Slow Adventure in Northern Territories

Slow Adventures in Northern Territories (SAINT) seeks to extend the marketing reach of businesses in the "slow adventure" tourism sector, in order to encourage more tourists to come to these areas to enjoy and experience the outdoors and engage with remote, wild and nature-rich places.

Slow adventure activities will draw upon the Northern region’s remarkable natural resources, as well as the rich cultures and histories of the involved regions, such as fishing, love of and respect for nature and wildlife, relationships between food and the land/sea, and traditions of human-powered travel. Engaging with business is key to success of this project.

Objectives

The project will aim to facilitate, develop and promote new adventure tourism services and products. It will involve the trans-national sharing of skills: from Scandinavian expertise and knowledge of ”friluftsliv” and outdoor life, to Scottish entrepreneurship in adventure tourism and adventure marketing. The core of the project will aim to develop a) new marketing approaches and b) more effective businesses through "co-operative working". New marketing models will be tested to: create a new joint brand, target high-value customers and trans-nationally cluster SMEs together.The project will also bring together the two perspectives, Western and Indigenous, in order to transfer indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing to Western SME´s and reciprocate with Western experience and perception transference.

Benefits

The project will help SME’s in the sector to develop new marketing approaches and more effective business, which in turn leads to a more developed adventure tourism sector that includes accommodation, transport and food production. The research project is funded by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme (NPA).

Please visit the Slow Adventure in Northern Territories (SAINT) website for more detailed information about the project.

Publications:

Laven, D., Chekalina T, Fuchs M, Margaryan L, Varley P, & Taylor S (2019). Building the slow adventure brand in the northern periphery. In C. Cassinger, A. Lucarelli, S. Gyimóthy (eds), The Nordic Wave in Place Branding. (pp. 76-90). Edward Elger Publishers.
Varley, P. J. , Huijbens, E. H. , Taylor, S. , & Laven, D. (2020). Slow adventure: From natural concept to consumer desire (Vol. 2). Mid Sweden University (Rapportserien/European Tourism Research Institute.