North Hunt Sustainable hunting tourism – business opportunity in Northern Europe

Hunting tourism is a profitable business in Central Europe  Why could it not be that also in the northern parts of Europe?

 Domestic and foreign tourism relating primarily to hunting activities.  Domestic tourism is an activity, in which the people travel within their country, but to the location outside of their immediate residential area.  The main hunting tourism types in Northern countries: domestic tourists, typically very independent foreign tourists, the trip organised via hunting tourism company, hunting association or other tourism actors. What is hunting tourism?

Increasing need to develop new sustainable and competitive rural businesses in peripheral regions of Northern Europe II n tourism there is a need to develop new, off season activities based on local strengths to ensure the sustainability of rural tourism companies. HH unting tourism has been identified as one tourism sector that generated the benefits especially to the rural areas (local knowledge needed, labour-intensive) HH unting tourism is based especially on natural strengths and culture of northern areas AA geing of local hunters in rural areas is causing growing ecological potential for hunting. Why hunting toursim should be promoted?

Relevancy of the project  Hunting tourism is still a little known and under- developed sector in most Northern European countries  In developing hunting tourism, the most important aspect is sustainability (economical, ecological and social)  The main barriers for the business development:  Lack of information  Lack of feasible business models  Lack of co-operation within the sector and with related sectors (e.g. tourism sector in general)

 get a realistic overview of the future potential of hunting tourism in Northern Europe: potential and frame conditions  collect together the scattered and limited information on the sector and combine it in order to develop the best practises  transnational approach provides sufficient knowledge base  stress the sustainability point of view in the hunting tourism development and as a result improve the social acceptance of new and developing businesses  create the networks to support and enhance the business and product development focusing to customer orientation In order to support the decision making and development of the sector, there is a need to: Relevancy of the project

The project area

OBJECTIVES The overall objective of the project is to support the development of sustainable hunting tourism that will diversify the economic activity of peripheral regions in Northern Europe.

To be able to reach the overall objective, the project has 6 sub-objectives, which are to: Develop and enhance sustainable and competitive business concepts that will meet the needs of selected customer groups and are based on hunting cultures of Northern Europe. Develop the operational environment of hunting tourism by reducing the obstacles for the entrepreneurship and lowering the risk and threshold for start up companies in the sector without jeopardising the ecological and social sustainability. Strengthen the co-operation between different interest groups (SMEs, landowners, administration, marketing operators, local communities and education sector) in developing hunting tourism nationally and transnationally OBJECTIVES

Strengthen the connections between actors in the hunting and tourism sectors nationally and transnationally Evaluate the possibilities for cross-country co-operation to develop a ‘Northern brand’ for sustainable hunting tourism Create and analyse knowledge required in directing future rural development and hunting in Northern Periphery area. The project activities are designed to contribute to these objectives in a concrete level.

The project has three different types of activities Practical development Information collection for practical development Developing the operational environment of hunting tourism OBJECTIVES

THE WP-STRUCTURE The project’s structure is as follows: WP1 Management, coordination and communication (includes management, dissemination and communication and evaluation) WP2 The attitude environment and social framework related to hunting tourism WP3 Objective information to support SME and operational environment development –WP3 Task 1 Sales organisation survey –WP3 Task 2 Monitoring models –WP3 Task 3 Economical potential of hunting tourism

THE WP-STRUCTURE WP4 SME and operational environment development –WP4.1 Professional entrepreneurs in joint action –WP4.2 Influencing to the operational environment WP5 Training material and start up-companies

AFTER the North Hunt-project there should be available: Information gathering:  Objective knowledge on the present situation, potential and development strategies of northern hunting tourism  Analyses of good practices and models for business consepts of hunting tourism in different institutional settings  Potential analyses, criteria framework and possible development plan for ”Northern hunting tourism brand”  Knowledge on the potential customer groups of northern hunting tourism  Better knowledge about the social acceptability of hunting tourism  Education material for the use of the sector

AFTER the North Hunt-project there should be available: Practical development:  International and national networks of hunting tourism actors and entrepreneurs to continue the utilisation of the results and tools for them  Improved knowledgebase of the companies in the sector and new and improved hunting tourism products  Cross-country marketing co-operation between different hunting tourism networks and SMEs  New innovative hunting tourism products based on sustainability  Pilot courses based on the education material collected in the project

AFTER the North Hunt-project there should be available: Development of the operational environment of hunting tourism:  Common understanding on sustainable nordic hunting tourism between different actors  Better understanding on the frame conditions of hunting tourism in different institutional settings  Stronger connection between tourism and hunting actors  Objective information and best practise examples provided to stakeholders to support decision making in different levels  Complex committed network to develop the sector further based on the common understanding between different stakeholders.

The project partnership FINLAND University of Helsinki, Institute for Rural Research and training (project co-ordinator) Haapavesi Vocational School, SWEDEN Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå Contact persons: Director Sami Kurki Project manager Anne Matilainen Project planner Susanna Keskinarkaus Project manager Juha Rutanen Contact persons: Principal Erkki Juola Project manager Markus Muuttola Contact persons: Extension specialist Göran Sjöberg Associated researcher Frederik Dahl Professor Göran Ericsson

SWEDEN Rural Economy Development (RED) ICELAND The Research Centre of the University of Akureyri Contact persons: Advisor Håkan Gyllbring Advisor Mats Andersson Director Jan-Olof Puranen Contact persons: Researcher Hjördis Sigursteinsdóttir Researcher Lára Guðmundsdóttir

ICELAND Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Environment and Food Agency of Iceland Contact persons: Director Edward Huijbens Researcher Eyrún J. Bjarnadóttir Contact person: Divisional manager Bjarni Pálsson

SCOTLAND Macaulay Institute University of Aberdeen CANADA Newfounland and Labrador Outfitters Association Contact person: Dr Scott Newey Dr Bill Slee Contact person: Reader Colin J. Hunter Contact person: Dr. John Hull

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