The research project, Event Innovation in Times of Uncertainty, involving TourNord partners Business Academy Southwest, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Linnaeus University and Koszalin University of Technology received the prize as the research project of the year 2023 by the Danske Erhvervsakademier (The Association of Danish Business Academies).
Selected as the best research project amongst 8 nominations, Christian Dragin-Jensen from Business Academy Southwest received the prize, the project being cited as an exemplary project for the sector, not only contributing with academic and theoretical impact, but also reaching out to many practitioners in several countries on how to promote resilience and innovation in the event and festival sector.
Christian Dragin-Jensen, Business Academy Southwest (left), receiving the prize from Steen Enemark Kildesgaard (right), Dean of Copenhagen Business Academy and Chairman of the College of Deans. Source: Danske Erhvervsakademier
A big congratulations to Christian Dragin-Jensen and all the TourNord partners who collaborated on the project!
About the project:
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the event and festival industry to its limits. However, during the shutdown, some events and festivals demonstrated resilience and promoted new, innovative solutions. The project explored several countries’ event and festival sectors to promote a new understanding of resilience and innovation to help the industry be better prepared for future crises.
Business Academy Southwest (Denmark), Linnaeus University (Sweden), Koszalin University of Technology (Poland), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway), explored 150+ events and festivals (sports, culture, music, etc.) in Norway, Poland, and Denmark – from small local events to large international ones. The aim was to highlight strategic and practical areas crucial for the event and festival industry, necessary for building resilience and providing examples of best practices in the industry that promote innovative, adaptive, and transformative event and festival environments.
The research has resulted in the development of new models for measuring resilience and innovation in the event industry (but can also be used in other sectors!). These models have been published as articles in several internationally recognized journals, disseminated, and implemented by various stakeholders.
Knowledge output:
Research paper 1: Effects of COVID-19 infection control measures on the festival and event sector in Poland and Norway (2021), published in Sustainability.
Research paper 2: Event Innovation in Times of Uncertainty (2022), published in International Journal of Event and Festival Management.
Research paper 3: Building a Resilient Event Sector in Times of Uncertainty (2023), published in Event Management.
Book chapter: Innovation in Sports Events during COVID-19 (2022), published in Research Handbook on Sport and COVID-19
Example of popular dissemination at one of Denmarks largest national websites for tourism
Project and its results have been presented for +150 students (from AP to master level) in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Lithuania and Belgium.
Project and its results have been rpesented for +50 event and festival companies, as well as a workshop for +60 event and festival companies
Articles have been (as of February 2024) downloadet more than 10.000 times
Several of the articles contribute to open science and are freely available to all, as recommended by EU, OECD, Nordic Council of Ministers, etc. ministerråd, m.m.
Research paper 1 has been awarded as ”Editor’s Choice” by the journal.
Project has been presented to the Polish government as a report
Members from Business Academy SouthWest, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Koszalin University of Technology have recently published an article titled “Cooking up prosperity: Pop-Up restaurants, innovation, and lifestyle entrepreneurship” in Gastronomy & Tourism.
The study focused on the concept of Pop-Up Norge as a case study, where they investigated they way they do (and wish to do) business being a testament to their embodiment of innovation and life-style entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurs in Pop-Up Norge revelled in a sense of freedom, creativity, and the pursuit of uniqueness, and this continuously drove them to enhance and offer novel experiences.
A great Nordic success story that others can learn from!
This is also a success story for TourNord, as this was a collaboration started at our TourNord network meeting in Bergen, where an idea of supporting each other’s PhD students came to life.
Photo Source: Pop-up Norge
You can read the abstract below, and the article is freely available here.
Abstract: Entrepreneurship is central to diversifying and enhancing the competitiveness of tourism offer-ings. The current literature underscores a critical oversight in nurturing entrepreneurship for tourism innovation and urges further exploration of entrepreneurial motivations in tourism start-ups. This is particularly relevant because the tourism sector heavily relies on new ventures to drive innovation, as established firms often struggle to meet the growing demand for distinc-tive and unique travel experiences. This study examines the entrepreneurial journey and inno-vation process within the tourism scene. Through comprehensive desk research and an in-depth entrepreneur interview, we aim to deepen our insights into the motivations driving entrepre-neurs and the innovation processes behind their tourism products and services. Specifically, our research focuses on pop-up restaurants, illuminating their embodiment of innovation and life-style entrepreneurship. The findings reveal that a sense of freedom, creativity, and the pursuit of uniqueness stand out as key motivational factors of establishing pop-up restaurants. These motivations extend into a continuous business innovation cycle, as the drive to enhance and offer novel experiences remains paramount. This study elucidates the uncharted territory of tourism entrepreneurship and offers valuable insights into the driving forces and innovative dynamics within this evolving market.
Wicked problems are hard to solve! Working together is complex, but necessary to solve these wicked problems! Ever heard these comments before?
Well, our TourNord partners from the University of Turku and Business Academy SouthWest have just published an article in the Nordic Journal of Vocation and Education titled “Collaborative Problem Solving: A pedagogy for workplace relevance” where they studied the pedagogical approach of collaborative problem solving in the context of work-based learning and complex (wicked) problems.
A truly collaborative project, 72 students were included (ranging from vocational students, university of applied science students and university students), 9 teachers and 5 industry professionals across 4 separate workshops in Finland and Denmark.
Students in Sønderborg working collaboratively on a complex problem (reducing food waste in a Hotel). Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen
The article is open-access and freely available to all here. Want to read a bit more? Check out the abstract below!
Questions about the research? Contact Timo Halttunen, corresponding author.
This article is part of a larger project! You can read more about it here!
Abstract
Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a widely used pedagogical approach in work-based learning. To facilitate the complex process of situated learning, researchers have emphasized the need for scaffolding to enable learning of skills while engaged in problem-solving. While CPS as a pedagogical practice has mainly been examined in classroom situations, a research gap exists in studies of CPS in real-world contexts. In this study, we contribute to the understanding of CPS by examining the contextual characteristics that shape students’ and teachers’ experiences in situated learning. Consequently, we present a multi-case study to investigate involvement of a business professional as a source for scaffolding on site, in a hotel business environment. We employed a qualitative, multi-case methodology in the study. An ill-structured, real-world problem of food waste in the hotel service sector was presented to students (N = 72) and their accompanying teachers (N = 9) from second and tertiary education. They were provided with access to expert knowledge and opinion by industry professionals (N=5) on site. We collected data via observations, interviews, and questions from the involved stakeholders in three physical locations in Denmark and in Finland. Additionally, we documented their experiences using an online collaboration tool in each case. Despite the scaffolding provided by the business professionals, students underused the resources available for their learning in the extended learning environment. Students benefited from guided exploration of the problem space, structured feedback, and teacher interventions, resulting in improved perspective taking, participation, social regulation, task regulation and knowledge building.
(Source: Halttunen, T., Dragin-Jensen, C., Kylänpää, C., & Karkov, A. (2023). Collaborative problem solving: A pedagogy for workplace relevance. Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 13(2), 45–73. https://doi.org/10.3384/njvet.2242-458X.2313245)
The prospects and challenges of arctic tourism were the central themes of TourNord’s 4th network meeting in Nuuk, Greenland on the 15th and 16th of August, 2023. Blessed with fantastic weather and an incredible program in Nuuk, TourNord was given firsthand insights from tourism industry leaders on the evolution of tourism in Greenland as a whole, as well as looking towards the future of tourism development as an Arctic destination.
TourNord in Nuuk! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, TourNord had invited speakers from Air Greenland, Visit Greenland, Sustine Consult and the University of Greenland to enlighten and inspire us on Greenland’s exciting development as an Arctic destination. We also had time to experience some of the tourism concepts firsthand, as well as discuss and work on our projects, future project applications and cooperation strategies. Read more below to find out what we did!
Nuuk (Source: Greenland Travel)
Day 1: The evolution of tourism and travel in Greenland – great possibilities, but also complex problems!
After a warm welcome from Gestur Hovgaard from the University of Greenland and TourNord Project Lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, we received a tour of the new campus – with its impressive buildings melding seamlessly into the majestic backdrop of Nuuk’s fjords and mountains.
University of Greenland (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
After an introduction of the network meeting program, we got stuck right in with our first speaker, CEO of Air Greenland and a native of Nuuk, Jakob Nitter Sørensen. He came to speak with us about new airports and the challenges to Greenlandic air transport and tourism – where he highlighted that no airline faces challenges quite like Air Greenland does due to the extreme weather conditions in Greenland. This was an incredibly apt way to start his talk as several of our TourNord members had not arrived as their flights from Reykyavik had been cancelled the night before due to weather conditions!
Jakob talked about the upcoming expansion of Nuuk’s landing strip and airport facilities, which will completely change the tourism realm in Greenland. Until now, the only way to get to Greenland by air is from Copenhagen or Reykjavik – with only large planes being able to land in Kangerlussuaq. Only small planes are able to land in Nuuk, and are very susceptible to the quickly changing weather conditions. With the expansion of the landing strip in Nuuk, the capital city will now be able to receive large planes from near and far!
CEO Air Greenland Jakob Nitter Sørensen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
This therefore also means that with the possibility to send more travellers to Greenland, the infrastructure also needs to follow suit – one of Greenland’s biggest challenges with regards to tourism. Jakob sees Air Greenland as an integral part of the Greenlandic community, and that they bear a great deal of responsibility to help strengthen Greenland as a nation – be that by educating and hiring a Greenlandic workforce, owning, expanding and operating lodges around Greenlands tourism destinations, or leading the charge for sustainable development. The latter was recently done by completely upgrading the fleet to more sustainable airplanes, as well as being one of the first airlines in the world to use sustainable aviation fuel. Much of this was done at a cost to the bottom line, but as Jakob humbly reiterated several times, Air Greenland’s mission is to “be the natural first choice that lifts Greenland. We will secure everyday life and create adventure. And we do it sustainably”.
After lunch, we received a visit from Linda Kleist, Destination Development Manger at Visit Greenland – who also happened to be a graduate from our TourNord partner Dania Academy! Linda showcased the great diversity of Greenland’s 6 different DMOs, and how their recent award-winning campaign to overcome wrong stereotypes of Greenland had been met with tremendous success – both nationally and internationally. Check out their award winning video below “Date a destination”.
Date a Destination: Visit Greenland
Linda then presented their ambitious tourism development strategy, which harboured around the concept “from more to better tourism”. The strategy highlighted several key concepts which TourNord were very happy to hear as tourism educators and researchers, namely: community is king, attracting the right travellers, and eating with the locals. Linda showed us how the most lucrative segment, adventure travellers, could help boost Greenlandic tourism and its local communities due to their desired activities, and would not overburden communities as far fewer are needed to reach the same economic KPI’s (as opposed to say, cruise tourists).
Visit Greenland’s Destination Development Manager Linda Kleist (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
The last concept – eat with the locals – was then tested by TourNord’s members in the afternoon! Heading out in a Nuuk Water Taxi, TourNord members had the chance to see Nuuk’s majestic fjords (in unusually good weather conditions!), catch their own fish (Cod and Acadian Redfish), where they were then prepared by locals in the village of Qooqqut.
TourNord catching cod! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)Our fish being prepared in the village of Qooqqut (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
After a fantastic meal, we were in for a real treat, as the captain of the boat learned that humpback whales had been spotted in the Fjord next to ours. We were offered to reroute on the way home and were lucky enough to catch a view of a pod of humpback whales just outside Nuuk!
Day 2: Tackling sustainable tourism in Greenland, and how the hotel industry is gearing for evolution in Nuuk’s changing landscape
After a good night’s rest, we started out the day with a visit from sustainability consultant Stine Selmer Andersen from Sustine Consult. She highlighted the schism between Visit Greenland’s sustainability initiatives and how this doesn’t necessarily translate to concrete actions as needed by EU’s upcoming European Commission ESG measurement requirements. While Greenland does not fall under these requirements, Stine noted that the vast majority of tourists coming to Greenland are European, and European tour operators are getting them to Greenland (who will be bound by these requirements). This means that Greenlandic tourism actors and operators who cooperate with European companies need to be able to report their ESG key figures as part of the tourism value chain. Stine further displayed headaches to come with this as most Greenlandic tourism actors don’t have the financial resources or know-how, as they tend to be entrepreneurial SME’s. Group discussions with Stine revealed that Visit Greenland should consider taking on a stewardship role and facilitate workshops and maybe even provide consultants to local actors to help them transition to more concrete measurements of their sustainability initiatives.
Sustainable Tourism in Greenland – Stine Selmer (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
A quick break, and next up was Christian Loiborg Tang, Hotel Manager at Hotel Hans Egede Group, who gave us a fascinating 40 year historical insight into the development of the Nuuk hotel industry. Interestingly, Nuuk has traditionally been dominated by business travel, but are now getting ready for an increase in leisure tourists as capacity has been reached at Ilulissat and the upcoming expansion of Nuuk airport. Christian also presented the challenges a Nuuk hotel faces – particularly with recruitment and retainment of (un)skilled labour, as well as training staff with soft skills (in this case – problem management). Rapid, customized internal training, as well as hiring a global workforce (ranging from Thailand and the Philippines to Danish and Greenlandic staff) were some of the solutions Christian offered.
The hotel industry of Nuuk by Christian Loiborg Tang from Hotel Hans Egede Group (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
After lunch, we got down to business on progress reports on our upcoming book – Nordic Coastal Tourism, discussed HORIZON project application possibilities, discussed future dates for our 5th and 6th network meetings (in Randers, Denmark and Kalmar, Sweden), as well as possible staff exchanges.
Two excursions were on the agenda in the afternoon, namely a visit to the Visit Greenland office, situated at the beautiful colonial harbour in Nuuk, where we met all the staff, including the editors of the award winning campaign video – there were some starstruck TourNord members 🙂
Nuuk’s Colonial Harbour (Source: Guide to Greenland)
Later on, we received a very unique, and incredibly insightful tour by Steven Arnfjord, Associate Professor and Leader of the Arctic Center of Welfare Studies at the University of Greenland. Having lived in Nuuk since a child, Steven walked us through all of Nuuk’s nooks and crannies, all the while delivering us fantastic anecdotes and stories highlighting the incredible speed at which Nuuk is changing. Modernization and urbanization of the country’s capital is happening faster than anyone has realised, and there is a sense of a lack of a coordinated city planning strategy. Steven also ensured we left the tourist bubble to see the “other side” of Nuuk – showing that while the city has made great advances, it also has social challenges in the form of homelessness, suicide rates, and housing problems. An inspiring talk full of charisma, humour and a good dollop of reality!
Steven Arnfjord (right) leading TourNord on a guided walk through Nuuk (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)Graffitti in Nuuk protesting the rapid modernization of the city (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
For the evening, we capped off our network meeting by sampling Nuuk’s burgeoning restaurant scene – where we tried Greenlandic tapas! An incredible meal where we sampled local delicacies with a modern twist, such as cod fish soup, muskox tartar and seared reindeer.
Muskox Tartar at Tapasimut (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the University of Greenland and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:
1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism 2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism
3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.
TourNord in Bergen! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, the central themes of the network meeting were:
Innovative and Resilient Tourism
Sustainable tourism: Preparing students for a greener future
Bergen UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bryggen (Source: Bergen Tourist Board).
Day 1: Overtourism and sustainability in Norway? Viewpoints from an industry and academic point of view
After a warm welcome from Ove Oklevik, from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and TourNord project lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, the group introduced themselves (as we had new TourNord partners participating for the first time from Lithuania, Poland and Iceland). It didn’t take long then before we went straight to the heart of the day’s topic – namely dealing with overtourism and sustainability – with a special focus on Norway.
The first presentation of the day was by Ståle Brandshaug, partner and consultant at 2469 Reiselivsutvikling, whose vast experience as not only a tourism consultant, but also as the former CEO of Visit Sognefjord and CEO of Region Stavanger, came to the forefront. Ståle challenged the media and academic notion and perceptions of overtourism in Norway, and instead suggested that due to Norway’s size and population, there was actually a case of undertourism! Ståle also challenged the notion of pointing the finger at cruise tourism as the easy scapegoat, instead suggesting that cruise tourism is easier to manage and limit, thus suggesting that land-based tourism could be the root cause of overtourism (since the tourism flow could not be controlled or managed).
Overtourism – a Norwegian perspective, by Ståle Brandshaug (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
These differences clearly highlighted some of the challenges we face in Nordic Tourism – balancing industry and academic viewpoints on how to progress with sustainable tourism (and defining whether we have overtourism or not!). This led to a fantastic discussion by all our partners on how such problems could be tackled and discussed, particularly also with how our tourism students need to be able to balance such different viewpoints.
The day’s program also had a presentation by Western Norway University of Applied Science’s research team – who came by to inform us of different Nordic and European funding possibilities which could be of relevance to TourNord, and led to great discussions, and finally, a decision on going for a project application!
Presentation by HVL’s Research Unit at the HVL Campus Bergen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
In the late afternoon, our hosts took us on an excursion of Bergen, which finished at the top of Bergen (Fløyen), where we could enjoy the beautiful sunset over Bergen and the fjord! We also found it hard to believe that Bergen is the city with the most annual rainfall when seeing this type of weather!
TourNord partners enjoying the view at Fløyen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
Day 2: Sustainable hotels in Bergen, sustainable lawmaking and practices in education, and centres for excellence with regenerative tourism
Our second day started at the historic Grand Hotel Terminus, a part of “De Bergenske”. It was therefore only fitting that the first order on the program was a presentation by De Bergenske CEO and Owner, Kjertil Smørås. Kjertil highlighted the uniqueness of the chain, in that they wanted to “go deep” into Bergen – becoming the foremost experts on hotels and restaurants in Bergen, as opposed to just scratching the surface in multiple cities in Norway. This was also a testament to De Bergenske’s desire to be an integral part of the Bergen identity, both on social and environmental sustainable dimensions. Kjertil also highlighed how their forthcoming hotel would be a testament that they weren’t “working with sustainability”, but rather that sustainability was at the heart of every decision, and would be as natural as a part of the hotel’s DNA. Lastly, Kjertil highlighted what type of tourist would lead to more sustainable tourism in Bergen (the cultural tourist), and how cruise tourism would be detrimental to such a strategy.
Kjertil Smørås, CEO De Bergenske, presenting at Grand Hotel Terminus (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
Next, a presentation came from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences’ Project leader on Sustainability, Tom Skauge. Tom provided us with a fascinating insight on how the upcoming EU-taxonomy and governmental sustainability regulations will have an impact on both the tourism industry and the educational system in Norway. His examples of zero-emission requirements for cruise ships in the Norwegian fjords, as well as the steep increase in interest in sustainability from students at their universities, highlighted the omnipresence of the climate crises, and how governmental regulations from both Norway and EU will be fundamental for securing sustainable mindsets and industries.
A slide from Tom Skauge’s presentation on implementing SDG in Norway Higher Education (Source: Tom Skauge). University of Turku discussing centres for excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
After a lovely lunch at the hotel, there was then a group discussion led by the Sari Nyroos and Johanna Aaltonen from the University of Turku, who presented an idea of how to create a centre of excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism. There were interesting concepts used here with regards to education – particularly that of open badges and micro credentials, thus lending further credence that the future of tourism education needs to evolve in order to secure the workforce that is sorely needed. Afterwards, Christian Dragin-Jensen and Grzegorz Kwiatkowski provided an update on TourNord’s book: Nordic Coastal Tourism.
The last order in the meeting room was looking forward to our 4th network meeting, which will take place in Nuuk, Greenland! Gestur Hovgaard from the University of Greenland presented some great practical information, tips (and even a bit of history about Greenland!), so we are ready to head to Greenland in August 2023!
Finally, we had an excursion to the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site Bergen Bryggen and the nearby Bergen Castle.
TourNord members investigating Bergen Bryggen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).
All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:
1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism 2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism
3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.
We are all getting very excited for our upcoming network meeting, which will be taking place in Bergen, Norway on the 6th and 7th of March, 2023!
Our hosts, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, has prepared an exciting program for us. In line with the theme of the visit – innovative and resilient Nordic tourism – we will be looking at areas such as overtourism in the Nordics, as well as sustainability and resilient tourism in Norway. Presenters at the network meeting includes Academics, Tourism consultants, sustainability coordinators and a CEO of a Norwegian hotel chain!
One of our two host sites: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences – Campus Kronstad Bergen. Source: HVL.no
We will also be making on-site field visits to learn of how tourism has developed in Bergen. There are scheduled visits to Fløybanen, Bryggen and Bergenhus Castle.
There will also of course be time for discussing new projects within Nordic Tourism and Education. As you can see, we are going to have some busy days!
One of our two host sites: Grand Hotel Terminus Bergen. Source: Grand Hotel Terminus
This will be our largest network meet to date, with participants coming from Business Academy Southwest (Denmark), Dania Academy (Denmark), University of Turku (Finland), University of Greenland (Greenland), Linnaeus University (Sweden), Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (Iceland), Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania), Koszalin University of Technology (Poland), University of Gdansk (Poland), and of course, our hosts from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway).
Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, the central themes of the network meeting were:
Life-long learning: How can educators continuously update their skills and competences
Nordic Tourism: What makes it unique
Tourism lessons learned: From remote locations
The network meet also had scheduled in workshops to continue working on the ideas created at our first network meet in Esbjerg, Denmark – namely projects within digital competence development in the tourism sector, and development of Nordic coastal tourism.
Turku, Finland. Source: Flickr
Day 1: Perspectives to life-long learning and Developing Nordic Coastal Tourism
After a warm welcome, Timo Halttunen, Head of Unit at Brahea Centre Areal Research and Development, at the University of Turku, gave us a presentation about professional learning, the reform of continuous learning in Finland, as well as the challenges the tourism sector faces with regards to continuous learning – a challenge not only unique to the Nordics, but to the EU sector as a whole! An interesting fact, was that the Nordic countries were ahead of the curve in Europe with regards to continuous learning, yet the tourism sector still lagged behind when comparing to other industries.
The presentation was followed by a great discussion on key areas that TourNord’s partner institutions could focus on in their respective countries when it comes to current students, as well as plans for continuous learning throughout a career of a tourism sector employee.
Continuous Learning in Finland
After the presentation and discussion, Gregory Kwiatkowski from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Christian Dragin-Jensen from Business Academy SouthWest led a work-meeting about how to progress from our desire to jointly work on developing a Nordic Coastal Tourism project (from our network meet in Esbjerg). We have excitedly concluded to create a book: “Developing Nordic Coastal Tourism” with all partners contributing to chapters, as well as inviting other practitioners and scholars to contribute! Gregory and Christian will serve as editors. Mia Post-Lundgaard from Business Academy SouthWest also raised the important notion of the book’s necessary contribution to not only academics and practitioners, but also to students. Moreover, the important question was also asked that if we are a Nordic cooperative, should the book not also be available in (at least some) of our Nordic languages?
In the evening, we were introduced to a Turku tourism destination concept: The Turku Food Walk, at local restaurant Di Trevi. The Turku food walk is an initiative by Visit Turku and its partners to showcase the best of the city’s culinary scene with just one card. That is, for a modest fee, tourists can visit an array of restaurants and sample many dishes from many different restaurants. The tour is ideal if you’re new to the city or visiting Turku and are interested in the food culture of the Nordics. It was fascinating to hear how many of the city’s restaurants found benefits in coopetition (the act of cooperating between competing companies) to give tourists a more holistic experience of the city’s food scene.
An example of a dish for Food Walk Turku at restaurant Di Trevi.
Day 2: A day of Senses in Tourism Research and Experience Development
Our second day was a a true day of exchanging best practices. This day was dedicated to exploring how the University of Turku research the use of senses in developing and understanding experiences. The first item on the order of the day was a fascinating presentation by Emmi Järvi, Project Communications Specialist, titled “Multidisciplinary research platform for producing new scientific knowledge and consumer understanding for society and businesses”. The research platform was using in-house facilities at the University of Turku campus, namely an experimental restaurant called Flavoria, and a multi-sensory room full of modern technologies to enhance sensory experiences.
The experimental restaurant was a veritable smorgasbord of data collecting points, from how guests selected their food, to how much bio-waste they generated, as well as desired portion sizes. The multi-sensory room, titled Aistikattila, is an immersive multi-sensory space for research and teaching and for hosting innovation workshops, seminars and events. More specifically:
Aistikattila provides an interesting setting for e.g. co-creation, product, and group interview studies. With studies measuring the effects of different environments can be discovered, how a certain audiovisual environment or augmented reality affects, for example, eating experiences, human behavior, or sensory experiences. The research possibilities go beyond the above-mentioned framework; the object of study can well be a technological solution
Inspired by sitting in the Aistikattila space, we had a double brainstorming session on how we could work together on the following:
Creating a blended intensive programme. Led by Gregory Kwiatkowski, we discussed on which common tourism topics where we could lead a blended intensive program – the area of Event Management drawing particular interest. Great experiences were shared on Dania Academy’s efforts by Henrik Pahus and Mikkel Lodahl of their summer school programs in Vietnam and elsewhere around the world. It was decided to continue this avenue to create a blended intensive programme for our Nordic partners!
Continue our work on digital competences within tourism. Led by Timo Halttunen and Christian Dragin-Jensen, an intense discussion was had with all partners, but followed with a fruitful creation of a concept note for an Erasmus+ application (further developed from our ideas at the 1st network meet in Esbjerg). Specifically, a project which focuses on creating a tourism platform to better define digital skills and competences within tourism, how to upskill and reskill existing tourism employees, assessing learning in digital contexts, and how to create a blueprint for micro-credentials within tourism educations. Trine Thomsen from Business Academy SouthWest also highlighted the tremendous importance of linking digital skills with lifelong learning, as the realm of the digital is simply moving so fast, that what is taught at the beginning of an education, may no longer be relevant when students receive their degree!
In the afternoon, we continued along our journeys of senses – more specifically, the sense of sight. A presentation was given by Marjaana Puurtinen, Adj. Professor at the University of Turku, on Eye-tracking technology in educational research: higher-order cognition, learning in different domains and contexts. This was a fascinating presentation on not only how we can optimize teaching by using eye-tracking technology, but also how we could design tourist experiences. One of Marjaana’s projects was about designing a better museum experience by eye-tracking guests throughout the museum, to gain a novel and unique understanding of what guests spent the majority of their time looking at, as well as discovering what elements were most interactive for them. A future project we surely can’t wait to see more of!
Mrjaana Puurtinen’s presentation
The session was followed by a great discussion on how can we use these technologies in understanding professional learning, particularly when comparing to “hands-on task” learning, vs. theoretical and conceptualisation learning.
Day 3: Designing a “hands-on” museum visit – how a multi-sensory exhibition was developed with researchers and stakeholders
The final day of our 2nd network meet was an excursion day to 40,000+ exhibition at the Forum Marinum. Here we were guided by Ira Lahovuo, Project Manager at the City of Turku, and the main driving force behind the exhibition, an output of an Interreg project, Archipelago Access. Turku is the main city closely located to Finland’s famous archipelago, home to more than 40,000 islands. The project’s summary was the following:
Sustainable nature and culture-based archipelago tourism are still characterized by a large number of SMEs, public actors, uncoordinated promotion and scattered information. Thanks to Archipelago Access, Turku and Stockholm archipelagos join forces and invite Åland along to increase the attractiveness of the whole archipelago area.
Guided by Ira, we were given a unique insight in how many different stakeholders took part in creating the exhibition, from digital and sound specialists, tourism experts and marine biologists. Much focus was placed on finding the perfect balance between informing potential visitors about the region and the difficulties it faces (loss of biodiversity, climate change, etc.), but also to show how it could be an attractive place to visit – when done right.
Ira Lahovuo guiding several TourNord membersA TourNord member trying the VR experience of the Archipelago.
All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the University of Turku and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:
1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism 2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism
3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.
At the backdrop of TourNord’s 1st network meeting in Esbjerg in late 2021, we were presented with a fascinating insight by Alice Bank Danielsen from Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism – namely the significant schism there exists between educational institutions’ understanding of digital competences in the tourism sector, versus the actual reality. It seems, at least in Denmark, that educational institutions have a perception that the necessary skills exist with practitioners to navigate the increasingly complex world of digital tools needed to cater to digital savvy guests, whereas the reality is quite the opposite. Following a report from Kvistgaard & Hird (2019), there is a significant gap in the absorption ability of adapting to tech changes in the tourism field between public organizations, research institutions and private supplier of digital solutions compared to that of tourism companies (figure 1). This is particularly the case for SME companies (small and medium-sized enterprises).
Figure 1. Kvistgaard & Hird (2019), p. 26.
The same report also highlights that these tourism companies wish to work on becoming digitally adept, yet only find the time to experiment and ‘test the waters’ in the off-season (namely the winter months), signifying that the output generated is not seen as a strategy or competence, but rather about here-and-now solutions and process coincidences, thus resulting in a fragmented and unsystematic smattering of actions.
With the industry increasingly depending on digital technologies for providing services and products for digital citizens, this is a worrying predicament for tourism – particularly Nordic Tourism as we are already considered as expensive destinations. Does rising requirements in digital competences mean a further price hike, or equally problematic – a drop in quality and variety of service and products offered? In this post, I don’t attempt to offer a panacea to such a wildly complex solution, and where a plethora of stakeholders exist. Instead, I see this post as a platform for discussion – particularly for educational institutions, how we define this issue, and what our role should be in addressing this gap.
Are we speaking the same language? Defining digitalization and the skills that come with it
Digitalization, much like innovation and sustainability, have become mainstream words in almost all business and educational circles – while mainstream, these are complex subject matters, which therefore make it much harder to pinpoint what we mean when we say digitalization – especially in a tourism context.
An EU initiative, SmartTourismCapital, has defined digitalization as offering “innovative tourism and hospitality information, products, services, spaces and experiences adapted to the needs of the consumers through ICT-based solutions and digital tools” (European Union, 2019, p.7). In short, offering a superior tourism experience through ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and digital tools, tailored to the needs of our guests. While simple in spirit, approaching this in practice (and knowing when you are succeeding) is much murkier. A potential cause for this is trying to define what we mean by digital skills, tools, and experiences:
Are there certain experiences which are more digital-prone, or are digitally ‘critical’ for securing positive guest experiences?
What constitutes a digitally-skilled employee in tourism? Is it knowing how to engage guests on social media, building an integrated website, or working strategically with data? Does it depend on where in the tourism value chain the employee works?
Is digitalization about making employees life easier, so that they can focus on the critical aspect of personal service? Or is it about making the guest’s life easier? Maybe both?
Alice Bank Danielsen’s presentation further highlighted that many of the tourism companies identified digital activities as marketing initiatives, and it was in these areas that particularly SME’s struggled to make time work with these initiatives systematically and strategically. While incredibly important, this only sheds light on part of the digital skills divide. Research by Carlisle et al. (2021) has identified the need for a host of digital skills across tourism sectors in Europe, as seen below.
Tour operators/travel agents
Skills related to digital marketing and social media, including the role of influencers. Analytical skills and making sense of big data was seen as important, yet more as a requirement for managerial and leadership level (as opposed to operations).
Destination Management Organizations (DMO’s)
Rather than providing information, DMOs see a need in the future to provide inspiration and experiences for visitors. They need to act as consultants to tourism companies in their destination, and to aid them to attract (new) target groups. This means supporting digital developments particularly within community management and marketing. Moreover, this requires digital analytical skills to provide data-driven analytics and marketing, and to conduct studies of tourism and trend analysis. To summarize, the digital skills needed here can be encapsulated as business intelligence, both on an operational and strategic level.
Accommodation Providers
A blend of both marketing and operational digital skills was identified as critical. OTA’s and online booking portals will continue to dominate the market, and an online presence is a must to secure financial growth. While accommodation providers acknowledged the value of younger employees’ knowledge of social media, they found business communication skills to be lacking – in other words, writing skills to produce valuable content.
Rapid advancements in operational software, ranging from PMS (Property Management Systems) to CRM and hotel systems (e.g., Opera) are also seen as necessary. A leap forward in app-based programs, for example for housekeepers, is also seen as required digital skills. Hands-on skills on how to work technical equipment for accommodation providers who also host events (projectors, video equipment, sound systems, etc.) was seen as necessary.
It is quite clear for accommodation providers that there is wide range of digital skills needed, from both a hard- and software position. For SMEs, particularly family-driven entrepreneurial providers, this is quite a wide-range palette of skills necessary, and is justifiably, a digital jungle to overcome!
Visitor attractions
Was seen as lagging behind with other tourism companies, particularly with the use of big data, online marketing, and social media management. The most critical reflection was that at the moment, technical staff such as housekeepers or gardeners do not need digital skills, yet it that it was only a matter of time before every employee needs to have digital skills (or at least, a working knowledge of digital tools), as they will be tantamount to not only operational excellence, but to improve the visitor experience as well.
F&B Operations
Employees foresee a significant shift in the food and beverage sector, as the restaurant industry has already begun a much-needed digital transformation to keep up with the modern guest. Changing eating habits, a drive for better gastronomic experiences, and an increased focus on local produce and quality, has created significant ripples down the restaurant supply chain, resulting in restaurants having to adjust their core offerings to match the digital guest.
Christian Dragin-Jensen, Senior Research and Business Development Specialist, Business Academy SouthWest
What can we as educational institutions do?
Based on Alice Bank Danielsen’s comments and the Kvistgaard & Hird report, it is quite clear that the first necessary course of action is to instigate a dialogue with practitioners. We are, at the moment, sitting in our ivory tower, slightly out of touch with the lay of the land. This dialogue needs to be systematic and strategic (much like working with digitalization!), as technologies and demands are continuously evolving. This would also allow us to tailor courses not only to our students, but also to courses for continuing education (i.e., practitioners in the field, looking to upgrade their skillset). I believe that, tailoring, will be the critical factor for success in navigating the digital jungle for both current and prospect employees in the tourism sector. As Carlisle et al.’s research highlighted, different skills are needed for different sectors, and we simply cannot lump all these skills into broad categories of operational digital skills and marketing digital skill for all sectors. Create courses specifically for accommodation providers, DMO workers, visitor attractions, etc. to make sure you can pinpoint the right skills. For both students and continuing education participants, show them how to structure this strategically and systematically within their type of organization, so that it doesn’t result in process coincidences – an unsystematic smattering of actions.
To summarize:
Increased dialogue (strategic and systematic) between educational institutions and pracitioners.
Fine-tune digital skills classes/courses based on specific sectors (maybe even jobs?) within the tourism industry.
Continuously tailor courses to match digital demands of guests.
Teach students and practitioners how to create and systematically use a digital strategy.
References
Carlisle, S., Ivanov, S., & Dijkmans, C. (2021). The digital skills divide: evidence from the European tourism industry. Journal of Tourism Futures. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-07-2020-0114
European Union. (2019). European Capital of Tourism – Guide for Applicants.
Kvistgaard, P., & Hird, J. (2019). Vi arbejder mest med digitalisering om vinteren: En kvalitativ analyse af nordjyske turismevirksomheders digitale modenhed som kilde til øget vækst i nordjysk turisme. Retrieved from https://www.e-pages.dk/aalborguniversitet/756/html5/
What an exciting week this has been! After so many delays and postponements due to COVID-19, TourNord was finally able to have its first ever network meeting!
Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, the central themes of the network meeting were:
Preparing students and educators in tourism with digital skills & competences
Developing Sustainable Tourism Destinations
Day 1: A day of digital skills & competences
After a warm welcome, TourNord got straight down to business with a presentation from Alice Bank Danielsen from Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism, who gave us a fascinating insight on the schism that exists between educational institutions’ understanding of digital competences in the tourism sector versus the actual reality. She also rounded off by presenting the digital toolbox they have created, to serve as an inspiration and guidance tool for tourism actors in Denmark. This was followed afterwards by a great debate on how we (as educational institutions) can better gear our staff and students to be more prepared for the digital world that is tantamount to succes in modern tourism.
After a quick break, we then went into a brainstorming session on how we could generate a concrete course which would help contribute to the digital competences skill gap in the Nordic tourism sector. Splitting into two groups, we came up with two very different (but equally inspiring) ideas!
One group laid a framework for a completely digital course (geared at both higher education students and the life-long learning adult education sector), which could be completed through a series of achievements and tasks (microcredentials). The course would stand on ‘three digital legs’, focusing on strategy, marketing and operations. The course would be case-based, in order to be context specific for the local partner institutions’ needs and demands.
The second group loved the idea of a digital course, but also saw the need and desire after long COVID-19 lockdowns for students to travel and meet – creating a short and intensive physical course where partner institutions’ students where required to travel to 2-3 partner schools. Students would receive both lecturing and be able to work on local cases with regards to using digital tools to optimize business performances of local tourism actors. Each partner institution has different skills (close ties to practitioners, workshop and creative thinking facilitation, digital skill application, etc.) and would be fine-tuned accordingly.
We plan to further work on these two ideas at our next network meeting!
Innovation Consultant Alice Bank Danielsen presenting.
Day 2: Excursion and Sustainable Tourism Development
Esbjerg is known for being windy (and the odd spot of rain as well!), yet we could not have asked for better weather in late November for our excursion to the Wadden Sea National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The morning started off with a visit to the Wadden Sea Center, where we were introduced to the the park, the relationship between nature and tourism, and how the Wadden Sea was unique in its biodiversity.
We then went on an oyster safari in the Wadden Sea, traversing ca. 2.5km into the ocean during low-tide (our guide informed us that the difference in water level between low and high tide was 1m70!).
Once we reached an oyster reef, our guide showed us how to chuck and eat oysters, all the while informing us about the types of tourists these tours normally get, interesting information about the wildlife (including snails that surf the waves, and white-tailed eagles) and the importance of knowing how to navigate the landscape.
Safely back at the Wadden Sea Center, the TourNord group then held a brainstorming session on future development projects – inspired by the Wadden Sea excursion, sustainable tourism development was the focal point. After a great discussion (where many ideas where generated), we decided that coastal tourism in the Nordics is indeed incredibly unique in the world of tourism (and how to develop it sustainably). We will therefore continue working on developing a project revolving around Nordic Coastal Tourism at our next network meeting in Finland!
Our day ended by passing by Ribe, Denmark’s oldest town, and a well-known tourist destination.
TourNord on an oyster Safari in the Wadden Sea National Park!
Day 3: Sustainable Tourism Development: Academic discussions and practical realities
The final day of the network meeting had a very special guest – Professor of Tourism Janne Liburd from the University of Southern Denmark, and Chairman of the Board for the Wadden Sea National Park. Janne invited us to a scintillating group discussion on understanding collaborative and sustainable tourism development. We were inspired by Janne Liburd’s transformative approach to sustainable tourism development, and we collectively tried to see how we could introduce this paradigm shift of moving tourism as growth-based industry selling a ‘product’, to instead how tourism can be a generator of wellbeing (moving across domains of cultural, economic, and ecological wellbeing). Specifically, how tourism can move from an industry that depletes an area of its resources, to instead to become a holistic part of its habitat – something the UN development goals would definitely adhere to!
Timo Halttunen (University of Turku), Anders Karkov (Business Academy SouthWest), Christian Dragin-Jensen (Business Academy SouthWest) and Céline Kylänpää (University of Turku) presented their research last week at the NordYrk 2021 online conference at Linköping University, Sweden. With 193 registered participants, the conference brought many (Nordic) researchers and participants interested in the conference’s theme: “Transitions to, between, and within school and working life in vocational education and training”.
The Tournord members’ research, titled “Collaborative Problem Solving in Real-World Situations”, involved 4 case studies of culinary (VET) and tourism management (higher education) students in Finland and Denmark. Travelling to hotels in the cities of Sønderborg (DK) and Pori (FI), students were tasked on tackling a very (globally) relevant issue of food waste in the hospitality sector.
Lead author Timo Halttunen presented the case studies and findings, bringing to attention the impact of different conditions present at the workspace to collaborative problem solving. As Timo Halttunen states:
“In classrooms, problems have a clear starting point and a goal. At the workplace, problems are often ill-defined, meaning that the starting point and end result are not that clear. At the workplace students may or may not receive support for their problem solving, and they are left to their own devices. In our study, we found that access to expert skill and knowledge is crucial for success in collaborative problem solving. However, the students underused the learning affordances present at the workspace. Furthermore, it was important that students had an opportunity to access the authentic venue to explore the problem space. In this case, the restaurant for breakfast buffet at the hotel was a richer environment for student collaborative problem solving than a conference room or a pub at the same hotel. To conclude, it was important that teachers were present to intervene when needed, and to provide students with support in perspective taking and generating solutions. When students got back on track again, teachers stepped aside and let the students to develop their sense of agency and take charge of their own learning process”.
Timo Halttunen, Head of Brahea Development Services at University of Turku and Chairman of UCEF (University Continuing Education Network Finland).
The research contributes to the growing body of academic literature highlighting the need for teachers, educators and professionals to bridge the gap between classroom and workplace. Moreover, Collaborative problem solving provides a fascinating insight into solving ill-defined problems, a critical 21st century skill.
