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Project code: A75167
Project name: Level up, Ruotsinsalmi 2020!
Policy: 1. Competitiveness of SMEs
Specific objective: 1.1. Creating new business activities
Planned completion time: Start 1.9.2019 and end 31.7.2021
Operational status: Ended
Responsible authority: Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council
Official name of the applicant: Cursor Oy
Organisation type: Other legal person governed by public law
Business ID: 0727178-6
Street: Kyminlinnantie 6, PL 14
Telephone number: +358 40 1902500
Postal code: 48601
City/town: Kotka
Website: http://www.cursor.fi
Project contact person's name: Marjo Satu Johanna Luomi
Contact person's position in the organisation: Koordinaattori, kehittämishankkeet ja -palvelut
Contact person’s email address: marjo.luomi(at)cursor.fi
Contact person's phone number: +358 40 1902575
Number of applicants or subsidy transfer:
ABSTRACT
The Level Up, Ruotsinsalmi 2020! project responds to the need to develop new cultural tourism and experience tourism products in the Kotka-Hamina and Kymenlaakso region, and also, for example, cultural services of an international standard for international cruise passengers. The services are developed in accordance with the selected Ruotsinsalmi theme. The project theme selected is Ruotsinsalmi, because an exhibition presenting the second naval battle of Ruotsinsalmi between Sweden and Russia in 1790 will be opened in Maritime Centre Vellamo in 2020. The exhibition will provide an unforeseen experience of the battle between the two great powers. The perspective is both global and local. Comprehensive research work conducted for the exhibition provides the foundation for commercialisation.
Objectives of project:
1. Improve the business expertise and profitability of cultural and tourism operators by means of a startup accelerator programme aimed at cultural and tourism operators.
2. Develop new services and products in Kymenlaakso based on genuine historical stories, and improve the quality of existing services.
3. Attract new service and tourism enterprises and experts to the region.
4. Increase the number of tourists in Kymenlaakso.
5. Compile a content bank of the stories of the region to serve as the foundation of commercialisation.
6. Strengthen the co-operation among the fragmented operator community; in the future, this will also benefit the execution of other theme and festive years in Kymenlaakso.
In terms of the horizontal objectives, the project will support the equal opportunities of the genders to participate in the action implemented within the project. The marketing measures include the encouragement of especially those service enterprises that are run by women to participate in the startup accelerator programme, among other things. However, it is also taken into account that women have traditionally been represented well in the tourism industry, which is why the goal is to reach other players, too, in order to promote mainstreaming.
The project will promote general awareness of the characteristic features of the region, also the special characteristics of local natural environment, and will pay attention to issues such as restrictions imposed by protected areas on tourist attractions. The new business created as a result of the project will diversify the business structure in the region. The project will bring the historical stories of the region to the present day and consolidate the cultural identity and understanding of the local residents.
Action:
WP1: Strengthening and co-ordination of co-operation between cultural and tourism operators
1. Surveying of existing services and events suited to the Ruotsinsalmi theme.
2. Empowerment of local players to co-operation in order to develop new tourism services.
3. Contacts with stakeholders such as educational establishments and nation-wide cultural and event operators.
WP2: Startup accelerator programme with Ruotsinsalmi theme
1. The startup accelerator programme for cultural and tourism operators and enterprises utilising the Level Up startup accelerator platform and its good practices and experiences. The programme is free of charge and available to all cultural and tourism operators (such as museums, orchestras, events), companies and students in the field. The startup accelerator programme processes and tests new tourism and cultural services in a customer-focused manner. This takes place with student teams and under the supervision of mentors of international level. For students, the project and startup accelerator offer an opportunity to develop skills and expertise needed in the life of work in actual development projects, or even to create new companies around the services developed.
2. Linking cultural and tourism operators as part of the startup ecosystem in the Kymenlaakso region.
3. Other training.
WP3: Reinforcement of marketing expertise, and communications
1. Content and material bank: Compiling stories related to the Ruotsinsalmi theme into a content bank, which can be utilised by various players in the development of services and products.
2. Communication and marketing campaigns within the Ruotsinsalmi startup accelerator programme; these also serve as an international marketing tool for the region.
3. Reinforcing the co-operation between the players by means of communications. “Kaakon kajauttajat” and other communities to pass on the message about the Ruotsinsalmi theme.
Results:
WP1: Reinforcement of co-operation
- Putting together existing products, services and events, which suit the selected Ruotsinsalmi theme, into a mutually beneficial entity.
- Reinforcement of co-operation between various players also in a manner than benefits upcoming theme and festive years.
- Linking cultural operators and tourism operators to the startup ecosystem in the Kymenlaakso region. New way of conducting co-operation between museums, other cultural organisations and operators as well as businesses and educational establishments.
WP2: Startup accelerator programme with Ruotsinsalmi theme
- New business and expertise for enterprises and other cultural operators and tourism operators.
- New cultural and tourism service enterprises and experts in the region.
- New services for customers, integrated into the actual historical stories of the region and created on the basis of its genuine cultural legacy.
WP3: Reinforcement of marketing expertise, and communications
- The project will also be used for compiling a content bank that will benefit subsequent commercialisation. Compilation of scientific contents produced by the researchers of Maritime Centre Vellamo and other existing stories to serve as the foundation of commercialisation. This will also consolidate the opportunities of academics to commercialise their own expertise.
- With successful international marketing of the startup accelerator programme, it is possible to obtain new international experts and teams to Kymenlaakso.
- Utilisation of the special characteristics and unique history of the region also in the marketing of the region to both Finnish and international target groups.
Ensisijaisena kohderyhmänä ovat kulttuuri- ja matkailualojen yritykset ja toimijat sekä opiskelijat.
Hyödynsaajina ovat jälleenmyyjien ja jakeluverkostojen kautta kotimaiset ja ulkomaiset kuluttajat.
Asukkaat ja matkailijat, kuluttajat.
EU and State funding granted: 106 568
EU and State funding used: 90 106
Planned public funding (total): 152 240
Planned public funding used (total): 129 133
Regions: Kymenlaakso
Subregions: Kotka-Hamina, Kouvola
Municipalities: Kouvola, Pyhtää, Hamina, Miehikkälä, Virolahti, Kotka
Street:
Postal code:
City/town:
Planned: 4, in which women are employed 2
Completed according to monitoring information: 4.00, in which women are employed 1.00
Planned: 2, which are founded by women 1
Completed according to monitoring information: 3.00, which are founded by women 0.00
| Direct | Indirect | |
| Luonnonvarojen käytön kestävyys | 2 | 4 |
| Hanke edistää matkailun kestävää kehitystä Kymenlaaksossa. | ||
| Ilmastonmuutoksen aiheuttamien riskien vähentäminen | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali | ||
| Kasvillisuus, eliöt ja luonnon monimuotoisuus | 0 | 4 |
| Hanke edistää osaltaan yleistä tietoisuutta alueen ominaispiirteistä, myös luonnon erityislaadusta, ja ottaa huomioon esim. suojelualueiden rajoitukset matkailukohteina. | ||
| Pinta- ja pohjavedet, maaperä sekä ilma (ja kasvihuonekaasujen väheneminen) | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali | ||
| Natura 2000 -ohjelman kohteet | 0 | 1 |
| Hanke edistää osaltaan yleistä tietoisuutta alueen ominaispiirteistä, myös luonnon erityislaadusta, ja ottaa huomioon esim. suojelualueiden rajoitukset matkailukohteina. | ||
| Materiaalit ja jätteet | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali | ||
| Uusiutuvien energialähteiden käyttö | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali | ||
| Paikallisen elinkeinorakenteen kestävä kehittäminen | 3 | 5 |
| Hankkeen avulla parannetaan poikkialaista kulttuuri- ja matkailutoimijoiden yhteistyötä, lisätään alueen vetovoimaa, saavutetaan uusia avauksia sekä kehitetään uutta liiketoimintaa paikallisen elinkeinorakenteen kehittämiseksi ja paikallistalouden vahvistamiseksi kestävän kehityksen periaattein. | ||
| Aineettomien tuotteiden ja palvelujen kehittäminen | 9 | 9 |
| Hankkeella kehitetään uutta liiketoimintaa, tuotteita ja palveluja alueellisesta kulttuuriperinnöstä ja erityispiirteistä paikallisella yhteistyöllä. | ||
| Liikkuminen ja logistiikka | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali | ||
| Hyvinvoinnin edistäminen | 8 | 9 |
| Alueen kulttuuripalvelujen kehittäminen lisää asukkaiden hyvinvointia. | ||
| Tasa-arvon edistäminen | 0 | 0 |
| Hanke on tältä osin neutraali. | ||
| Yhteiskunnallinen ja kulttuurinen yhdenvertaisuus | 5 | 8 |
| Hanke huomioi yhteiskunnallisen ja kulttuurisen yhdenvertaisuuden. | ||
| Kulttuuriympäristö | 9 | 8 |
| Hanke edistää alueen virkistysalueiden, kulttuuriperinnön, rakennusten kestävää käyttöä matkailu-ja virkistyskohteina sekä asukkaille että matkailijoille. Seudun historiallisten tarinoiden tuominen tähän päivään vahvistaa asukkaiden kulttuurista identiteettiä ja ymmärrystä seudun kulttuuriympäristön erityislaatuisuudesta ja suojelutarpeesta. | ||
| Ympäristöosaaminen | 0 | 2 |
| Parempi seudun historiallinen tuntemus herättää halun ja ymmärryksen suojella ja säilyttää ympäristö myös tuleville sukupolville. |
The basic idea of the project was to carry out international tourism-themed Level-Up training with an aim to improve the internationalisation capacity of the participant companies. Soon after the start of the project, the global coronavirus pandemic began, closing borders and nearly fully ceasing international travel. This also impacted the target group of the project and the focus shifted to the development of local tourism and cultural enterprises.
Tourism in our region has leaned very heavily on group sales, but with the pandemic, this target group disappeared. We had to find ways to gain new customers and to develop services to be more suitable for individual travellers. As a first step, we provided productisation and pricing training aimed to train the entrepreneurs to productise and market their own products. For many entrepreneurs, one-on-one support was also provided in order to ease the product development process. In one way or another, most services produced were tied around the Ruotsinsalmi theme.
Entrepreneurs were offered the opportunity to become a part of the online store selection on the visitkotkahamina.travel online store. They were offered information about this e-commerce platform, as well as concrete help in entering their products into the system. With the support of the project, we also offered entrepreneurs a sub-account model to the online store that allows entrepreneurs to join the platform free of charge for the first two years.
From the product offering companies, sixteen entrepreneurs were selected to make a short marketing video with. These videos were used in our social media campaign in July 2021, which sought visibility for both the travel products and our online store. The campaign was a great success and more visibility was gained for the products than initially anticipated. The campaign received 638,000 ad views and 251,000 full-viewed videos on YouTube.
The Ruotsinsalmi themed Facebook and Instagram campaign utilised the above-mentioned products as well as other materials related to Ruotsinsalmi. The campaign produced 12 different funded posts, that reached 1.65 million views and clicks on the online store for nearly 3,000 pcs. The campaign was especially successful when compared to our previous campaigns for the same target audience. In addition to paid campaigns, we also carried out organic social media marketing.
During the project, we managed to develop service offerings of the participant companies and also to sell the products in an innovative way. The development of our online store and new travel products will be continued by the administrator also after the end of this project.