At the beginning of the project, there was done necessary studies to guide future actions. The studies gave us an idea of the market, the demand situation and the interest in opening up cruise traffic from Finland to Russia. In both studies (made in Finland and Russia), the results showed that there is interest and potential to open sea routes from Kotka to St. Petersburg and Vyborg. The coherent history of the area was highlighted in the studies as an interesting and useful feature.It was focused on specific target groups (pensioners couples, city-travellers and families). The number of destinations/product packages was limited to three per city, one product for each target group. The idea was to highlight the cities’, passenger ports and the cities themselves through the packages.
After the outbreak of war, were focused the project measures only on the east coast of Finland. Attracting shipowners to the region was challenging. Shipowners make careful calculations about where to place their vessels. In cooperation with local actors/entrepreneurs, were focused on developing island products and related service/product packages. There were supported operators with workshops and also highlighted the archipelago as a whole through digital channels. As a result of these measures, operators/entrepreneurs have created 11 new/processed service products. The range of products targeted both individual consumers and groups.
View this project in keep.eu
