Press Statement of the Ružomberok Information Centre: Results of the Therapy by the Nature of Ružomberok

(27. 1. 2022 Ružomberok) At the end of September of last year, the Ružomberok Information Centre in cooperation with the town of Ružomberok started campaign “Nature as Therapy”, with the main objective to inform and motivate the local inhabitants and tourists in the town to take advantage of what the nature in this area has to offer to support one’s health. The second, no less important objective, was to discover little-known locations in the Ružomberok district and to protect the nature in these locations.

”In the fifteen articles which were published in regular intervals at the website of the town of Ružomberok, we visited the towns of Liptovské Sliače, Komjatná, Martinček, Ludrová, Liptovské Revúce, Valaská Dubová, Liptovská Štiavnica, Likavka and Lisková. From Ružomberok, we took a walk to the surroundings of districts Vlkolínec, Hrboltová, Biely Potok and Černová. We visited a few locations twice, as there is still more to be shown,“ says Ján Benčík from the Ružomberok Information Centre.

Collecting of rose hips, hawthorn, sloes, or drinking of mineral water, are some of the ways of supporting our health. Just a walk in nature and some fresh air bring benefits for the physical, but also the emotional health of every person. “In our first articles, we tried to choose locations with herbs and plants we can use in the autumn season. Later on, there were no more things to forage in the surroundings, so we tried to motivate people to be physically active in nature, in locations with pretty scenery or views,” specifies Milan Kolčák, the head of the Ružomberok Information Centre. “Every week, we thought about which location we should present to the potential visitors, to make the most of the trip. The published articles are still available at the website of the town intended for visitors, https://visit.ruzomberok.sk, where they will stay permanently. We plan to have them translated into English, to make them available to the visitors of Ružomberok as well. Some of the articles are partially no longer current, as the nature looks different in winter and the herbs or plants are no longer available for foraging. However, as inspiration for a lovely hike, the articles will be helpful to the local inhabitants or the visitors all year round,” adds Kolčák.

“A lot of people asked whether they could join us in writing the articles, they wanted to know what other places we are going to visit, or they just wanted to tell us that they had visited the locations. That made us very happy, especially for people who do not usually spend time in nature. We put a few lines into each article which should motivate the readers to protect the environment, as our information centre is a part of the Association of the Slovakia Information Centres, which is the head of campaign “Discover Sustainable Slovakia,” add Kolčák and Benčík.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the interest of media in the campaign and the articles. We talked to them on nationwide portals, such as Pravda, the public administration portal, but also in local media,” says Gabriela Demčáková, the head of the department of regional politics of the town of Ružomberok. “I am also pleased that the restrictions during the final part of last year did not have any impact on regular publishing of the articles, in which I learned about places I did not even know of myself,” adds Demčáková.

Among the local media which supported the campaign, we can mention Local Television of Ružomberok, which recorded a lovely segment on the preparation of the articles for the campaign. Biweekly newspaper “Ružomberský Hlas” (Voice of Ružomberok) published several articles for their readers in the printed newspaper form, and portal zijemvrk.sk also regularly published articles from the campaign, which brought them many readers.

“The series of articles Nature as Therapy is truly a refreshing addition to the wide selection of tourism and hiking culture in Ružomberok and the surrounding landscape. The public, whether the local inhabitants or the visitors to the town, can use the detailed but clear, in layman’ s terms written articles to get to know different nooks and crannies of the town’s surroundings, which they might not have heard about or seen at all. This brave activity of the Ružomberok Information Centre surely bears its fruit, and the authors of the idea should be praised for such deed, because they give a lot of their time, energy and skills beyond their duties to a good cause,” says the chief editor of “Ružomberský Hlas”, Mgr. Michal Domenik.

“The series of articles Nature as Therapy is a perfect example of what the work of an Information Centre should look like in current times. Thanks to the article series from the Ružomberok Information Centre, we were able to make our readers more familiar with more and less well-known locations in our region. The popularity of the articles and the feedback from our readers proved that this is the type of content they are looking for. A great bonus is that this series also motivated people to spend time in nature and to explore the surroundings of our town. On behalf of our readers, we are already looking forward to the continuation,” commented on the campaign Ľubo Sulko and Jana Streitová, editors from zijemvrk.sk.

In the end, we have good news for the readers who have been looking forward to new articles coming out every Thursday. The authors have promised to partially continue with the campaign this year as well. “As soon as the winter is over and the spring comes, we plan to start working on new articles, which will be published based on what we are able to create alongside our duties, but we promise it should be at least twelve articles, on average one per month,” conclude the authors of the articles, Kolčák and Benčík.