Central Baltic Project Database - Rural and peripheral development

Rural lifestyle project was creating attractive rural lifestyle destinations

marika.bogel-leino — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 08:40:17 +0000

New attractive and sustainable Rural Lifestyle tourism product was developed – destinations around the Baltic Sea (Estonia – Setomaa historic region, Vana-Võromaa historic region, Mulgimaa historic region, Onion Route – the shores of Lake Peipsi, Soomaa National Park, Lahemaa National Park; Latvia – Abava river valley, Sēlija, North Vidzeme, Gauja National Park; Sweden – Söderhamn; Finland –Åland, Archipelago of Kökar in Åland, Brändö island in Åland, Lappo island in Åland, Jurmo island in Åland, Lohja), altogether 39 new products. The project partnership developed a joint Rural Lifestyle destination and a new brand GORURAL which is very attractive in foreign and domestic tourism markets. First 39 RL products and more than six smaller destinations are promoted via the RL website, printed and digital marketing materials.

Regarding the increase in the number of visitors, the target value was 3000 visitors. Due to the different sizes of the regions and other conditions, each pilot region analysed the increased number of visitors as a result of the project according to its own methodology. The project reached and exceeded the set target value with 6555 new RL foreign visitors, and added 83850 domestic visitors.

Tags:

Tourism

Rural and peripheral development

Attachment:

Baltic Cuisine: Local food and drinks

Living with and within nature

Handmade products from the countryside

Sauna rituals

Guidebook for Rural Lifestyle destination and product development

Rural Lifestyle product manual 2022

External link:

GoRural website

Category:

Joint tourist attraction

At a glance text:

a joint Rural Lifestyle destination and a new brand GORURAL were developed
to attract new foreign and domestic tourists
39 Rural Lifestyle products and more than six smaller destinations are promoted via different channels

Project link:

Creating attractive rural lifestyle destinations

ACTIVE AGE improved an equal access of long-term unemployed seniors to labour market in rural areas

daiga.jumburga — Fri, 07 May 2021 12:00:55 +0000

The main result of the project - social well-being of local people aged 55+ has been improved through higher employment and incomes. Participants of the project gained practical skills, knowledge, self-esteem, self-confidence. Motivation of seniors have improved and they have better access to local labor market now, some seniors have already found a new job.

More than 400 members of the target group participated in the project activities and got both practical skills and encouragement. The interest towards project activities was big in the target group and the planned target value of 100 participants was exceeded a lot. Practical and theoretical trainings such as handicraft, English and computer courses were appreciated by all participants. Especially for seniors who have been unemployed for a long period of time and needed more personal approach and support because of low self-confidence, support of the group and mentoring to improve the participants’ self-esteem were important. Joint study tours and visits were organised to strengthen the cross-boarder network and to share good ideas and experiences.

Through the networking and people-to-people communication seniors received new ideas which can be used in making better choices and improving their social well-being in the future. Participants plan to use their new skills to find a job, earn additional income or create new activities as NGO or self-employed person. Other organisations in CB area can use the results of the survey to develop integration measures for similar target groups.

Tags:

Labour market and employment

Rural and peripheral development

Attachment:

Survey report (EST)

Survey report (LAT)

Category:

Improved community

At a glance text:

Partners from Estonia and Latvia
Improved social well-being of local people aged 55+
Developed practical skills and knowledge

Project link:

Equal access of long-term unemployed seniors to labour market in rural areas

Archipelago Partnership encouraged to new business ideas, network and development

ester.miiros — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 12:36:15 +0000

The project Archipelago - strategic partnerships for business development inspired entrepreneurs in the archipelago and rural areas to develop through partnerships and training in Finland (including Aland Islands) and Sweden. The archipelago regions have certain challenges: small scale communities, depopulation, aging generation, strong seasonality, lower accessibility, etc.

The project wanted a minimum of 60 existing SMEs to take part of a development process, - the result was 185 companies involved in activities during three years. Different companies joined along the way, some participating in only one activity, whereas others participated in several.

As the main results the project targeted to achieve 5 new startup companies and 10 new business models developed by existing companies.
By the end of the project 12 new startups and 22 new business models through diversification and new seasonal solutions were achieved thus exceeding the targeted results.

The exceeding results show these activities were needed and filled a gap among the archipelago entrepreneurs. The partners’ solid start-up expertise, coaching techniques and innovative models for cross-border business development as the "Loopa” method were just on spot and successful tools in the project.

Students were also engaged in almost all project activities and therefore the actual amount exceeded the targeted by far (more than 200 student projects by about 80 students). Student involvement included course work, theses, hackathon, communication activities and internships.

The use of digital technology resulted in a new platform for information and networking www.archipelagobusiness.nu, which one partner stays responsible for.

The project results have already created new working methods and networks in the Turku archipelago area, so the lessons learned during project time have been capitalised.

“The main achievement is that we managed to reach and inspire a large group of archipelago entrepreneurs to develop their businesses together with each other. We managed this through our numerous activities, the matchmaking seminars, business clinics, accelerator program, international forums, and benchmarking trips, as well as through student assignments and individual consulting by our experts.
The entrepreneurs received new contacts, ideas, and tools and most importantly, courage to expand their current businesses into new areas and fields.
They also received hands on assistance regarding pricing, marketing, and search engine optimization, for example. … and more importantly, the entrepreneurs learned that they are not alone.”

Project website with all information https://www.archipelagobusiness.eu/

Tags:

New products and services

Rural and peripheral development

SME and entrepreneurship

External link:

Skärgårdsföretagarportalen Portal for archipelago business information and network

Category:

Joint knowledge intensive enterprise

At a glance text: