The shared initiative of the Uckemark District authorities and the municipality of Szczecin aims to drive local tourism exchange and promote local cross-border business cooperation.

 

Both vehicles carry large format advertisements of Uckermark and Szczecin. The district uses a big logo and names of leading local firms, such as the Oder Center shopping mall in Schwedt, NaturTherme Aqua Park in Therme, Dominican Monastery in Prenzlau and the regional Qregio retail chain. The municipality has decided to use marine motifs: big sailing ships with the Wały Chrobrego embankment in the background and the new philharmonic hall building. Szczecin municipality representatives hope that the campaign will encourage Uckermark residents to do more than just pop into a few shopping centres and service stations over the border in West Pomerania and that they will actually start getting a full advantage of Szczecin’s cultural and recreational offering.

 

“We’re promoting our swimming pools and summer cabins in the hope that we will attract more visitors from Poland. Today we have about 250 000 visitors, 60 percent of whom are Berliners and people from Brandenburg”, says Ernst Volhardt, Chairman of NaturThermeTemplin GmbH.

 

Silvio Moritz, Chairman of Investor Center Uckermark expects the Szczecin brand-building campaigns on public transport will facilitate growth in regional trade.

 

“There are lots of companies in our region whose owners are in their 60s or 70s and looking for business successors to run their firms. This could be an opportunity for businesspeople from Szczecin to buy businesses here as a way of entering the German market” says ICU chairman and adds that a big Polish investor is already interested in moving its business to the region.

 

The biggest towns of Uckermark District with a population of 125,000 are Schwedt, Prenzlau and Angermunde; the biggest enterprises are the oil refinery in Schwedt (1200 employees) and a nearby industrial park with firms employing a total of about 600 people. Uckermark also has paper mills, food producers, an automotive manufacturer and a solar panel manufacturing plant. The unemployment rate in the region is 13 percent.

 

mab