Would you like to learn how local beer or farm products are made? Or get to know how industrialization has been evolving in certain regions in the Arctic? Do you think YOUR company could perhaps provide an opportunity to learn more? Industrial tourism can be defined as visits to sites which showcase a particular type of expertise from the past, present or future to the general public. It can be divided into three categories:
- Industrial heritage tourism
- Visits to companies which open their doors to visitors to highlight their production methods
- Scientific tourism
Pre-project ITinA targets to enhance a new brand – industrial tourism in the Arctic based on the rich heritage of the Arctic regions through building an international network, which can contribute to its development, new innovative tourism services focusing on small and medium enterprises. This requires understanding and international cooperation to profiling the new industrial tourism destinations. ITinA project intends to develop the industrial tourism conception in the Arctic and apply it's potential capacity. Core activities will strengthen and diversify the tourism image at the Arctic.
- Mapping the industrial environments of the region
- Benchmarking business companies
- Knowledge transfer between universities and companies
- Workshops
- Enhancing networking and product development of cross-sector entities
- Developing further action plan for Industrial Tourism development in the Kolarctic region
Innovation and experiences from participants facing similar challenges can be shared for the common benefit. The innovations can be communicated more effectively through a transnational Programme, where the SMEs link into expertise that is located in other countries, but with similar geographical challenges. This will add further value streams to SMEs and in that way assist their economic viability, especially greater effect in sparsely populated regions compared with more urbanized areas. The network selects industrial themes and objects to be developed that bring the regions identity, history and industry expertise to the area. Specific emphasis is given to support structures, associations and businesses in the fields of circular economy, responsible industry, cultural heritage and food industry. Developing the concept takes into account safety and sustainable development. Contact:
Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland email: eila.seppanen at lapinamk.fi
Northern Arctic Federal University, Russia email: a.chekalin at narfu.ru
Kazakov Consulting, Norway, email: kazakov at kazakov.no
Implementation time: Year 2021
The project is funded by the Kolarctic CBC, EU, Russia, Norway and Finland.
