The Circulatour project has started!

The Circulatour project has started in the beginning of September, and the project partners have come together in Teams meetings to discuss and plan the project. 

Each partner brings their own expertise and perspective to the project, and there is a shared sense of enthusiasm as the collaboration gets underway. We are now looking forward to meeting in person at our upcoming kick-off meeting and taking the next steps together.

Towards more sustainable tourism in the North

As climate change and overtourism affect many traditional destinations, interest in “coolcation” tourism and the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) region is growing. This creates new opportunities for tourism in the NPA, but it also increases pressure on ecosystems, infrastructure and community wellbeing.

The aim of the Circulatour project is to support more circular and resource-efficient tourism across the NPA. This is done by developing, testing and transferring practical solutions that improve visitor flow management, reduce resource use and help destinations adapt to changing tourism patterns. The project brings together partners from across the NPA to share knowledge, test solutions in different tourism contexts and transfer good practices between regions.

The project will deliver three practical tools: a visitor flow prediction model, circular smart destination maps, and circular tourism guidelines to support destinations, businesses and visitors.

7 partners working together

The lead partner of the project is South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk), Finland.

The project partners are:

- Mikkeli Development Miksei (MikseiMikkeli), Finland

- Innovation South Greenland (ISG), Greenland

- Luleå University of Technology (LTU), Sweden

- University of Akureyri (UNAK/ITRC), Iceland

- Dingle Peninsula Tourism Alliance (DPTA), Ireland

- RDI Hub, Ireland

Project duration is 1.9.2026–28.2.2029. The budget is 1 248 695 euros (EU part of the total budget is 811 651,75 euros).