The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs highlights the need to stimulate cooperation between the fisheries and seafood industries and the tourism industry.
Cooperation between these industries should strengthen Norway as a tourist destination and as a successful seafood producing nation. In addition to such cross-sector cooperation it is important to increase cooperation between small and large as well as rural and urban actors within the coastal tourism sector. However, there are few studies published on development of tourism in coastal conditions similar to Norway's. The project "CoastTour" will contribute by providing new knowledge about important aspects of cooperation in coastal tourism development.
The main objective of the project is to answer the following question: Can cooperation between actors across industries, scale and urban-rural settings bring about development in coastal tourism? In connection to this the project will investigate questions related to four aspects: cooperation itself, effects on the tourism product, effects on the customer base, as well as conditions for cooperation. The main method for collecting data will be case-method. Selected cases-studies are:
a) seafood supply to a hotel (Rica Nidelven Trondheim)
b) cooperation between a large transport enterprise (Hurtigruten) and providers of land-based tourism experiences along the coast
c) a small enterprise that delivers coastal experiences to tourists
d) Forum for exhibiting aquaculture production
The project period is September 2011 through August 2014. The project will involve cooperation with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. The Norwegian user partners are: Hurtigruten, Rica, the Norwegian Hospitality Association and the Norwegian Seafood Council.
