Background

The game was organised in partnership with Zarasai District Municipality (Lithuania) and Kraslava City Municipality (Latvia) as part of a cross-border cooperation programme ‘New Quality Image and Infrastructure Development in Remote Border Towns’. Both border towns - Zarasai in Lithuania and Kraslava in Latvia - experience periphery complex and lack of self-confidence as remote border towns, with comparably slow development and economy growth. Both towns' representatives agreed that it has something to do with the IMAGE of the border towns in different stages of public administration.

Objectives

Representatives of Zarasai and Kraslava played and competed to come up with the best ideas for the city’s image strategy. It was the first time that the game involved four teams of students and representatives of the two municipalities (20 players in all) from two different cities referring to the similar profile and problems that Zarasai and Kraslava are facing at the moment.

Winning idea

Tourism business promotion
The winning team introduced a plan to attract young people to Zarasai and set up tourism businesses there. To achieve this, the team offered to provide these people with municipal housing for the next five years. The team persuaded the others that the plan would encourage young people to come and develop tourism in the area.

Winning ideas from the other teams

Lake film theatre
As the city of Zarasai is often associated with lakes and water in general, the idea was to create a lake film theatre where films would be projected on the Lake Zaraso.
 
Workshops programme
The Kraslava city team offered to develop a special workshops programme aimed at families and ageing people. The workshops would be held in Kraslava Castle and would include such crafts as pottery and weaving.
 
Rehabilitation centre
The second Kraslava city team came up with idea of developing a rehabilitation centre for those tired of working and living in a stressful environment. According to the team, since Kraslava district is remote and famous for its striking landscape, it would offer an ideal environment for rest, meditation and rehabilitation.