The Nordic Regenerative tourism podcast - Episode 02
welcome everybody to this second episode of the Iceland tourism podcast as we already announced in the in episode this podcast will introduce the various projects the Iceland tourism clust is involved in and as we already announced last time we start with the project noric which stands for Nordic regenerative tourism and with me today is Ólöf at the project leader of Nor Reg Ólöf hi welcome and thanks a lot for taking your time for this talk today this is very valuable glad that you can make it and Ólöf you and me we have been working together for almost three years in Pro in this project noric so I think I can say that we got to know each other quite well but uh can you tell a little bit about yourself for the listeners especially for the international listeners because I think also I can say that you are pretty well known in the Iceland tourism industry you have been involved in the tourism industry kind of all your professional life right so I would be curious to hear about like what have you done in the past and what fascinates you in working in tourism like in Iceland but also abroad yeah hi Magdalena and thanks for having me so yeah so I have uh been involved with the tourism industry in various ways you could say since since oo 1989 when I took my first job as a ranger uh in the highlands of Iceland at at kield by the vat Glacier and that was sort of my first uh direct connection uh with tourism apart from well apart from being a dishwasher at at the age of 14 at hotel valut at think which was my first job ever so yeah so but uh so I have been I was involved with with tourism at least tangental through the ranger years uh I worked as a ranger in in the in the highlands of of North Iceland in uh Y national park which then went into at National Park and at Lake M but I was also a tour guide in horse track uh tours uh over uh sort of cross country from skaga the to Lake meat and north and south over curer for some Summers uh and then so yeah so I was sort of involved at the ground level for for many years uh in in the tourism industry and of course it's a fascinating industry because it's an industry where you get to meet people you're meeting people when they are somewhere experiencing and and uh exploring and discovering and having a good time so this is a this is an industry where you get meet people at their best you could say and you have the opportunity of of giving them something giving them an experience erience or or teaching them or showing them some observation or or maybe in a way molding their thoughts or perspective towards at least Iceland if not nature in general uh and then in 2008 after uh after also of course studying and and working in other sectors and as one does I uh I was uh appointed the director general for the Atlantic tourist Port where I served for 10 years wow going through a a big big change phase within tourism because you could say that we had one Bank crash four volcanic eruptions and an unprecedented growth from 2010 in tourism which of course brought with it its challenges but I was also fortunate in in working internationally I was uh appointed vice president of the uh European TR Trel Commission in 2015 the first Icelander to do that and and also the first vice president in charge of the advocacy for sustainable tourism and uh I was uh as as the Director general of Icelandic tourism I worked within Nat the North Atlantic tourism Association and was uh was chairman there uh two times and uh and so I was I was really fortunate after my 10 years at the tourist board I moved to Saudi Arabia where I worked there for large tourism projects for three years and in the in in the interim I also founded uh my own tourism company here in North Iceland so the Summits uh where we through which we operate a hotel so Lodge which we built in those years and run a travel agency which does Adventure Tours hiking biking sailing and uh winter activities so skiing cross country back country and hel skiing during the winter time so yeah so I've been I've been involved from the various aspects and of course also been fortunate enough to participate in and work with uh the Academia uh work with Academia because I do believe that knowledge-based decision making is the way to go in tourism in the tourism sector as in other sectors so yeah so I think I've been very fortunate in my professional life that I have I've G the opportunity to get experiences from all sides of the sector I I can see that it's kind of like you went through the whole evolution of Icelandic tourism like the whole spectrum and um I will ask you more about the the other aspects that you just mentioned but now all of you are the project leader of noric Nordic regenerative tourism can you maybe shortly tell us how you were approached and what your first thoughts were when you were offered this challenging task to lead a pilot project about Nordic rich generative tourism how did you feel about that so I was uh I was very fortunate again in that I was contacted by AA the managing director of the Iceland tourism cluster uh because the cluster had been asked to oversee and administrate the a a a Project based on another uh report that was funded by the Nordic Council of ministers on the future of sustainable tourism in the Nordic countries and among those uh suggestions or those uh those uh the the suggested roots to take was a mention of regenerative tourism which of course had been gaining weight in the tourism discourse since maybe 2018 and especially through the covid years remember everybody talking about how things needed to change and how they would change Etc so I uh so I was I was as I say approached by at the at the tourism cluster and asked if I would like to to work with them in uh both both developing and designing the project and the approach and uh then leading it or or or or managing it and I think that that was it was a great opportunity and it's been a really intense learning learning phase and I am uh and we have we have been working on this this as you say since 2022 M focusing on uh the realities of small and microsized Enterprises which are according to the oecd businesses that are smaller than 25 uh 25 employees and that of course is most of the tourism businesses across the Nordic countries not only in Iceland or or the smaller countries but also in the larger ones uh and I think that that focusing on the reality for those businesses is so important and not even though they might not take up the most of the revenue but they are the backbone often of the tourism industry in regionally and they are often innovators with regional knowledge and re and and the love for their region and I think that looking and I think that not focusing on them as drivers for local tourism and for local development and for keeping a positive view towards tourism locally that is a that that would be a really big mistake and also because they are small Enterprises they are place-based like regenerative tourism is it means that they can be explorative H they are they are as I say they have indepth knowledge of the realities that surround them the natural and societal realities and it is just so important important to have them working as as active participants in any development that focuses on regional and local tourism which I think that we need to do because even though of course as they say ER there's lot to be said for large companies that that and for scaling up but tourism is an experiential sector and keeping tourism local is as an is an important part of of Ensure ing The Experience both for the visitors but not least for the residents because they are also really such an important resource for tourism and their will and their lives can't be you can't just push them out of the of the whole discussion they are very very relevant so I think that regenerative tourism is the way to go forward and we spent a lot of time defining the concept to try to try and gain this understanding of what the concept is because it's a New Concept and often when you start working with new Concepts it turns out after some discussion that nobody's really talking about the same thing and we really wanted people to have this understanding so we worked on that we worked with uh be the behavior smart group on defining first steps or first Mile and initiatives for small companies and they have been involved with us from the start uh we developed and explored uh partic participatory activities within the tourism sector through citizen science uh through the citizen science approach we have been talking about uh and are working on an ambitious uh well presentation of how you can evaluate regenerative tourism because you can definitely not just look at the economic standards there you have to look at you have to look at the thriving the flourishing the societal effects uh and that means that we've sort of we're trying to not use the word measurements as much and use the word evaluation because sometimes you have have to also go with some qualitative data and then almost the feeling of of how things are working and how people sense their surroundings so we've been working on that and of course also we are very invested in uh contributing to policy discussions at any level you know the policy for on a national level on Regional levels uh for municipalities and even for for companies or clusters of companies that just want to see how they can work towards the future I of just a super curious short question because you have been in the tourism industry for so long because uh you mentioned that the the entrepreneurs and the small tourism businesses are more being in the focus in this regenerative tourism approach is noric the first project a project where these entrepreneurs are in the focus like where the untapped knowledge that they could contribute is actually uh considered or was this already topic before that I won't say that it's the first because uh even though I can't pinpoint it I think that there has been a focus on these small entities in some projects some European projects and but I do think that they have been somewhat overlooked when it comes to policies and strategies because when you have a national strategy you're of course looking at the high level part of you're looking at how tourism contributes to the National budget how tourism contributes or affects the country as a whole H you have large scale Ambitions and and aims the for the for the industry as a whole on a Countrywide scale and yes so I think that that they have been overlooked uh maybe because in individually their voices aren't strong but collectively they are the backbone and I will just state that they are the backbone of local tourism around within each country and they are really really important as such and uh also in Academia as you already mentioned Academia picks this up that we should shed more light on entrepreneurs and the contribution these small tourism businesses can do to the whole tourism development and that leads uh to my next question ol Olive because as a project leader you put a lot of emphasis on the triple helix model can you maybe outline in a few words first of all what that actually is and why it is so important for your vision on regenerative tourism to have this triple helix approach so I think uh well I also think that this is something that the icelantic tourism cluster has been focusing on in its projects and uh and as as and that is a really good thing but but as I say I mean you have these you could say these these main well stakeholder sections uh where you have the private entities of course and if you want you can of course either either uh work them you know section them up more you know go into accommodation or Gastronomy activities Transportation you can do that or you can sort of organize them by size or whatever but you have the private sector and the private sector is of course they are the face of Tourism and they are really important however tourism is and and the the actions and the experiences and the and the whole idea of traveling of course goes into the public sector a lot because for example in a nature based tourism country like Iceland is and and like many of the Nordic countries are and even even when you go into culture that is often within the realm of the public sector because national parks are course public uh a lot of the cultural entities museums theaters they are publicly funded or supported and and the whole idea of a municipality as a place to visit is of course also then dependent on a lot of stuff which is in essence something that the taxpayers are are are are supporting just like the road system the educational system the Health Care System the search and rescue system even though it's voluntary in Iceland is of course supported by this public sector uh and all these things that just come together because tourism touches upon most aspects of human endeavor in some way so it is more it is more connected to the to our sense of community than many other business sectors and therefore it's really important to work with the public sector so that those views can be held forth so you have the business aspect you have the public aspect because at the end of the day the public is us you know and we don't want any one industry to to overwhelm any of the resources that we consider a treasure or that we hold dear to our hearts and then finally the Academia the academic sector is really important because it is through the through the uh academic approach or through the way that knowledge is gathered in a systematic way which is in essence of course research and Academia uh that is I mean that is a really good way to gain knowledge and they their focus because they often look at it or should look at it from a neutral point of view Gathering knowledge based on a hypothesis that they are then trying to prove or disprove H and I think that that is so important because tourism just like other sectors we can't just go and say oh we just think it's like that or yeah it's probably like that or I just saw it or something like that need to base this on some sort of objective view or at least have an active discourse where you have opposing or complimentary views come into place because that's the way that you get to know things it's through discourse it's through knowledge Gathering and it's through the dissemination the organized dissemination of that knowledge and I think those three things those three entities need to work together so you get a holistic view on how you want to move forward and all tourism strategies need to be holistic they can't be isolated to tourism or through the touris or to the tourism businesses or to the public sector because at the end of the day as I say tourism touches upon so many things that you need to go cross- sectoral and try to get a picture or an overview on the effects of Tourism on because at the end of the day this these are our lives that's that's the only thing that matters is is is what I'm doing contributing to my life positively to my neighbor's Life To Nature what what is the what are the effects that it's doing and that's something that I think all Industries much must have at the back of their heads yeah and uh also we have this academic group in in the nor project that is kind of making use of the knowledge that we are gaining through practical experience in n and makes it visible in Academia and especially this aspect that you just mentioned tourism touches upon so many aspects in the community life I think this is something that the noric project highlights beautifully yeah I agree and and the academic group has been a very important part of the noric project from the start yeah ol if we on the third year into the noric project now it's also our final official year if you think back like all the work that we have been doing and are still doing what would you say is the main success so far that the noric project has reached or do you think there is like one aspect that you can pick out or is it just the sum of everything well I do think it's the sum of everything but I also think that having worked for I think these steps that I mentioned uh the first mile steps for companies the citizen Science Focus and the evaluation uh the evaluation the Gathering of of evaluation methods I think those may be stand out but I also think that just having this platform for discussion and opening up the discussions within the Nordic community and trying to hold together those threads I think that has also been just very very valuable and will live into the future because of course we're hoping that we can keep the platform alive after after the final developmental year and um because I do think it's a really necessary place to be able to share ideas and thoughts be that formally or informally yeah also I think we see that the Nordic project gathered quite some awareness because if you open events publicly and a lot of people sign up and want to actually participate and listen to what we have found out yes yes thankfully people have shown interest in our events uh we are going through our event Cal we set up an event calendar this winter where we have our partners presenting aspects of their work that go fall under the regenerative the regenerative uh ideas and then we also have the master classes where we are are going in depth into these focal areas of the project and in March we are hosting a conference in the north of Iceland which we hope will will have a lot of participants uh because I think that that's we I think because I I do think that even though these online events are important and great and I love them super much yeah I think it's so important also just to meet in person because it gives you a whole other Dynamic to the discussion yeah see the the people in real life that is a big difference and for those who are listening and want to be part of this community everybody can sign up at our web page uh noris right and we have a community for everybody Olive what would you say are the main challenges that are left to be tackled in tourism development I know this is a super big question let's focus on Iceland maybe and not not in the nor framework but in general like what are the main challenges that Iceland tourism industry is still facing despite all these discuss discussions on sustainability I would start by by stopping at the at the at the U at the word still because if we had if any human endeavor had the nature of being finalized then at the end of the day we could just break up Parliament and everybody would go home and everything would be perfect so I think that Icelandic tourism as tourism around the world and of course as as any other again human endeavor will always face challenges there will always be new ones because if you look back then the questions H and challenges that tourism faced well in 1989 when I started as a as a ranger they're totally different from the challenges that we are facing now and it'll always be like that there will always be things that we need to solve or discuss or find a solution to but uh at the moment uh I would really like to see uh action plans come into work and I think that that the public sector needs to realize that you need to finance things and they and since tourism is so dependent on the public sector it is the public sector that needs to lead those aspects I think we need to uh to focus more on uh individual regions and small communities around the country uh how we can Define what they want from tourism because that can be I mean some regions maybe don't want any tourism other regions want more tourism tourism and yet other regions haven't yet defined what they would like to stand for when it comes to greeting visitors and I think that so I think that I think we should maybe try and move the discourse down a level we've we've done National strategies we've done we've done uh we've done uh Regional strategies and now we're now we're sort of I think we could be going into the municipalities and I think that just understanding continuing to understand and work upon the cross- sectoral aspects of Tourism talking together not siloing the discussion on tourism uh I think that will be a challenge because that is always difficult it's always difficult to get people with different perspectives to talk together in a holistic Manner and that's what you at the end of the day have to do you have to talk a lot which again comes back to what you said before the tourism touches upon so many aspects in life that you can't just talk about tourism if you talk about tourism you talk about communities about life in general right exactly exactly because at the end of the day we're going through with with the way that that uh the world has evolved uh most people will go through life and sometimes they will be in a community or or somewhere where they are in in in essence hosting the visitors to that place they are the hosts here in in where I live in CLI I am the host and and even the people the community as a whole is a host of the guests that come from other places in Iceland or from abroad but then we turn around and we ourselves we go skiing or we go traveling or we go on a city break and then we are the visitors and we need to understand that we are playing these roles all the time we're changing our role and we need to show understanding both towards the visitors and the hosts because that is what we are in essence and I think that is something that we're just working towards hopefully because tourism it can it can open doors and that is not no less important today to open a dialogue to welcome somebody to learn about your life and your views and your nature and your feelings towards your community and your environment and then go somewhere and learn about somebody else's views and and feelings and community that is so important and I'm so happy that those doors have been opening and that is what tourism can do for good mhm mhm if you have the awareness I think but uh I think that's also like a a possibility if you have these stor open to let people in and let them have a like a glance on your views on the world right and that leads to my to my last questions because apart from being a project manager in noric or project leader you run your own business in North Iceland as you said before and there you have the possibility to open doors and share your views with your guests and I would like to ask you Ola uh if you can tell a little bit about how you incorporate regenerative tourism elements in your daily work in your business and also I would be curious to hear if your your project leader position in noric somehow influenced your role as a hotel manager like did noric some influence your work over the years yes I would say that but but it's also it works both way that my role as a as a as a as a small tourism entrepreneur in the northernmost town of Iceland has also influenced my work in Nork so it's it's a vice versa thing uh I think that I am in the same place as many many uh small business owners that I am trying my best but it is also it can be difficult when you see the the somewhat overwhelming large scale Ambitions that are being talked about like global warming or or something and you just feel inadequate as a small business owner so I try to rejoice in the steps that I take I've tried to focus on my community uh tried to uh try to intro so the the experiences that I offer for example the day tours here in C they are based on walking they're based on immersion they're based on nature interpretation and uh and of course I'm very fortunate again in that I work with a lot of local uh tour guides local business owners and and we I try to keep that aspect of my work uh local uh in all the tours that we offer we H in the skiing sector we have I I have local instructors for the CrossCountry ski tours with roots in the community here in the northern in in the northern part of of trol peninsula tras and my back country and ski ski guide team is also All Icelandic so we've been trying to support through that to support the building up of professionalism within the ski guide uh sector in Iceland so we try to support that and and give these low key key experiences where we are mainly maybe working with with our own energy although we of course we do uh do boat tours we do hel skiing and one one thing I want to explore is how we can work towards responsible offsetting within that so that's something that's a pack project of mine that I'm I'm trying to work towards but again then you have the time Factor because as a solo entrepreneur you often you don't have the bandwidth and you just have to be kind to yourself something you know somewhat doing that yeah so within the hotel uh we also try to keep we we for example we offer dinner uh with all our accommodation and that's in the effort to have people stay longer and experience just not just come fly by night and then leave the next morning so people have access to the pool they get dinner we have a few walking tours that we've defined so people can stay a bit in floating H and we work of course with the other tourism providers in that region so I think that that's mainly what I'm focusing on is trying to keep things as local as I can from as many aspects as I can but of course I'm far from perfect in that respect but I have to think about one thing that you mentioned in another conversation ol of you said that it's so important as a tourism business to also give back to the local community and you are in charge or you offer a swimming pool to the community right right so yeah so that's something that uh that I really enjoy doing and enjoy having as part of my responsibilities because that's sort of our baby the pool so we try to do it as well as we can but it is sometimes challenging to to operate an old pool uh in in the middle of of nowhere if you if you will but but it's really it's really it's really rewarding to do that also especially in Iceland with the swimming culture for us of course it's a win-win situation because we want the to be to be nice and and well well maintained because that's good for our guests so and the pool then benefits from that that we have Ambitions for it so and we are in the place also so we are yeah so I think it's it's a good thing to do this it's a good it's a win-win situation for the municipality and for and for us and the best practice Olive it's so much fun talking to you but I think we should come to an end here and uh to everybody who wants to learn more about NC we encourage you and invite you to sign up at n . and become part of the nor community and uh the next episodes will also deal with the nor noric project so there are more episodes in this podcast to come where you can learn more about noric thanks a lot for taking your time ol yes thank you thank you
2024-10-20 20:00
