Projects
The Center for Tourism Business Development coordinates regional, national, and international projects. The Center also specialises in coordinating micro and small entrepreneurs’ business clusters in which entrepreneurs develop their business operations together. Most of the projects are funded by the European Union.
The themes of the projects are closely linked to:
- skills development
- tourism coordination, establishing and coordinating networks
- tourism recovery and resilience
- internationalisation of tourism enterprises
- employment in tourism enterprises
- sustainable and responsible tourism, circular economy in tourism
- digital development in the tourism industry
- tourism in different business environments: coastal, maritime, and rural tourism as well as nature-based, food, and cultural tourism
Regional projects
Duration: 1.1.2022 - 31.12.2024
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Juhana Aalto, juhana.aalto@samk.fi
The 100Bike project is an initiative aimed at coordinating and harmonizing the implementation of development actions related to bicycle tourism in the Satakunta region. The project supports tourism businesses and other stakeholders in the region in the development of services tailored for bicycle tourists, thus promoting responsible and sustainable tourism in the area. The project aims to enhance the knowledge and expertise of stakeholders in bicycle tourism. Additionally, the project aims to develop a cycling route in the Kokemäenjokilaakso area (Kokemäki River Valley) and plan further actions at the regional level. The project is managed and primarily carried out by Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, with Ekokumppanit Oy participating as a co-implementer.
Duration: 1.11.2022 – 31.12.2024
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Terja Wahlberg, terja.wahlberg@samk.fi
The main objective of the Gurmeeta project is to make food tourism an attractive factor in the Satakunta region. The project will strengthen Satakunta's position as a national food tourism region by exploiting the province's traditional food culture and its strengths in food and food production.
The aim is also to promote the sustainable use of food and food products and natural products produced in the region as a key element of food tourism. The project will intensify network-like cooperation in food tourism in Satakunta and linking Satakunta to national food tourism development activities.
Duration: 1.3.2024 – 31.3.2025
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Niina Aalto, niina.k.aalto@samk.fi
The aim of the Nature Trails - Satakunta nature tourism trails and destinations data repository project is to create a data repository for nature tourism destinations and trails in Satakunta.
Duration: 1.1.2019–31.12.2024
Funding: The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Saila Valkeaniemi, saila.valkeaniemi@samk.fi
The Satakunta tourism internationalisation project was a joint project promoting the international growth of small businesses in rural areas, encouraging cooperation and close partnership between the businesses to attract international tourists to the region. The project also aimed at finding and testing innovative methods for achieving the market in the target countries, but also uses traditional methods from fairs to workshops, visits to tour operators and media visits. The project strengthened the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Satakunta countryside as an international tourist destination.
Duration: 1.3.2024 – 30.6.2026
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Annika Koskenkorva, annika.koskenkorva@samk.fi
The main aim of the project is to develop smart and sustainable tourism business in Satakunta. The project will provide information and increase the knowledge of tourism operators in Satakunta, especially companies, on new technological trends in business, digital tools and knowledge management. In addition, the project will strategically develop knowledge management in tourism in Satakunta at the target level. The project will also generate knowledge and increase the competence of tourism operators in integrating smart tools to support environmental management in the sector and to promote sustainable, resource-efficient and carbon-neutral tourism.
National projects
The main objective of the project is to increase and consolidate networking among tourism operators, intelligently produce and distribute information widely, and promote the creation of new tourism development measures and entities through collaboration. The operating principle of the project is based on networked co-development of expertise. Therefore, the project brings together a national network of rural tourism development actors to produce user-oriented new information, share best practices, and disseminate expertise intelligently. Network experts are trained to utilize the knowledge generated and shared within the network to ensure the project's impact also at the company level.
Duration: 1.5.2024 - 30.6.2024
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Saila Valkeaniemi, saila.valkeaniemi@samk.fi
More from project website.
International projects
Duration: 1.9.2023–30.6.2026
Funding: Interreg Central Baltic
Project manager: Altti Näsi, altti.nasi@samk.fi
The Ce4Re project is about promoting the transition towards CE in the Central Baltic restaurant sector. The restaurant sector has an instrumental role in the shift towards CE as this asset-heavy sector has more significant environmental impacts than realised. The sector relies on huge quantities and flows of exhaustible natural resources. It is strongly interlinked with a complex ecosystem of multiple interconnected actors and value chains with the restaurant product as a key component of this system. Therefore, an important task for the years ahead is to find ways to increase the sustainability of food production and consumption, to reuse and reduce food waste in the restaurant sector.
The Ce4Re project will promote the transition towards CE by developing joint, simply-to-use and low-cost circular solutions for restaurants as well as increasing their knowledge and skills in CE. The developed and interconnected solutions focus on three CE principles (Redesign, Reduce, Rethink). A Circular Menu Tool and a Waste Reduction Toolset will prevent large volumes of waste and increase profitability due to the cost savings. The EkoGo app, targeted to both restaurants and consumers, will promote circular restaurants in the region as the sector is also a gateway to make customers rethink their consumption of resources.
Visit the project webpages Ce4Re - Central Baltic
Duration: 1.10.2023–30.9.2026
Funding: Erasmus+ Cooperation partnerships in higher education
Project manager: Olena de Andres Gonzalez, olena.de.andres.gonzalez@samk.fi
The project GreenTEA’s main objective is to increase knowledge of the future professionals of the tourism sector in the topic of green tourism. The project contributes to the fight against climate change by creating learning materials and an e-learning platform that will provide the knowledge for a more sustainable tourism. These will be piloted in university classes, summer courses and other contexts. The platform will be open access, making it easily accessible to people with fewer opportunities, contributing to more inclusive higher education. The project also organises intensive summer courses with field trips and other experiential learning activities.
The project is implemented by Eszterházy Károly Catholic University (HU), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (PT), University of Rijeka (HR), Institute of Agriculture and Tourism (HR), NATURTHOUGHTS - Turismo de Natureza, Lda (PT), Satakunnan University of Applied Sciences
Duration: 1.6.2022-31.5.2026
Funding: Erasmus+ Partnerships for Innovation
Project budget: 3,814,005.00 €
Project manager: Altti Näsi, altti.nasi@samk.fi
The Pact for Next Tourism Generation Skills (PANTOUR) is a consortium that seeks to boost innovation through cooperation to develop activities, strengthen partnerships and produce resources to implement the Blueprint for Sectoral Skills Development in Tourism in Europe. PANTOUR is composed by a transnational alliance of 13 partners from the vocational training, life-long learning and higher education landscapes, and all the tourism industry sector representatives from all over Europe.
The consortium aims especially at designing innovative and cooperative solutions to address skills needs in the tourism ecosystem, with the development of outputs such as: the Sectoral Skills Intelligence Monitor, the Skills Lab, a Resource Books for Trainers, the implementation of the NSRGs, a Skills Strategy Plan for 2026-2036, among others. Digital, social, and green skills are at the focus of the project. With the exploitation of its outputs, PANTOUR seeks to benefit job seekers, unemployed and employed workers of the industry, employers and SMEs, dedicating special attention in reskilling and upskilling the workforce on future skills needs after the Covid-19 impacts in the industry. Public and private training institutions will benefit from new innovative content and teaching methods regarding core skills. The number of people benefiting from this proposal will be over 10 million that work across the tourism sector in Europe.
Duration: 1.8.2023–31.10.2025
Funding: Interreg Central Baltic
Project manager: Tiina Leino, tiina.leino@samk.fi
The Tour4Youth project is about improving employment opportunities of young people living in the Central Baltic rural areas to encourage them to get bound to these areas and establish their life in their community. The project builds a bridge for this generation to enter the labour market and earn a decent living. The focus of the project is on the labour-intensive tourism, hospitality, and restaurant sectors, which are among the biggest employers of young people and a lifeline for their employment due to structural changes in rural employment landscape.
The Tour4Youth project increases young people's competitiveness on labour market by providing them various, targeted labour market services. The main activity is a tailored training programme with an online training course and a short-time work scheme locally or cross-borders. As the project is implemented in cooperation with VET institutions, public employment offices and employers, it improves their access to quality employment and provides competencies to build sustainable, goal-oriented careers.
Visit the project webpages Tour4Youth - Central Baltic
Completed projects
Enchanting Taikayöntie scenic route
Duration: 1.3.2022 – 30.6.2024
Funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
Project manager: Niina Aalto, niina.k.aalto@samk.fi
Taikayöntie is one of the official scenic routes in Finland. The main route of the Taikayöntie road runs along regional road 230 from Urjala via Punkalaidun to Huittinen. The road passes through picturesque fields, a scenic river valley and idyllic villages where old traditional farms are lining the road. The Taikayöntie route has been dormant for many years and now needs a new presentation based on people's interests today. This work is supported by the Enchanting Taikayöntie scenic route project.
Rural areas and their destinations are experiencing a new boom. The peace, space and openness of the countryside are attracting tourists, leisure travellers and residents who are escaping the congestion and crowds of large urban centres in search of rural landscapes and remote working.
The Enchanting Taikayöntie scenic route project promotes sustainable local and domestic tourism, developes accessibility, improves the image of the area and activates local actors to synchronise and develop their own activities under the umbrella of Taikayöntie scenic route.
The project is managed by Satakunta University of Applied Sciences and the key partners are the city of Huittinen and the municipalities of Punkalaidun and Urjala.
Knowledge management as a success factor for tourism in Satakunta region
Project manager: Saila Valkeaniemi, saila.valkeaniemi@samk.fi
#MATKAAN – Promoting youth employment in the tourism, hospitality and catering sector affected by the pandemic
Duration: 1.5.2022–31.12.2023
Funding: European Social Fund
Project manager: Teija Nuurma, teija.nuurma@samk.fi
The main aim of the #MATKAAN project was to support youth employment in the tourism, hospitality and restaurant industry, which has strongly been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project provided innovative tools for young people, promote the match between young jobseekers and open positions, and launch cooperation between different actors.
Energy and experiences - well-being tourism group project
RestarT: Increasing resilience and well-being at work in micro and small tourism businesses
Project manager: Saila Valkeaniemi, saila.valkeaniemi@samk.fi
Tourism companies on a sustainable path
Skills4CMT – Sector-specific skills development in Coastal and Maritime Tourism
Duration: 1.11.2021–30.6.2023
Funding: Erasmus+ Programme, KA2 Strategic Partnerships
The Skills4CMT project, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, makes a fundamental change to sector-specific skills development by improving the quality and digitalisation of thematic higher education in coastal and maritime tourism, since investing in people is a condition for its sustainable and competitive growth. The objective is threefold:
1.1. To increase understanding of the needed sector-specific skills and qualifications in CMT to tackle skills gaps and mismatches
1.2. To develop a learning-outcomes-oriented curriculum to strengthen the strategic and structured cooperation of higher education institutions in CMT education
1.3. To increase the use of innovative digital technologies, methods and tools as well as open educational resources (OER) for skills development in CMT.
The main results of the project are occupational profiles for the three key occupations in CMT with descriptions of the knowledge, skills and competencies, a curriculum for coastal and maritime tourism and eLearning opportunities and Open Educational Resources (OER) for the curriculum.
The project is implemented in cooperation with Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (FI), Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (FI), Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (LV), Tartu University Pärnu College (EE), HZ University of Applied Sciences (NL), and Dundalk Institute of Technology (IE).
Visit the project webpages https://www.skills4cmt.eu/
CircTourRDI: Internationalisation of Circular Tourism RDI
Project manager: Sanna-Mari Renfors, sanna-mari.renfors@samk.fi
Greener Business Practices as Competitive Advantage for Micro and Small Tourism Companies in the Nordic-Baltic Region
Duration: 1.10.2021-31.12.2022
Funding: NordPlus
Project manager: Jaana Ruoho, jaana.ruoho@samk.fi
The importance of sustainability is growing in today’s business. The demand for natural, healthy and ecological services and products is increasing and consequently the market for these is growing. This in turn creates business opportunities for green micro-enterprises. This project aims at preparing HEI students and green micro-entrepreneurs for a greener future by enhancing education cooperation between Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia.
The expected learning outcomes:
- Improved skills in responsible business practices and sustainability, and the use and adoption of SDGs in small companies. Special focus will be on the strategic management of green micro-business, understanding green consumers and communication in the customer journey.
- Improved general understanding of how to improve small companies’ competitiveness with responsible business practices.
- General learning outcomes are improved skills and common aims towards a green future, sustainability as well as blended and collaborative learning in Nordic-Baltic collaboration with a variety of stakeholders.
This network includes the following partners: Lapland UAS, SAMK, Novia UAS, Dalarna University, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonian Maritime Academy Centre for Blue Economy and Turiba University.
TourInt2030 – Promoting the Satakunta tourism growth programme 2030 through international networks and cooperation
Duration: 1.10.2020 - 31.3.2022
Funding: The European Regional Development Fund
The aim of the TourInt2030 project was to promote research and development activities supporting the development of the Satakunta tourism industry by strengthening cooperation and networks at an international level. The project supported and extended the international partnerships, networks and links between tourism research and development activities in Satakunta with European initiatives and programs.
Satakunta tourism growth project
The Satakunta tourism growth project was a joint project which contributed to the implementation of Satakunta tourism growth programme, developed the establishment and coordination of thematic and business networks between the rural tourism operators in the region, as well as the entrepreneurship and business skills of rural actors. In particular, the project promoted sustainable food, nature, well-being and cultural themes, as well as the digitalisation of tourism companies.
Digitalisation Opportunities among Coastal Tourism Entrepreneurs and Networks
Duration: 15.5.2020-31.12.2021
Funding: Nordplus
The aim of the project was to improve skills in digitalization in micro-size coastal and maritime companies in the Satakunta region by designing and implementing a joint course. Project partners were Lappi UAS, Yrkeshögskolan Novia, Turiba University (Latvia), University of Dalarna (Sweden) and Tallinn University of Technology Estonian Maritime Academy Centre for Blue Economy (Estonia), i.e., the TURID-network. Micro-size entrepreneurs, students, lecturers and experts from six universities meet, co-created and learned together in this project to develop e-marketing, e-sales, digital commerce and social media communication among others in micro-sized coastal tourism companies.
Growth for tourism companies from China
BalticBlueMarinas: Remote Baltic Marinas Drivers for Sustainable Coastal and Maritime Tourism Development
Duration: 1.10.2020 - 31.12.2021
Funding: Interreg Baltic Sea Region
Coastal and maritime tourism, as the largest maritime activity in the BSR, is of major importance in its economy as the competitiveness of the sector is a driver for sustainable growth, jobs and social cohesion. As the EUSBSR states, the region needs to strengthen cooperation between actors to foster growth: integrating marinas into regional tourism development and recreational boating with other tourism sectors.
This seed money project developed an umbrella-cluster project connecting separate development activities and clusters around the BSR. It aimed at enhancing transnational tourism development by establishing the BSR as sustainable coastal and maritime tourism destination. It promoted the destinations established around remote and rural BSR marinas as drivers of sustainable tourism development, capitalised the use of marinas and developed marinas as key actors of tourism destinations and networks.
