Youth Parliament Raising awareness of Youth about Sava River
The international Day of the Sava River (1st of June) is celebrated with the organization of the Parliament of the Young Sava River Basin every year.
This year the 7th meeting of the Youth Parliament of the Sava River Basin was held on the 1st and 2nd of June 2018 in Bohinj (Slovenia) when 60 pupils and professors from 8 secondary schools from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered. Schools which had been selected on the basis of applications received for the projects with the main topic “Sustainable Tourism – Opportunity for the Development of the Sava River Basin” are: Secondary School for Catering and Tourism in Ljubljana, Biotechnical Education Center Ljubljana – Food Technology School from Slovenia, School of Economics, Trade and Hospitality, Samobor and Administrative School, Zagreb from Croatia, Secondary School Ivan Goran Kovačić, Kiseljak and Secondary Technical and Technical School, Gradiška from Bosnia and Herzegovina and High school Partijarh Pavle, Belgrade and Palanač High school from Serbia.
The basic aim of this year’s Parliament was that young people get the knowledge on the exceptional tourist potentials of the Sava River Basin. Tourism is one of the fastest growing branches of the economy, which has great potential for job creation. On the parliament the young people discussed on the possibilities of developing tourism in their local areas in connection with the development of sustainable tourism at the level of the Sava River Basin.
The main messages adopted at the plenary session, were related to the sustainable development of tourism, which should be connected with the protection of water resources and the environment, namely:
- It is necessary to connect tourism with local identity, such as natural and cultural heritage, gastronomy, architecture …. The basic message could be summarized in “If you have already been here, then you should get to know about the local environment!”
- Let Nature dictates tourism products related to various sports activities, entertainment, and cuisine, and not vice versa!
- Better quality tourist offer depends on the properly targeted information and education at all levels!
In order to achieve this, the young people participating in this year’s Parliament proposed that the Sava River Day would be extended to the Sava River Festival. Since they were aware that much more effort has to be invested in such an organization than before, they called on institutions at local, national and international levels to support the proposal and cooperate with them in such activities.
The participants also elected the presidency of the Youth Parliament. The list of members is available at web site of Youth Parliament.
The organizer of the Youth Parliament was the Sava Commission, an international organization that coordinates the activities of all the countries from the Sava River Basin related to the preservation and development of the Sava River Basin. The sponsors of this year parliament are UNDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Coca-Cola HBC Adria.
This year’s Youth Parliament’s Program is available here.
The presentations from the are available below:
SI: Secondary School for Catering and Tourism (Ljubljana)
SI: Biotechnical Education Center Ljubljana – Food Technology School (Ljubljana)
HR: School of Economics, Trade and Hospitality (Samobor)
HR: Administrative School (Zagreb)
BA: Secondary School Ivan Goran Kovačić (Kiseljak)
BA: Secondary Technical and Technical School (Gradiška)
RS:High school Partijarh Pavle (Belgrade)
