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The project related to the King’s Road in Southern Finland was started in 1996. The organisers of the project are the Regional Council of South-Western Finland, the Uusimaa Regional Council, the Regional Council of Itä-Uusimaa and the Regional Council of Kymenlaakso, as well as approximately forty municipalities along the route. Approximately one hundred companies that provide services along the King’s Road participate in the project annually. The King’s Road project has received financial assistance from regional development funds as well as from the EU (Interreg III A, Phare CBC and Tacis).
 The vision for international cooperation on the King’s Road is as follows:
The King’s Road is a tourist attraction that links different countries in the Baltic Sea region. The area surrounding the Baltic is becoming a serious competitor to the area surrounding the Mediterranean. With the King’s Road project, the Scandinavian countries, Russia and the Baltic states join forces in order to develop and provide for the international tourist market high-quality tourist routes in the Baltic region that are based on sustainable development and local culture and history.
MANAGEMENT OF THE KING’S ROAD PROJECT
The Uusimaa Regional Council is the organisation that is legally responsible for the King’s Road project. A steering group has been set up to manage the King’s Road project. The steering group comprises representatives of the organisations that are funding the project, i.e. the regional councils of South-Western Finland, Uusimaa, Itä-Uusimaa and Kymenlaakso, as well as representatives of Turku TouRing, the Helsinki City Tourist and Convention Bureau and the Lappeenranta Business Development and Tourism Services that serve as tourism specialists.
The steering group for the King’s Road project comprises:
Uusimaa Regional Council Jukka Peltomäki, chairperson
Regional Council of Itä-Uusimaa Per-Stefan Nyholm / Topi Haapanen
Regional Council of Kymenlaakso Kauko Niiranen
Regional Council of South-Western
Finland Eira Saari-Lahoniitty
Helsinki City Tourist and Convention
Bureau Pirkko Nyman
Lappeenranta Business Development
and Tourism Services Matti Lohko
Turku TouRing Arja Yli-Uotila
COOPERATION BETWEEN THE KING’S ROAD PROJECT ORGANISATION AND THE METROPOLITAN AREAS IN THE BALTIC COUNTRIES IN 2002–2004
The King’s Road project has stimulated cooperation in the field of tourism between the metropolitan areas in the Baltic countries since 1999. This cooperation has received further funding from the Interreg III A programme for the period 2002–2004. The cooperation project was initiated to enhance cooperation between the King’s Road project and the capitals of the Baltic countries – more specifically, to create and market similar culture-based products. On the one hand, the project helps to strengthen the position of the King’s Road as Finland’s most important tourism route; on the other hand, it supports the efforts of the tourist authorities operating in the Baltic capitals to market their services, to network and to establish contacts with professionals.
The main objective of the project is to secure the expertise of companies operating in the field of tourism on both sides of the border, to stimulate employment in the field through job creation, to improve the skills of the people working in the field, and to prepare them to serve in a market that is rapidly becoming international. Other objectives include the creation and marketing of tourism products across the borders, an increase in the number of tourists visiting the area and the provision of relief during seasonal fluctuations. In addition, the participants involved in the project seek to identify strengths that are common to the area and aspects that link the different countries in terms of tourism, as well as to help the Baltic countries enter the EU’s internal market.
The Baltic partners, i.e. the Harjumaa and Järvamaa regions and the cities of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, are applying to Phare for country-specific funding for the cooperation project. In addition to joint measures, each of the Baltic countries is also planning its own local activities within the project.
The budget for the project is EUR 202,000 per year, while the budget for the Phare projects is approximately EUR 60,000 per country.
THE KING’S ROAD RUSSIA – TACIS PROJECT
The King’s Road project, the cities of Stockholm and St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region and the Finnish Tourist Board joined forces to start the ’King’s Road Russia’ Tacis project at the beginning of 2001. The project will last a year and a half, and it will end in the summer of 2002.
The main objective has been to include the Russian section of this historic King’s Road route that extends from the Finnish border to Vyborg and on to St. Petersburg. The budget for the project is approximately FIM 1.4 million, of which FIM 714,000 has been provided through Tacis.
The Uusimaa Regional Council acts as the project manager, and Travel Development Centre Ltd acts as the chief consultant.
The King’s Road Russia is a product development and marketing project in the field of cultural tourism. Two innovative, high-quality products have been created with the help of product development: ’Capital cities along the King’s Road’ and ’Tourist attractions along the King’s Road’. A product manual and a general brochure have been published in five languages for joint marketing purposes. The project’s web pages are at www.kingsroad-tourism.net. Two excursions have already been organised for professionals operating in the field of tourism and for journalists, and two more will be organised during this spring.
A summary of the project results will be provided on these web pages in the autumn of 2002.
SCANDINAVIAN COOPERATION WITHIN THE KING’S ROAD PROJECT
Scandinavian countries have cooperated on the King’s Road project since 1989. Currently, the King’s Road extends from Bergen, Norway, all the way to St. Petersburg. The cooperating parties have produced information on the King’s Road which has been presented at various tourism fairs and sales events. Cooperation between the different partners has been affected in the last couple of years by the economic and organisational problems of the Swedish King’s Road association.
In 2002, the Scandinavian partners are preparing a joint Interreg III B project. An application to the EU has been made for funding to plan the project. Funding is needed so that an application can be drawn up for Interreg III B funding, to allow the parties responsible for the project in each of the participating countries to make a firm commitment and to secure the self-financing required for the project.
FINNISH OPERATIONS WITHIN THE KING’S ROAD PROJECT
The Finnish parties involved in the King’s Road project seek to develop the project’s operations in Finland. Their specific aim is to get a commitment for closer cooperation from the different regions and companies in the areas through which the King’s Road passes.
Development of cooperation
The main objective of developing cooperation is to shift the focus of operations increasingly to regional players. Regions are to act as a uniting force between the King’s Road project organisation and interested companies. Regions are provided with more decision-making power and with more responsibility for the success of activities. The King’s Road marketing group acts as the coordinator; the group was complemented with representatives from South-Western Finland in 2002.
Cooperation with companies is being reformed. Companies that are interested in participating in the project now can select the level at which they wish to cooperate, depending on their own interest and willingness to allocate resources. Companies can select between three alternatives:
1. Peasants (EUR 100/year)
2. Nobility (EUR 500/year)
3. Royals (EUR 800/year)
The Royals represent the flagship products of the King’s Road and are used to profile the supply of tourism services along the King’s Road. The Royals have prominent exposure in all King’s Road marketing.
Product development
Product development is based on the Finnish Tourist Board’s product group classification: short breaks, tours, family trips, and incentive and conference trips.
Short breaks can be marketed so that they extend the season and direct demand to off-season periods. The partners participating in the King’s Road project have developed what they call ’drama’ products: customers can select the period in the history of the King’s Road with which they would like to become acquainted.
The structure of the product manual for the King’s Road will be clarified. The product manual for 2003 will be classified according to the above product groups. Sales will be transferred from individual companies to regional salespeople in order to enhance the availability and sale of the products.
Marketing
The marketing of the King’s Road depends directly on the resources that are available. Therefore, it has been necessary to exclude some important market areas, such as Germany, and to focus on areas that are important for all of the participants. Such areas include Sweden, Russia and Estonia as the near markets, and the more distant markets of the USA and Japan.
The project has a marketing group that decides upon the actions to be taken and draws up marketing plans. The first marketing plan will be drawn up in the spring of 2002, but in the future the marketing plans will be completed at the end of each season.
Sales
Negotiations concerning sales channels are currently under way. The aim is to centralise all King’s Road sales to three points along the route. As far as groups are concerned, sales operations are already well organised, but there is room for development in the sale of individual products.
The sales system of the King’s Road project will include new features this year. Regional sales representatives will be nominated to handle individual products and, in addition to a sales representative, an entrepreneur or his/her employee who sells the product should be present at all sales events.
THE KING’S ROAD IN SOUTHERN FINLAND – COOPERATION WITHIN A LARGE AREA IN SOUTHERN FINLAND
The King’s Road organisation is also responsible for marketing Southern Finland as a whole on the international market. The parties involved include the Uusimaa Regional Council and the regional councils of Itä-Uusimaa and Kymenlaakso. The objective of this cooperation is to secure sufficient resources to market the area abroad. The annual budget has been around EUR 100,000 (FIM 600,000).
Sweden, Denmark, Russia and the USA have been defined as the main market areas, where the Finnish Tourist Board will continue its own King’s Road marketing campaign. Among the most important results of this cooperation are a product manual for professionals, participation in the major international sales events and joint promotion of the area, for example, in the Finnish Tourist Board’s publications. The region also finances trips for Finnish Tourist Board’s overseas partners to visit the area.
In addition, the King’s Road organisation has a joint stand where it markets Southern Finland at the annual MATKA travel fair in Helsinki.
The King’s Road marketing group acts as the specialist in matters related t Color o marketing tourism. The marketing group is composed of the following people and organisations:
| Color |
Member |
Deputy member
|
| Uusimaa |
Tarja Haili
Uusimaa Regional Council |
Jaakko Juolahti
Tuusula Tourist Information Centre
|
| Color |
Viveca Blomberg
City of Tammisaari |
Janne Tienpää
The Southern Point of Finland
|
| Helsinki metropolitan area |
Leena Virtala
City of Helsinki |
Ann-Britt Jukka
Espoo Convention and Marketing |
| Itä-Uusimaa |
Topi Haapanen
Regional Council of Itä-Uusimaa |
Pia Högström
City of Porvoo |
| Color |
Birgitta Putkonen
Porvoo Tours |
Tuula Jäppinen
City of Loviisa
|
| Kymenlaakso |
Ilkka Lyly
Kouvola Region |
Raija Sierman
City of Kouvola |
|
Tuula Malo
City of Hamina |
Aija Pekkinen
Kotka Tourist Service |
| South-Western Finland |
Arja Yli-Uotila
Turku TouRing |
Tomas Björkroth
Turku TouRing |
| Color |
Maija Pirvola
Business Development Centre of City of Salo |
Heljä Karjalainen-Manninen
Salo Region |
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