Andris KLEPERS arrived at Veszprém on behalf of the Vidzemes Augstskola University of Applied Sciences, which is situated in the northern part of Latvia.
Vidzeme University offers 2 kind of Bachelor Program in connection with tourism: Tourist Guide and Tourism Organization & Management; and also offers for tourism students a Master Program on Strategic Tourism Management.
Andris is the Director of the Bachelor Tourist Guide Program. His main research fields are tourism marketing, destination management and tourism spatial structures. He held a very useful and interesting lecture on tourism policy and planning. He spoke about the administrative reform in Latvia, the challenges for tourism planning, the cluster processes, cognitive mapping, and different visions for the future.
Andris has a long relationship with Hungary. He was a tour guide when he started his career. As Hungary is one of the most popular middle European destinations among Latvian people he had been here more than 20 times as a tour guide.
When I asked his opinion about our international week, he seemed very pleased. He considered internationalization a very important business and emphasised that this week was a great opportunity for students and for lecturers as well to taste how the world goes on in international ways. He mentioned that this conference could be the first step of a bilateral agreement between the Vidzemes Augstskola University of Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Pannonia.