors and guided-tour visitors. This dynamic sector of the economy accounts for three-quarters of the EU's GDP (according to DG Trade of the European Commission) and is mainly made up of small and medium enterprises such as family businesses, smallholders, micro- or seasonal enterprises.
The economic behaviour of these businesses was slanted towards uncoordinated singular actions and individual steps. At the scale of the larger Rhine corridor there was hardly any cooperation between the different service providers, especially not on transnational level, athough it was likely to be an advantage to bundle experiences and competences in order to create new products or develop further sales channels.
Therefore, the activities within work package 4 "Involving the Services Sector" aimed at initiating transnational cooperation between small and medium enterprises in the tourism and services sector along the Rhine. In order to achieve this the project team organised business panel meetings and provided workshops on topics such as "transnational cooperation" and "service development". Furthermore, the marketing and communication tools developed in the other DEMARRAGE work packages were provided to the businesses to make use of them for joint promotion activities.
Some facts on Work Package 4:
- Work Package Leader: Euregio Rhein-Waal
- Working group "Business Panels and Sevice Development" started in Winter 2012
- As a result of the business panels 11 business concepts were developed. These give clear instructions how to implement a certain service or product. Three of these concepts have been implemented so far: the Rhine Cycle Summer, the Service Manual and bookable offers (see www.rhinecycleroute.eu