Sustainable urban nature routes using new IT solutions

The big cities around the Baltic Sea are mainly well known for their built and historical districts but the cities can also boast about the biodiversity richness and high value of nature in urban areas. Most of these urban nature areas are undeservingly poorly recognized even by the local inhabitants, not to mention tourists. The objectives of the NATTOURS project are to improve public recognition of natural tourist attractions in Helsinki and Tallinn and to develop joint tourist attractions and products for sustainable nature tourism between the cities.

The project will study visitor flows, biodiversity and ecosystem services to gather data needed for the creation of new nature attractions, build the platform for a web portal and a mobile application and market the new possibilities through tourism info centres.

By the end of the project a new common web portal and mobile application for nature tourism and education in Helsinki and Tallinn will be in use, including all urban nature areas for observing, learning about and enjoying nature. New sustainable nature attractions in good nature observation areas in Helsinki and in Tallinn will be created by building e.g. boardwalks, bird-watching towers and information boards. The disabled and elderly people are taken into special consideration when designing the attractions.