[News] Kainuu: Mobility as a service for tourism

Implementing MaaS for the Tourism sector.

In 2017, the Finnish Parliament approved the Act on Transport Services, called Mobility as a Service (MaaS). MaaS connects -by digitalising, travel chains and allows for combined services across different types of transport. The user orientation and data regulation involved in MaaS, won for Finland the GSMA (Government Leadership Award) in Barcelona on 26 February 2019 (https://futuremobilityfinland.fi/cases/the-act-on-transport-services-mobility-is-a-service/).

MaaS has been planned to include new services once developed, piloted and validated. One such effort is the nationwide project FIT ME! (FOREIGN INDIVIDUAL TRAVELERS’ HOSPITALITY AND MOBILITY ECOSYSTEM) (https://futuremobilityfinland.fi/new-mobility-services-for-individual-travellers-bring-growth-to-business-and-sustainability/), funded by Business Finland. It is led by VTT (www.vttresearch.com/en) Technical Research Centre of Finland and the research partner is the University of Lapland. Business partners include municipalities, transport and development organisations from Lapland and Turku. The new service concept will be tested in the Fell Lapland, Turku archipelago and Kuusamo areas.

FIT ME! will test new traveller and tourism-based mobility concepts, currently fragmented across different sites, as part of the solution development work. The aim is to create real-time and location-based service packages so that tourists have access to, for example, a route guide that combines tourism services with mobility services, as well as an easy way to book and pay for long-haul and local journeys, as well as various services in the area. It supports alternative mobility by including information about access points and alternative mobility infrastructure and implements the (forthcoming) Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy (2021/2046(INI)).The project is especially important for sparsely populated areas and locations hard to access without own transport especially where foreign travellers are concerned. Finland has strong urban centres, however, a large part of the country is rural with low population density. FIT ME! Is very much supporting MaaS in these areas, which are worth visiting but hard to access and know ahead of time.