Reference case

Visit Norway

Is sustainability worth paying for?

Destinations across the world have to plan for sustainable development, an increasingly important condition to maintain attractiveness. Innovation Norway, who are working with the destination development and marketing of Visit Norway, wanted to understand the driving forces and values behind sustainable travel and contacted Kairos Future to help with this. Two panels, one with a representative sample of 1100 individuals and one with 1400 self-selected early adopters from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, got to answer questions related to sustainable travel and give their own ideas through the innovation platform Co:tunity.

– We are actively working with the development and marketing of Norway as a tourist destination and want to strengthen our position among existing and new target audiences. Demand for sustainable destinations are increasing and has become more important with Swedish tourists. Our understanding is that Swedes are at the leading edge and drive the trend of increased awareness around sustainable travel, says Innovation Norway’s marketing manager Andreas Solhaug.

Co:tunity provides the possibility to combine surveys with open idea generation. Participants could, in addition to answer questions about travelling, also submit their own ideas on the theme of “marketing of sustainable destinations”. There was a significant interest, and a total of 598 ideas were put forward that Innovation Norway have compiled to 16 concepts that are being presented and discussed among Norway’s leading tourist destinations.

Environmentally friendly travel to and from the destination is increasingly important

When participants got the question “What does a sustainable destination mean to you?”, it was clear that the journey to the location plays a central role from a sustainability perspective. Going through the answers to the open-ended questions, three crucial, interwoven themes emerge:

1. Environmentally friendly trip both to and at the destination

In this theme the answers are related to the fact that people rather choose trains and busses over flying, and that holidays closer to home are preferred over longer journeys.

2. No overuse of resources

The hotel should be environmentally friendly with textiles, cleaning, hygiene products, etcetera, the food should be made from local produce, and staff should have a decent working environment and reasonable salaries.

3. The destination should work for sustainability for both visitors and local residents

The reasoning here is around genuineness, authenticity and the importance of the destination using local supplies to the greatest extent possible. People want that as much money as possible of what they spend should go to the local community.

Would you like to know how Scandinavians' attitudes toward sustainability will affect their travel patterns? Join in on the fifth edition of our research project Kairos Travel Trend Report, read more here or get in touch with Johanna Danielsson.

Are you interested in knowing more about our tool for open innovation? Contact Johan Hammarlund.

Subjects: Travel & Tourism