Work will begin immediately and continue until March 31, 2021.
The project owners are the Finnish Lapland Tourist Board, the Swedish Lapland Visitors Board and the Northern Norway Tourist Board with 125 participating companies, an increase of around thirty companies compared to the previous project phase.
The first phase of the project, which ran from 2015-18, created groundbreaking cross-border collaborations between tourism companies, destinations and travel retailers, attracting over 30,000 new travelers to the region.
Thanks to a successful collaboration, Visit Arctic Europe was awarded the "Arctic Award" in the "Overcoming Critical Mass" category last November, established by Arctic Cooperation, which is a collaboration between four EU programs.
– From the Interreg Nord program side, we are very proud to be able to provide funding for Visit Arctic Europe, which in my opinion is a unique cross-border cooperation project. The continued collaboration between the countries will lead to the Visit Arctic Europe area becoming a competitive, sustainable visitor destination all year round.
The main aim of the second phase of Visit Arctic Europe is to continue the cross-border work to develop Finnish Lapland, Swedish Lapland and Northern Norway as a year-round, sustainable and high-quality travel destination. The effects and results of the good work done in the first phase of the project will be evaluated and refined. The focus will be on marketing, accessibility and skills development. For example, efforts will be made to develop more international flight connections to the area and work to acquire expanded and comprehensive digital skills among participating companies.
– We would like to extend a big thank you to the funders and partners who make it possible to take our joint work to the next level, Rauno Posio, Program Director for Visit Arctic Europe.
The main objective of the project is to contribute to increased profitability for the tourism industry and thereby create new opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in Arctic Europe. In the continuation phase, the aim is to increase guest nights by 10% from selected market areas and seasons, with the aim of creating year-round operations for the regions participating in the project.
– We are incredibly happy that we can continue the fruitful cross-border work together with our partners in Northern Finland and Northern Norway where we have the opportunity to develop together, says Petronella Modin, Acting CEO of the Swedish Lapland Visitors Board.
The destinations in Visit Arctic Europe consist of Finnish Lapland, Norrbotten's 14 municipalities as well as Skellefteå and Sorsele in Västerbotten and the three northernmost counties in Norway – Nordmark, Troms and Finnmark.
