In 2025, Stavanger is boarding a newly approved EU-funded Interreg project, focusing on creating sustainable and climate-smart tourism destinations. The initiative is led by Visit Tampere and brings together nine partners from across Europe, exploring solutions for making tourism more environmentally friendly and resilient.
Effort Across Borders
The project, set to launch in 2025, unites European tourist destinations. Over the coming years, these European cities and regions will work together to share expertise, develop innovative strategies, and test practical approaches to achieve greener tourism practices.
What’s the goal?
The project aims to bring hotels, restaurants, attractions, mobility partners, locals and environmental organizations together, to create the optimal sustainable travel experience, with as small climate effects as possible. While still maintaining the most value for visitors, business and local economy as possible.
Stavanger’s Role in the Project
In Stavanger, the initiative will be driven primarily at the municipality level, with input and cooperation together with local and regional stakeholders. Recognizing the ongoing efforts to develop sustainable tourism within the Stavanger region, the project will adopt a regional perspective to align with and enhance existing initiatives. By linking this project to ongoing work towards climate neutrality, Stavanger aims to speed up the progress toward becoming climate neutral.
Linda Ekholm, adviser for EU and international affairs in Stavanger, shares her insights and expectations on the project:
Foto: Stavanger kommune/ Elisabeth Tønnessen
The project will give important tools on how to boost the transition towards more sustainable and climate-friendly tourism in the Stavanger region. It will focus on piloting, developing and testing. We are especially interested in how to link services to create sustainable options for visitors. The project is also an excellent addition to the already existing initiatives on local, regional, and national levels working towards sustainable tourism.
The best part is that we will be able to do this together with seven other destinations: Tampere, Helsinki, Stockholm, Aarhus, Tallinn, Kaunas, and the Pomorskie Region. The problem is complex, and we are ready to find some of the answers together with the other destinations.
Challenges and Opportunities
“Can we truly create climate-smart destinations? And how can this be achieved?” These are the key questions Stavanger, and the European partners will tackle through this project. While the answers may not be straightforward, the collaboration aims to generate actionable insights and foster innovation in the tourism sector.
Next Steps
Stay tuned as we prepare to board this journey in 2025!