Isolated island or meeting point?

People often think about Gotland as an isolated island. They look at the sea as a broad border of water. And somehow they want it to be like that. They want to keep their inner pictures of Gotland as an remote place filled with nostalgic dreams. A place for escape, freedom and peace.

But Gotland has always been a place for meetings as well. People from the countries around the Baltic Sea have met on Gotland and exchanged goods and ideas. Today we have visitors from all over the world like USA, Japan or Zambia. I see the surrounding water as a contact area.

Every place need exchange of ideas with people outside the local groups in order to get energy and knowledge for development. I believe Gotland has a much better position than small municipalities in the swedish inner mainland. Our geographical location makes it easy for others to see us. Every year we welcome a lot of tourists, students, artists, moviemakers, politicians, journalists etc which gives us a lot of creative input. I really like that.

Can we do more to use Gotland as a meeting point? Yes we can! I think we should have much more exchange with the countries around the Baltic Sea. They are like our sisters and brothers. We share so much in history. I dream of the day when we have ferries and planes going from Gotland to all these countries.