Scientific Tourism

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This project focuses on creating a new form of tourism called scientific tourism (SCITOUR). The project will develop the SCITOUR concept, guidelines, model products and a SCITOUR  brand, as well as digital infrastructure for marketing, information distribution and network communication.  The Arctic is increasingly becoming a popular tourist destination. The trend is towards more free independent travellers (FIT) and cruise tourists, who find their way to even the most remote places. The FIT trend is supported by different sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb, making it possible for ordinary people to sell accommodation services and now also tourism experiences. This trend, and emerging digital solutions for tourism experiences, opens up new possibilities for developing tourism services in even the most remote parts of the NPA programme region. The sharing economy platforms provide a great opportunity for people in remote areas to diversify their economic income. The SCITOUR project intends to exploit these new opportunities and help small tourism companies in remote locations to create new products and to market themselves in a new and productive way.  The SCITOUR project's main idea is to create a new niche of tourism that has a strong appeal to tourists who are curious and want to combine exceptional experiences and, importantly, learning about what they see during their trip. The initial goal is to create a new scientific tourism brand that has a transnational and universal appeal, that also answers the challenges of the current post-truth phenomena, where scientific facts are questioned. The project will be conducted and lead by professionals in tourism and science communication, in cooperation with the tourism and business field. The main focus of this development project is on existing micro-companies and SMEs, but the work will be oriented towards supporting startups in the future.

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