Baltic Sea Region Identity?
Is there such a thing? The search for one identity for Baltic Sea region countries has been going on for years. There are few things in common other than goodwill and an eagerness to cooperate. But as a result there are many EU funded projects covering natural values, education, tourism, innovation etc.
Yesterday a workshop titled Tourism in Baltic Sea Region Strategy was held as a part of the Baltic Nature Tourism Conference. During the workshop once again there was an attempt to find commonalities for the Baltic Sea Region and even discussions of how to make a brand out of this cooperation.
Attempts to find common things proved to be rather difficult. Even the Baltic Sea hardly can act as a common thing because there are attempts to keep Norway and Iceland within the group. Herrings and amber seemed to come out on top, though it is rather difficult to imagine building a good tourism brand based on the first of those!
The idea is that one united brand could help to attract global tourism to the whole region. However currently it’s not the case. For instance, Japanese or Australians would consider the Nordic Countries, Baltic States, or Germany as separate sells entities.
Therefore in the brainstorming session the good suggestion came to concentrate first on tourism within the region and get to know each other better. That would help also to improve infrastructure and maybe within time also a common identity will appear naturally.
For more of this discussion, look here: www.bsr-identity.net
Baltic Tourism Marketing Services 
Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids.
I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.”
She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!