Arctic Europe Tourism Cluster

ongoing

The overall objective of the project is to renew arctic tourism in the region to better meet future expectations and become more resilient and sustainable. This will benefit the tourism industry, local societies and visitors in the Arctic part of Europe. The project aims to strengthen the role of arctic culture in tourism and develop year-round business, strengthen all aspects of sustainability, and bring new digital knowledge and innovations to the use of tourism companies. This will add value to the tourism offering, attract new customers, widen the local value chain, ensure sustainable management of local nature, build more attractive livelihoods and bring more income and jobs to the local economies. The project work will be structured in three work packages around the topics that most urgently need development and renewal in Arctic tourism: 1. Arctic culture and year-round development, 2. Arctic sustainability and 3. Arctic digital innovation. On all these topics the project will find relevant expertise and tools, connect the right actors, facilitate development work, test and provide test arenas for new solutions and build a ground for tighter future cross-border co-operation. The project is needed to take a strong grip of the development topics and make it available for future-driven tourism actors across the borders in Arctic Europe. In addition to a strong company involvement the project will actively cooperate with other projects, educational institutions, tourism and cultural organizations and other relevant public and private partners to reach the best possible results. The project aims to transform the tourism cooperation in Arctic Europe to an Arctic Europe Tourism Cluster (AETC) and improve its receiving capacity. The cross-border Arctic tourism cluster is an important entry point that has begun to take shape through previous cooperation. After the project, the cluster will mature, expand, and strengthen, continuing to develop the region's potentials and act as engines for the transition. AETC will enable tourism companies to be more innovative, problem-solving, and strategic compared to what they could achieve on their own. In addition, the project will give long-term benefits to the local arctic societies and culture to expand and live in a more sustainable way with the help of tourism. The actors in the cluster (regional tourism companies, destination management organizations, regional tourism organizations, joint international partners, transport companies, tourism promoters, academia, and civil society) will continue to build smart and trust-based networks to create new business opportunities, jobs, and companies, and solve industrial and societal challenges. The Exit Strategy includes written agreements and regular meetings between the three partners to continue the cooperation and facilitate the strengthened and matured Arctic Cluster. AETC project includes sustainable activities designed to live and be developed by all actors long after project ending, such as Care for the Arctic code of conduct, measuring satisfaction about tourism, digital arctic tourism community platform, and yearly Arctic summit with shared responsibility between partners with rotation of ownership and management.

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