Light in the Dark at MATKA 24

The Baltic Sea Region project Light in the Dark was well represented at the MATKA travel fair 2024 in Helsinki with 12 partner organisations, associated partners and members of the steering committee. After many years of uncertainty in the tourism industry there was much positivity and strong belief in the future, despite the challenging economic climate and world turbulence impacting our region. 

MATKA is the largest travel industry event in Northern Europe and held in January each year. The fair brings suppliers and buyers from the Nordic countries and indeed around the world together. In addition to the professional days, accessed by invitation, there are three days open to the general public.

The fair offers the perfect opportunity for gaining a feeling for the industry pulse, delving into emerging trends and participating in workshops and seminars. On the fair floor we met with our partner organisations and associated partners and steering committee members. It is an important event for maintaining contacts and relations with industry movers and shakers.

There are a number of solidifying trends that Light in the Dark will address and try to implement in our project in order to bring maximum benefit to the rural areas where we work. At both national and international workshops, there was strong focus upon sustainable tourism development that starts with the needs of the destination communities and not on the potential of market demand. To create viable sustainable tourism offerings, we need to attract the right customer base that will give maximum benefit to our areas. These benefits are not only economic through increased employment possibilities but considered in a broader context of social and environmental positive impacts upon the community.

There were several presentations and workshops where it was clearly shown that this niche segment can give destinations many benefits with lesser negative impacts. For example, a traveller spend of 76% locally at the destination, directly benefiting local family owned SMEs.

Light in the Dark is currently preparing two surveys based on both market demand and the needs and challenges of SMEs in the rural coastal area of the Baltic Sea. The analysis and outcomes of this will form a base for the concept development process that we will implement transnationally in this year.

We should also mention two prizes awarded by The Finnish Guild of Travel Journalists (link in Finnish) at the fair with themes that have a very high importance within the project group. Project partner Cursor/ Visit Kotka Hamina won best domestic destination for their phone-free island Ulko-Tammio. Silence being a strong focus element in our project. Latvia won best foreign destination for its work as a culinary destination. Kurzeme Planning Region is the Light in the Dark partner working with the coastal area of Latvia.

Attendees gained much information and knowledge through workshops, sales meetings with tour operators and from B2C marketing on the current trends and needs within the industry.

We will take this experience to the project through the network of 41 organisation that make up the core partner and stakeholder group. Especially SMEs can be inspired to develop their own unique service offerings when presented with award winning examples.

One of the challenges of our project is to design tourism offerings that are the right fit for the destinations in the rural areas around the Baltic Sea coastline. 

We will return to Matka 25 with at least the same number of partners and will be able to present the preliminary product offerings that will be designed by the roughly 30 tourism SMEs participating in the concept development workshops that Novia will lead during this autumn.  The fair will be an excellent testing ground for feedback on the new marketing concepts and packages.

James Simpson, Project manager
Lead partner, Novia University of Applied Sciences

The blogpost has been reviewed by Novia's editorial board and accepted for publication on 30.8.2024.