Project No.:C034
PROJECT GOALS:
The off-season period; fall, winter and spring in the northern Baltic Sea Region is dark and cold, and often without snow because of proximity to and humidity from the sea. This causes challenges for tourism and the problem is especially profound in rural and coastal areas in the northern Baltic Sea Region. The modern travellers are called nature explorers, natural wonder hunters, nature tribe tourists. They are looking to avoid crowds by travelling off season. They expect customized experiences, efficient service, they value nature and are willing to extend their stay. The project responds to this need, and supports the ability to respond to the Baltic Sea Region’s common need to prolong the tourism season by developing a transnational northern Baltic archipelago concept for nature-based tourism. We create a fall-winter-spring package consisting of three product experience packages under the concept Light in the Dark for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Destination Management Organisations in tourism to attract travellers during off season. Transnational collaboration between universities, SMEs and Business Support Organizations promotes coherent and synergistic implementation of the solution and add value by connecting all relevant stakeholders and businesses from different countries. The concept helps tourism sector to better respond to and adapt their businesses to off seasons, building resilience among businesses operating in the archipelago and coastal areas.
TARGET GROUPS:
- Business support organisation
- Local public authority
- Regional public authority
- Small and medium enterprise
PROJECT PARTNERS:
- Lead project partner: Novia University of Applied Sciences
- Project partners involved:
- Kurzemes planning region
- Åland University of Applied Sciences
- Cursor Oy, Kotka-Hamina Regional Development Company
- Klaipeda University
- Neringa Municipality Administration
- Visit Aland
- Visit Stockholm/Stockholm Archipelago
- Hiiumaa Development Center
- Estonian University of Life Sciences
- Estonian Rural Tourism NGO (acronym: ERTO)
- Nida Culture and Tourism Information Centre “Agila”
PROJECT FINANCING
- The total budget for the project is € 2,723,189.70 EUR (including funding of the European Regional Development Fund 2,178,551.76 EUR)
- KPR total budget is 213,500.00 EUR, (including funding of the European Regional Development Fund 170,800.00EUR
ACTIVITIES INCLUDED IN THE PROJECT:
- Work Package 1: Preparing solutions
- Visitor analysis – with focus on the nature tribe visitor group
- SME challenge inventory
- Transnational co-development of three Light in the Dark experiences (product packages) with SMEs
- Co-creation of marketing material and concept for Light in the Dark experiences with
- Work Package 2: Piloting and evaluating solutions
- Planning pilots (for product and marketing material)
- Piloting Light in the Dark experiences in SMEs
- Piloting the marketing materials in the DMOs
- Evaluation and improvements, finalising the Light in the Dark experiences
- Evaluating and finalising marketing material
- Work Package 3: Transferring solutions
- Anchoring the experiences to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the northern BSR
- Dissemination of experiences and marketing material in the concept to DMOs and BSOs in North BSR
- Interregional communication and transfer to stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region
- Continuation of the project solutions and future directions
PROJECT MANAGER:
Anna Elizabete Upsava
+371 26369876
anna.upsava@kurzemesregions.lv
