Accessible sports tourism as an opportunity for Lapland

Depart Visitor group in Vaattunkiköngäs, Rovaniemi.

In the last week of October 31.10.2024 Lapland University of Applied Sciences, together with its stakeholders, hosted a project meeting of Depart project (DEPART – Support the DEveloPment of a sustAinable spoRts Tourism in Europe | Interreg Europe – Sharing solutions for better policy). Santasport Lapland Sports Institute is one of the key stakeholders in the project in Finland. The meeting in Lapland included inspiring lectures by Tea Tuohioja (Estea Ltd), Eleni Anoyrkati from Greece and Anu Harju-Myllyaho from Lapland UAS. Common topic was accessibility in sports tourism as an opportunity, and sharing good ways of working in the topic among EU member states. The afternoon session included visit to accessible nature trail in Vaattunkiköngäs, where the group was hosted by Metsähallitus, and was able to experience the fascination of early winter in Lapland. The other destination was Ounasvaara skiing center and its first snow track, as well as the lab environments in Santasport institute. The visitor group included professionals from five EU member state, and both public sector and SME sector was present in the group. All in all the pace of sports tourism growth is fast, and new opportunities are effectively mapped in many projects including Interreg Europe funded Depart project.