The ReTour project, which involves regions around the Baltic Sea, is a three-year collaboration aimed at developing new methods for regenerative tourism.
The project partners will explore, test, and share knowledge with the aim of developing a method for how places can create experiences that contribute to making a better place for both nature and people.
Danmark | Visit Lolland Falster
Lithania | Association Klaipėda Region
Poland | Pomorskie Tourist Board
Poland | Western Pomerania Tourism Organisation
Germany | Institut für Tourismus- und Bäderforschung in Northers Europe
Regenerative tourism goes a step further than sustainability, which hopes to preserve a place for future use. Instead, we want to not only minimize the negative effects of tourism but leverage the positive impacts in a way that actively seeks to restore and regenerate the environment, cultures and communities.
Regenerative tourism makes a place thrive which requires both a mindset change and a paradigm shift.
The project focuses on regenerative tourism experiences, which means creating experiences where tourism can contribute to a better place.
Visit Skåne will investigate the unique needs of certain places, develop and market new experiences both close to nature and within, for example, nature, gastronomy, and culture. This will be done in collaboration with various actors, such as municipalities, tourism businesses, and civil society. Discoveries and key findings are shared between partners in ReTour to shape the development of tourism offerings that contribute to creating concrete value for various tourism actors, communities, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The exact offerings are determined by the different conditions of each place.
The project's activities are divided into four different work packages. The first work package includes joint study trips to explore good practices, collaboration with stakeholders, and development of methods for regenerative tourism.
In the second work package, we will test and explore various tourism offerings where we identify opportunities and limitations. All partners test in their places based on their unique conditions so that we can develop the method together.
The third work package involves developing guiding principles for how to position a regenerative tourist destination in the southern Baltic Sea area, supported by PR activities and press trips.
The fourth work package is about anchoring and disseminating the new methods. A guide, a toolbox, and a joint action plan for positioning will be developed.
In all work packages of the project, we have a development perspective and an exploratory approach.
Regenerative tourism requires consideration of several aspects of sustainability. By identifying what a place needs, experiences can be developed that acknowledge important key challenges such as how environmental protection, cultural preservation, and economic development interact. It can, for example, involve creating unexpected tourism experiences where the conditions and specific needs of places and communities determine which experiences are developed. In this way, value is added to the place while giving visitors a more meaningful experience. To achieve this, different stakeholders such as local communities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and authorities need to collaborate.
Visit Skåne will explore and market new experiences both close to nature and within, for example, gastronomy. Discoveries and key takeaways are shared between other regions and countries in the ReTour project to shape the development of sustainable tourism offerings. Collaboration is crucial for the success of regenerative tourism with its innovative strategies and methods to vitalize the local tourism sector.
Page updated 29 Nov 2024, at 13:17
