The cultural and natural values of the four regions involved in the Project High Quality Tourism 2 – Östergötland in Sweden, Cesis in Latvia, Suwalki in Poland and Mecklenburg Lake District in Germany - are of high quality. However, these regions are suffering from economical problems. They make every effort to get better known on the national and international tourism market. At the same time new trends and forms of tourism are developing. Decisions about suitable locations for sustainable tourism have to be made – being aware of the both, the chances and the risks of these new tourism facilities. It is an advantage to have additionally a “think tank” – the University of Hamburg, Department of Geography – as a further partner on board.The Objective of the project High Quality Tourism 2 was to strengthen the integrative role of spatial approach within a high quality, sustainable tourism development. The project aims at strengthening high quality tourism in the rural areas and in the cities and at the same time overall sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region. Concrete outcomes of the project were among other things regional, national and transnational Welcome Centre, thematic tourist routes, structures of direct marketing and new tourism products, supported by discussions about Unique Selling Propositions and Destination Branding. The Project has had a "bottom up” approach in order to stimulate local initiatives and to make the development more sustainable. Achievements: The project made use of an additional “think tank” – the University of Hamburg, Department of Geography – as a further partner on board. The research-input on profiling and destination branding as a framework for theme-oriented tourism helped the regions to find their own specific way of tourism development. The unique landscape formation and its Ice Age origin were picked as a central theme for development of new tourism facilities, thematic tourist routes in the project regions. A 666 km long biking path forms the Ice Age Route in Mecklenburg Lake District (www.eiszeitroute.com). In Östergötland the route consists of nine ice age objects with local walking trials (www.e.lst.se/istid/index_eng.html). In Cesis the Ice Age Route was prepared as a hiking trial. Furthermore the systems of protected areas in the partner countries were compared and in a “Convention of Mjölby” the role of large protected areas in regional development were agreed among the partners.As a pilot project a management plan for the Nature Park “Mecklenburgische Schweiz and Kummerower See” was prepared. A net of regional and transnational Welcome Centres as “entrance gates” was planned and existing ones were further developed in the project as well. For example in Mecklenburg Lake District an information-kiosk-system was developed and implemented. In Östergötland an existing tourist information point was strengthened among other things through a new IT based booking system. Östergötland showed as well how to offer and practice a successful training course for guides (dramatised guiding). Cesis Region learned from these Swedish experiences. In both regions 43 participants were qualified as tourism guides. Marketing concept and activities for a monastery museum and monastery areas in Östergötland is a further example of new tourism products based on cultural and natural heritage. In addition Green Markets have had a successful start in Mecklenburg Lake District as structures for direct marketing of regional products. A regional direct-marketing cooperative was founded for the continuing co-ordination of the Markets. The regional sign “naturally! Mecklenburg Lake District” was presented and is getting more and more popular in marketing of the regional products.