Rural Growth project extension kicked off
Since the final conference of the Rural Growth Interreg Europe project rural visitor
economy has taken a hit from travel restrictions with tourism sector periodically
suffering heavily from loss of its customer base. On the other hand, some regions have
experienced unprecedented influx of new tourism demand from visitors looking for a
safe haven from the pandemic and discovering alternative domestic destinations due
to restrictions of international travel. Several innovative measures have been taken
and new initiatives have emerged in the project partners’ regions to help adapting the
sector to the new reality.
To exchange these good practices and to tackle the challenges in the visitor economy,
the Rural Growth project partners joined their forces again, when an extension project
was launched at the beginning of October 2021. The project financed by the Interreg
Europe programme was granted an extension with a budget of 376 000 € with a 15 %
co-financing by the partners. The work will be resumed by the original Rural Growth
consortium, and it continues until autumn 2022.
Regions in the same boat with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Based on the experience analysis in the online kick-off meeting on 05/10/2021 the
Rural Growth partners observed a striking similarity in impacts of the pandemic
Europewide: The eradication of international tourism and a surge in the demand of
accommodation and activities in the rural settings. The original Rural Growth project
was very successful in facilitating the development of rural visitor economy with new
initiatives and policy changes based on interregional learning. Therefore, sharing
experiences and good practices related to dealing with the pandemic and recovery in
the post-COVID-19 situation was deemed very important: Some policies implemented
based on Rural Growth, for instance in event industry, are still in a precarious situation,
whereas e.g., demand for outdoor recreation opportunities has significantly increased.
During the project extension, the partners have updated their Status Quo analysis
concerning the visitor economy. They have been supporting each other and are
looking forward to facilitating post-pandemic recovery of rural economies by transferring good practices related to the issue. Online and physical exchange of
experience workshops have been organized and stakeholders have been engaged to reach policy changes that help visitor economy to recover. The strategic goal for
increasing the competitiveness of rural SMEs is to retain new markets unplucked
during the pandemic while actively taking part in the redistribution of international post-COVID tourism demand.
In May 2022, the 3rd Interregional Exchange of Experience workshop of the project
took place in Savonlinna, Finland. During it and the previous online workshops good
practices were presented to the partners. Identified good practices are available on
the project website and on the Interreg Europe Policy Learning platform. They include
e.g. tourism programming in the destination and “patio blanket and electric pillows".
Lessons learnt from the other partners are currently being elaborated into new action
suggestions. The project ends in September 2022, and before that a final partner
meeting will take place in Italy.
