The innovation in technologies is one of the principal external forces that has a direct influence on the competitiveness of the meeting and the event industry. Therefore, implementation and adaptation of the new technological solutions in it has continuously followed the innovations in technological industry itself. However, the COVID-19 pandemic with the following lockdowns has pushed the industry to search for new technological alternatives to innovate their way out of the crisis in a very short time period. This was the first time when all the events from small family celebrations and weddings up to the international conferences and product launch events, have had to be cancelled or postponed or could have happened only to a very limited extent and under strict regulations excluding any larger gatherings of people. The event providers were forced to find new solutions to continue their business and not to hibernate with the minimum downtime allowance granted by the state to the employees. Technologies supporting various types of online events became the ultimate digital tool that helped event planners to execute projects from the beginning to the end after March 2020. The purpose of the research is to explore these changes in the usage of the technologies in meetings and events organized in Latvia caused by COVID-19. The quantitative analysis of the structural on-line survey data provides insights on what extent technology adoption in meetings and events businesses has been before and during COVID-19 and what are the future prospects supplemented by the in-depth interview data and qualitative analysis. Authors are investigating what is the amount of virtual and hybrid events organized in Latvia before and after COVID-19, what platforms the organizers used for their virtual events, what is the level of satisfaction and what kind of challenges the event organizers faced in the process of adoption of new technologies. The results of this research not only state the current position within the framework of the industry, but also enriches discussion about the adoption of new technologies to innovate the way out of the crisis and could help in some degree to strengthen the productivity growth in a long term perspective.

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INTRODUCTION Destination is used as a synonym for attraction; destination can also be defined as a specific brand or product, or a product package or selection of products and services compiled according to climate, infrastructure, natural and cultural features. Destination is defined as a place where tourists can rest, walk, spend their time in nature, see historical monuments, attend festivals, events, taste local cuisine and be part of unique events. Combining the last approach with traditional geographic or administrative aspects, we may define a destination as an administrative or geographically defined area where tourists can rest, walk, spend their time in nature, see historical monuments, attend festivals, events, taste local cuisine and be part of unique events. With a new trend of local travel, the promotion of regions that were not among top visited destinations becomes essential in trying to attract local travellers in the short term. The objective of this study was to identify the effects of promotional and organisational factors on travellers’ intentions to visit two destinations in Lithuania and one in Latvia.   HYPOTHESES Key hypothesis of this study – can sustainable cross region or cross border cooperation initiate higher tourist interest in formerly less visited destinations and what steps do we need to take to create valuable proposals.   METHODS AND MATERIALS Analysis of scientific literature and secondary data, descriptive statistical analysis.Destination management has historically placed emphasis on the management of demand and supply, visitor experience and maintenance of competitive advantage. This has been enhanced through the application of modern marketing techniques (Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019; Gretzel & Scarpino-Johns, 2018; Kabadayi, Ali, Choi, Joosten, & Lu, 2019; Polese, Botti, Grimaldi, Monda, & Vesci, 2018). Our study shows that many destinations lack a clearly stated value separately, as they are mostly too small to attract the attention of experienced travellers.   RESULTS We have collected all the possible sights, historical background and created 20 different routes that combine the object of project stakeholders – Siauliai, Joniskis and Jelgava districts, bearing in mind that enhancing greater cooperation might help to create better stories, use a historical element, and attract the attention of experienced travellers. We clarified that DMO’s are still heavily focused on the classical promotion of their attractions. This is why this first stage of research implemented a new methodology based on which regional DMO’s can create cooperation and develop easy-to-use products. The authors put a content orientated approach and not infrastructure created experience at the forefront. Justifying our hypothesis, we found that any less visited destination can acquire additional interest by combining objects from more than one district or well-known country.But the most important question that we were solving is how to satisfy all the stake holders and not to benefit one partner.We have tested our offered model by creating an actual product. CONCLUSIONS Destination resilience is becoming an important area of research, with DMO’s becoming the key players in the development of more adaptive strategies, managing the risks, and furthermore, attracting visitors to most of the local objects. DMO’s lack appropriate models that can help them to market their destination more. A ready-to-use and tested model can become a good example for any DMO that is eager to attract more visitors by creating products that reflect a modern traveller’s needs.