The main objective of the project was to strengthen the tourism sector in the Baltic Sea Region by improving the quality of tourist information and visitor centres. The development of common quality guidelines was seen as crucial in this respect. In addition, the project aimed at establishing a marketing network with the Baltic Welcome/Visitor centres as distribution channels for promotion of regional material and products. The project also had the intention to create a basis for further investments by development of tourism and spatial plans, and to increase the local competence of tourism actors. Furthermore, creation of a virtual welcome centre was one of the main project targets.The problems of the tourism sector in the Baltic Sea Region are a high competition within the sector, competence disparities between tourism actors of different regions and countries as well as different service quality levels. In addition the local information provided does not fully meet the tourists' demand, as they look upon the Baltic Sea Region as one destination.Partners from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia have been cooperating since January 2002 in this Interreg IIIB project with the main objective to develop a service quality guideline for tourist information and visitor centres in the Baltic Sea Region, which shall be used for self-controlling in order to improve the service quality and establish multifunctional visitor centres as important tourism assets to serve customers and market tourism destinations.The project Baltic Welcome Centre is based on the need to create a holistic tourism information supply, involving different destinations and sectors at regional and international level. The main objective was to strengthen the tourism sector in the Baltic Sea Region and the image of tourism destinations by an increasing quality of visitor centres and its service supply. A common vision for the future visitor centre, meeting the demand of modern tourists and inhabitants, has been developed as a tool for guaranteeing a high service quality and successful marketing. This would help to overcome the disparities and increase the competence of local tourist guides, as training and transfer of know-how has been carried out in the project too.Furthermore integrating the relevant sectors in the planning process creates co-operation between different sectors in spatial and tourism planning. All partners have undertaken plannings by investigating in concrete feasibility studies, business plannings, location & architectural plans, city and spatial plans in order to create a base for establishing modern tourist information and visitor centres and link it to the city’s and region’s attractions and tourism zones. As a following step investments could be realised in the course of the project, improving the tourism infrastructure and especially the facilities of visitor centres to adapt the offers to customer’s needs.Marketing strategies and promotion activities have been important issues of know-how-exchange and implementation, while a special focus was given to Online Marketing, booking systems and new IT solutions. The result is the improvement of online marketing strategies, the establishment of virtual visitor centres and the international connection of these sites at a common interface platform on Internet. Achievements: A common vision for tourism information and future visitor centres was agreed on. The vision includes common quality standards for tourist information in the Baltic Sea Region. The standards were the main outcome of the project and will contribute to a better quality performance of tourist information offices and visitor centres. A common handbook including guidelines on the standards and examples of best practices of visitor centres and tourism attractions was published. Through training and transfer of know-how among the project partnership the competence on tourist information was improved among the partnership. Feasibility studies, detailed spatial plans for specific sites and development of technical concepts promoted the reconstruction of welcome centre buildings and enhanced the probability for further investments in tourism infrastructure. As a result of the project, the partners´ institutions increased their knowledge and open-mindedness towards city and regional planning issues and the necessity to combine tourism with spatial planning. New IT-solutions were developed by the project including the common BWC portal – a virtual visitor centre that provides access to detailed tourist information produced and updated by the partner organisations.