Developing Tourism in Municipality centres Janne Mukkala, Project Manager Region of Northern Lapland

Region of Northern Lapland Region of Northern Lapland  Municipalities of Sodankylä, Inari & Utsjoki –over inhabitants –total area km2

Background  Two major fjell resorts in the area –Luosto –Saariselkä  Bypassers –on their way to Nordkapp  Problem of out-migration –tourism to maintain existing service structure –tourism to create new commercial services

Goals  Get ideas to generate projects in coming years  Increase tourism and attractiveness of municipality centres –find out what are the main issues attracting tourists in municipality centres –how they should be developed as tourism destinations

Travellerquestionnaire  Collect ideas how to develop municipality centres as tourist attractions  Questionnaires in hotels when checking in  In finnish, english and french  Voluntary drawing of lots to encourage travellers to answer

Thematic interview  Key-actors in the area –entrepreneurs, civil servants  Local culture –Samì  Tradition  Local products –reindeer

Competition  Travellers, local people  ”How would you develop traveller-services and tourist-attractions in the municipality centres of Sodankylä, Ivalo and Utsjoki”  Local newspapers, internet-sites  Feet-on-the-ground or future possibilities  Student-groups to develop ideas

Environmental art products  Small scale environmental art products  Limited places in the city-centres  Lightning  Environment and community –Real character of the site –Concrete plans to built real art  turning cultural heritage into tourist-attraction

Results  Results will be reported and presented in November –entrepreneurs, civil servants  Recommendation of achievements will be made after reporting to key-actors

Funding and administration  European social fund  Region of Northern Lapland  Municipalities of Sodankylä, Inari and Utsjoki  The State Provincial Office of Lapland