Baltic Experts Will Discuss How to Sell Old Bunkers as Airbnb
Conference will teach how to turn Soviet-era military sites into tourist magnets. Karosta has been doing this for years without any conferences.
The Baltic states are organizing a conference on military heritage tourism, because apparently someone had a brilliant idea — why not use old bunkers and war sites to attract tourists? In Liepāja we've been doing this with Karosta for years, but now the others want to learn the recipe too.
Conference organizers promise "responsible interpretation of Soviet-era heritage," which, translated from bureaucrat-speak, means — how to talk about communism so that nobody gets offended and everyone pays for tickets. Riga, of course, is already preparing a presentation about how their Occupation Museum is the best, but we in Liepāja simply take tourists around Karosta and show them real prison cells.
"We're learning from Liepāja's experience," admits a conference participant from Estonia. "They have an authentic Soviet prison there where you can even spend the night. We can only offer museums with exhibits behind glass." Meanwhile, Jūrmala plans to showcase Soviet sanatorium cultural heritage, which sounds like a very expensive way of saying "old buildings where party bosses used to vacation."
The best part will be the excursion to "Valgums World" — the former closed government residence. There you'll be able to see how the Soviet elite lived while ordinary people stood in line for bananas. But don't worry, now it's all "cultural heritage" and costs only 15 euros per ticket.
⚠️ Satirical article. Facts are preserved, but the presentation is humorous. For accurate information, please refer to the original source.