Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2023-11-11

Description

Description (EN):

The Baltic Sea archipelago of Stockholm, Åland and Turku is known as a nature tourism area. However, accessibility is still considered to be weak, cultural heritage, insular way of life and digital technology have not been utilized enough when creating valuable experiences for visitors during pre-, on-site and post-visit phases. Other challenges are low co-operation across borders and shortages in service chains. The overall objective is to develop existing, though almost untapped defence historical resources of Gålö seal farm, Bomarsund fortress, southern cape of Örö and Korpoström into appealing and sustainable destinations by increasing the awareness and experience value. There are three sub-objectives: 1. the experience value will be improved by creating story-rich and informative digital content to illustrate the destinations, 2. the development will be supported by resolving shortages in infrastructure, supply chain and overall attraction management, 3. the aspects of cultural, ecological, economic and social sustainability in insular tourism are analyzed, and embedded in the actions and outputs of the project in order to increase the understanding of sustainability among visitors, locals, companies, tourism developers and public actors. The project develops digital outputs for marketing and enrichment of visits, accessibility solutions, especially environmentally and culturally sustainable solutions, cross-border archipelago heritage tour suggestions, improved service chains, multidisciplinary development methods and e.g. joint virtual publication summarizing the best practices. In the end the four attractions will form a themed tourism attraction highlighting the history especially from the defence point of view. Improved accessibility and experience value have increased the number of visits, length of stay and tourism expenditure to revitalize business opportunities. Jointly developed solutions are also transferred to other insular destinations.

Achievements (EN):

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago: The DefenceArch project created a tourism attraction consisting of existing, though almost untapped defence historical sites in the archipelago: the Gålö seal farm in Sweden close to the capital city Stokckholm, the Bomarsund fortress in Åland, the southern cape of Örö and Korpoström in Turku archipelago. Project partnership addressed the challenges of the archipelago tourism with a multidisciplinary expertise. It used knowledge and expertise of tourism, content marketing, service design, storytelling, sustainable development, accessibility, history, ICT and digital media, construction and renovation of historical heritage. The experiences and approaches are well described in the final project publication “Bunkers, battles, ruins and seals: developing thematic tourism in the Baltic Sea archipelagos”. And the jointly developed solutions are also transferred to other insular destinations. In 2016, representatives of the project partners held cross-audits on the marketing communications, availability, services and infrastructure of all the pilots in order to specify the key project activities. In accordance with the principle of cultural sustainability, local representatives from regional history associations and societies also participated in the work. A sustainable development expert from TUAS gave recommendations to the destinations. In summer 2017, customers’ opinions and ideas for the development of individual destinations were charted with the help of a survey. In 2018, customer surveys were conducted to receive feedback on completed or current project activities. A lot of historical and visual data were collected in the beginning of project about the destination. The collected materials were transformed into appealing stories. In result new digital content was produced about the Gålö seal station, the Bomarsund ruins, the Korpoström area and the southern tip of Örö. There is now a story-rich and informative digital content to illustrate the destinations and their cultural heritage. The electronic brochures presenting 11 defence heritage destinations in English, Swedish and Finnish as pdfs you can find here. There are tour suggestions highlighting the history especially from the defence point of view. More information about the project and all destinations can be found in the project website: https://visitdefencearch.turkuamk.fi/

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R2.1. More sustainable joint natural and cultural heritage based tourist attractions

Expected Outputs (EN):

The outputs of the project are 1. Digital outputs (both destination specific and joint) to stimulate visits, to help to plan the trip and to enrich the experience (e.g. story-rich videos, podcasts, pictures, mobile tourist guide, new digital marketing content with language versions illustrating the defense history linked to the archipelago features), 2. All destinations’ accessibility is improved after designing a more seamless service chain covering pre-visit, on-site visit and post-visit (e.g. by removing obstacles in physical accessibility, improving signs, routes and information of the services). Two totally new attractions (Gålö and southern cape of Örö) opened for public after renovating the rundown buildings and constructions. 3. Environmentally sustainable solutions are developed after utilizing a practical tool (e.g. Ecocompass) in the pilot destinations. Aspects of cultural and environmental sustainability are also embedded in the digital outputs. 4. Cross-border tour suggestions for chosen target groups are created and marketed. 5. Multidisciplinary development methods are developed (workshops and cross audits of the pilot destinations involve partners, experts, local entrepreneurs, education and research organizations, authorities, tourism organisations) and a virtual publication of the best practices is summarized in order to exploit the results of the project. In the end the four attractions will form a themed tourism attraction highlighting the history especially from the defense point of view. From domestic and international tourists’ point of view, diversity of the offerings is increased and experience value as well as accessibility to and between the destinations enhanced. From project partners, entrepreneurs, heritage associations'' point of view grown awareness and developed supply have increased the number of visits, length of stay and tourism expenditure revitalizing business opportunities.

Thematic information

Cultural heritage and arts Tourism

Specific Objective: Natural and cultural resources developed into sustainable tourist attractions

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06c) Conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage

Partners (5)

Lead Partner: Turun ammattikorkeakoulu Oy

Department: Faculty of Business, ICT and Chemical Engineering

Address: Joukahaisenkatu 3 A, 20520 Turku, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.tuas.fi

Total budget: EUR 297 607.67

ERDF budget: EUR 223 205.75

Skärgårdsstiftelsen i Stockholms län

Name: Skärgårdsstiftelsen i Stockholms län

Address: P.O. box 7669, 10394 Stockholm, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.archipelagofoundation.se

Total budget: EUR 414 643.28

ERDF budget: EUR 310 982.46

Metsähallitus / Rannikon luontopalvelut

Name: Metsähallitus / Rannikon luontopalvelut

Department: Parks & Wildlife Finland, Natural heritage services - Southern Finland

Address: P.O. box 94, 1301 Vantaa, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.metsa.fi

Total budget: EUR 459 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 344 250.00

Visit Åland

Name: Visit Åland

Address: Storagatan 8, 22100 Mariehamn, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.visitaland.com

Total budget: EUR 242 247.30

ERDF budget: EUR 181 685.48

Åbolands Skärgårdsstiftelse rs

Name: Åbolands Skärgårdsstiftelse rs

Address: Korpoströmsvägen 832, 21720 Korpoström, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.abolandsskargardsstiftelse.fi

Total budget: EUR 121 163.00

ERDF budget: EUR 90 872.25

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Stockholm Archipelago Foundation

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Partners and Projects info

Parks & Wildlife Finland, Coastal and Metropolitan Area

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Partners and Projects info

Visit Åland

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Partners and Projects info

The Åboland Archipelago Foundation

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Partners and Projects info

Turku University of Applied Sciences Ltd.

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Project acronym: DefenceArch

Project start date: 2016-09-01

Project end date: 2019-05-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 534 661.25

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 1 150 995.94

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 1 150 995.94.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Presentations

Bunkers, Battles, Ruins and Seals - developing thematic tourism in teh Baltic Sea Archipelagos

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Presentation

Data source: https://visitdefencearch.turkuamk.fi/

Publication date: 2020-01-27

Document date: 2019-05-31

Languages: en

Attachment link: https://readymag.com/coastalpast/974041/2/

Videos / films

Coastal Past Final

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: http://database.centralbaltic.eu/project/58

Publication date: 2020-01-30

Document date: 2017-03-01

Languages: en

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

Languages

Contact Form

Footprints of Defence in the Archipelago

Description

Thematic information

Partners (5)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Disclaimer