ENDED. The Sustainable Gateways (SG) project develops small boat harbors located in national parks and nature reserves in the Finnish (4 harbors) and Swedish (3 harbors) outer archipelagoes. With the project´s support, these harbors become sustainable and attractive gateways destinations for boaters.

The project focuses on environmental sustainability, customer satisfaction, harbor operator´s business knowledge and increased regional nature-tourism and it is divided into four inter-linked work packages: 1) investments, 2) development of services and business, 3) marketing and networking and 4) environmental awareness. Investments, in the harbors,mean improved accessibility and safety thanks to increased pier capacity and better harbor planning. Environmental protection equipment such as waste water treatment and waste management facilities are updated. New service facilities will be built for visitors, e.g. saunas and service buildings. The operational development component improves the managerial skills of the harbor operators and encourages them to offer new services. This will be achieved by joint training, exchange of experiences and harbor-specific business development. Joint marketing increases visibility and attractiveness of the networked gateway harbors. Environmental information is distributed to visitors in the harbors to influence their behavior. These activities will increase mobility and nature-based tourism in the outer archipelagoes in a sustainable way.

The seven localities that the project is delevoping, will showcase sustainable and customer-oriented harbor management. In addition, the results of the project will be summarized into a Sustainable Harbor Development Manual to be used in developing other harbors with similar challenges and aims. Thus, the results may be disseminated to other harbors contributing to their development and environmental protection.