Tourism and Experience Management
Competitiveness through innovations in tourism and experience management
In 2020, Finland will be a top tourism destination in Europe providing easy access and premium-quality year-round services. The tourism offer is based on unspoiled natural landscapes and unique Finnish culture. In this way, the Finnish tourism industry will be able to build sustainable destinations and provide meaningful experiences for both business and pleasure.
To reach this vision, Tourism and Experience Management Cluster Programme integrates the expertise of the leading tourism and experience management centres of research and innovation in Finland.
Tourism industry is today globally defined in the wider context of the experience economy. Tourism and Experience Management Competence Cluster is especially interested in innovations which interlink experience management, electronic business and service design. These are the key areas of research and development activities, which provide new methodologies for the renewal of business models and the generation of new branch-breaking service innovations.
The Centres of Expertise that Tourism and Experience Management Cluster Programme are Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience Industry (LEO), Savonlinna Region (Savonlinna Innovation Centre Ltd), Helsinki region Centre of Expertise (Culminatum Innovation), Turku Centre for Expertise (Turku Science Park Oy / Turku Touring), Jyväskylä Centre for Expertise (Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences / Jyväskylä Innovation Ltd (associate member)
Strategic Focus areas
The main resources of the cluster will be allocated to destination business networks, Experience Labs, comprised of businesses, universities and public sector actors under specific areas.
The Experience Lab is an adaptation of the Living Lab model for the specific r&d&i needs of the tourism and experience management sector, where innovations are co-created with real users, i.e. tourists, in real life environments.
The cluster is committed to an integrated and long-term development and follow-up of the development processes in the Experience Labs for the benefit of the tourism business.
International expertise boosts the future-oriented development of the Experience Labs cover the whole country from north to south and from west to east including both urban and rural areas and present a diverse range of expertise from cultural history to modern city culture.
Contact details
Asta Wallenius
Programme Director
Tel. +358 400 356 015
c/o MEK
PL 625
00101 Helsinki
asta.wallenius(at)leofinland.fi
Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience Industry LEO
Ainonkatu 1
FI 96200 Rovaniemi
Finland
Tel. + 358 (0)16 362 680
www.leofinland.fi
