Taking measures to slow down climate change is urgent. We need to find new sustainable solutions. We focus on balancing visitor flows by encouraging travel to Skåne during other parts of the year than the summer. As well as taking a geographical discovery trip. We are testing new solutions to create responsible hospitality in nature, and to reduce food waste and disposable packaging at Skåne's food events.
Imagine if tourism can contribute to change?
If there is a will and a little courage to do things differently.
By starting from nature we can create responsible hospitality.
During the autumn we launched Mission Footprints together with the County Administrative Board to design future sustainable nature experiences. The effort is part of our innovation work to create a sustainable destination. We want to investigate how and if we can create responsible hospitality in nature and create commitment to the role of tourism linked to sustainable societal development.
A cross-sectoral team of 10 participants investigated and tested new solutions on site in Söderåsen National Park for a week in October. The team was hand-picked based on a campaign on social media and attracted over 70 applicants. The results of the work will be presented in 2022 through a filming of the team's work.
Credibility is a guiding principle in our marketing. We achieve this by carefully selecting content creators who have a genuine commitment and who link to our main themes.
We cooperate with influencers and media with the right target group for us, rather than trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
The aim of this year's PR work was to create good conditions for more qualitative visits to Skåne, with more in-depth reports. From previously focusing on width, we have made a clear investment in gaining visibility in more niche magazines. We have also focused on finding new seasons and circulating visitors to places that are less frequently visited. The theme of press releases has been adapted to the season; for example, food and beverage inspiration for the harvest season was sent out in spring and autumn.
The work has been bearing fruit. Skåne has gained good visibility in niche media such as the travel magazine Reise & Preise and the food and beverage online magazine Kulinariker. Heavier dailies such as Südkurier, Die Welt, Börsen and Politiken have also published more in-depth reports.
Event organizers in Skåne agree that there are challenges in finding sustainable alternatives to disposable items and solutions for reducing food waste.
We started an innovation workshop within the framework of the Gastrolution of Skåne project.
Some of the solutions presented were a prototype of a rinsing station and instructions for its construction, an event planning tool including a flow chart for how glasses are used during a festival, and input to a business model based on leasing reusable glasses at events. We will continue to develop these in 2022.
Many international visitors who plan to travel to Skåne choose to book their trip through a tour operator. Tour operators are an important channel to show what we can offer these target groups.
Companies can hand over marketing and sales to someone else and focus on developing their product and business.
During the year Travel Trade work focused on influencing tour operators to offer trips at the periods and to the places where there is spare capacity. Focus has been on opportunities to travel by train and bus both to and within Skåne. By showing more activities we can influence the time people stay in one place.
To give entrepreneurs an increased chance to grow their business, we highlighted the chance to use local guides that Skåne offers. The goal is to reduce the threshold for sustainable travel, contribute to good cooperation, increase jobs and strengthen companies.
This year's largest and most successful paid media cooperation was together with Focus Online, Germany's largest online news magazine.
With an audience with a great interest in sustainable travel, the choice was to produce content in their travel section during low season, with themes such as hiking, cycling, cold baths and exploring lesser-known gems in Skåne. The articles gained good visibility on Focus' platform with almost 180,000 page views and a larger than average reading time. This indicates an interest but that arouses a desire to further explore Skåne.
An important point for the Focus team was to experience the Edible Country concept on Ven*. We have produced large photo shoots around all three Edible Country tables and experiences during the year.
International interest in food culture in Skåne is very large, according to several trend reports.
One step in increasing awareness in 2022 is photographing a traditional goose dinner in November.
The Edible Country campaign is ongoing for the third year in a row. The concept, created in cooperation with Visit Sweden, is based on bookable tables in selected places in nature.
Guests prepare their own food outdoors from local ingredients, partly collected in the nature close by. The same scheme has been available since 2021 for drinks where drinks are mixed according to recipes by local drink experts - The Drinkable Country.
Skåne has been involved from the start of The Edible Country in 2019. Each year we have added one new table. In 2021 the table was added in Ven, together with the two previous tables in Ormanäs and Vånga. This gives the concept a greater geographical spread. The tables are set in completely different environments to showcase Skåne's varied landscape with forests, sea, lakes and open fields. Guests get the opportunity to experience Skåne's variety of tastes and nature. All three tables offer personal guiding, which brings new learning and knowledge.
Sidan uppdaterad 03 jun 2022, kl 13:40