Through our X-Nordic Travel Contest project, we have identified a range of challenges faced by Nordic tourism actors. To solve these challenges, we are now looking for solution providers bringing in genius ideas and innovative answers.
If we select your idea, you will get the opportunity to scale your solution across the Nordics and collaborate with key tourism industry stakeholders!
Does your organisation have the solutions to the following challenges?
1. PLANET PRESERVATION
Preserving our planet poses significant challenges for the tourism industry. Do you have a solution in sustainable practices, that ensures preservation of natural wonders, responsible consumption and can be scaled across the Nordics?
In this challenge, we are looking for solutions in areas such as:
- Local food sourcing
- Food waste reduction
- Pollution mitigation
- Responsible consumption
- Natural conservation
- Carbon footprint reduction
2. CO-CREATING A YEAR-ROUND 365 INDUSTRY
As seasons change, it creates considerable peaks and lulls in tourist activity. As the tourism industry is characterised by many small and medium sized businesses, developing sustainable economic business models become especially challenging due to the economic instability derived from varying visitor numbers. This also makes it difficult to offer stable, long-term employment opportunities. Could you be part of solving the challenges posed by seasonality?
In this challenge, we are looking for solutions in areas such as:
- Workforce attraction and retention
- Cooperative solutions that could allow for shared solutions to seasonality, i.e. co-ownership of products, spaces, funding, workforce and more
- Solutions that share risk and commitment to staying open outside of season across different tourism businesses
- Solutions that actively match visitor expectations when visiting outside of high season and potentially during periods of unpredictable weather
3. ‘ECO’-NOMIC BUSINESS MODELS FOR TOURISM SMEs
For small and medium-sized businesses in the Nordic tourism sector, investing in the necessary components for sustainability focused business models can be a daunting task and investment. Whether it’s adopting ESG practices, investing in new green solutions, delving into carbon accounting, or exploring the next leading initiative, effective sustainability management is paramount for the future of Nordic tourism. The challenge, however, lies in making it manageable, affordable, accessible and with a competitive advantage for small tourism businesses.
In this challenge, we are looking for solutions in areas such as:
- Streamlining sustainability management processes, specifically tailored for SMEs
- Co-operative funding, platforms, financial models and more
- Energy optimisation
- Carbon accounting
- Financial models with an environmental focus
- Transparent financial models
- Tools to address complexity and expertise requirements in sustainability management
Background
This Call for Proposals is a part of the X-Nordic Travel Contest which is funded under the Tourism in the Nordics special initiative which aims to facilitate Nordic cooperation on innovation in the tourism industry, and contribute to a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable region. The focus is on development of new sustainable business models and innovative digital solutions.
The X-Nordic Travel Contest is developed in collaboration with Group NAO, Happy42 and Design Nation.
