The Building Tourism projects is now entering its final phase with the production of a project catalogue of future initiatives that will revive the tourism industry in Northern German, Zealand and Skåne. These will be presented at a conference in Copenhagen on the 29th of August.
Picture:www.norden.org
The Building Tourism project has now been underway for well over a year, and has reached some astonishing conclusions. An examination of the tourism structures within the region, experience products and growth performances has for example shown that the STRING region is an awakening growth destination where stakeholders show a strong belief in increase tourism potential, increased tourism turnover and tourist arrivals. A statistical analysis also shows that the region is a very sizeable tourism industry that is growing – but fails to attract interregional tourism.
On the 29th of August, the Building Tourism project will present a report showing how regional actors can work together to increase internal and external tourism in the region, along with a project catalogue of relevant initiatives to achieve this. Overall, the tourism strategy is to ensure, that the Fehmarnbelt Region will be prepared to act proactively in relation to the intensified international competition for tourists. This will primarily be achieved by strengthening the tourism industry throughout the region via knowledge sharing, dialogue and cooperation leading up to and after the opening of the fixed link in 2021.
One of the main issues stressed in the report is the need to view tourism as a strategic asset for growth and development. In other words, tourism creates more than hotel nights and turnover within the core of the tourism industry. It creates jobs, international awareness, networks and a basis for strategic infrastructure such as airports, arenas and congress centers. The important point is that tourism is to be understood as a value chain product linking numerous business sectors together in order to deliver a comprehensive tourism product to the consumer. Tourism is the only completely destination bound industry, since it can’t be outsourced or moved elsewhere. It’s also an industry returning VAT and other taxes directly to the tourism destination.
The ambition
The tourism report and strategy is based on an ambition with a purpose to inspire collaboration across the region in order to achieve great results:
We aim to create a series of new and attractive tourism products and brands based upon the improved accessibility created by the establishment of the fixed link. We do this in order to increase regional turnover and job creation, while at the same time encouraging the sustainable development in the tourism business as an important part of the overall brand of the Fehmarn Corridor.
The tourism strategy shall also result in increased regional integration, job creation, development of new tourism products and innovative coupling of existing ones.
An important part of the report is the presentation of project ideas developed through various workshops hosted by the project participants, where key representatives from the tourism industry participated. These projects will highlight the prioritized initiatives in each project partner, and will stimulate interregional tourism or expand the market place for international tourism.
The project, which is financed by Femern A/S, The City of Copenhagen, Hamburg and STRING, will now be presented at a conference in Copenhagen on August the 29th 2013, at the newly opened tourist attraction ‘Den Blå Planet’. The conference will offer an insight into ideas for action and growth-creating projects and their suggested implementation.
For more information, or to sign up to the conference, please contact Rebecca Rosenquist, STRING, at aarr@regionsjaelland.dk.