Måned: februar 2020

Kategorier
Destination development

Destination development – Catch, Cook & Consume

Gruppe 4: Nanthawat Butsri og Maxime Charlois. Foto: Privat

Skrevet av: Nanthawat Butsri og Maxime Charlois, Destination development gruppe 4, høst 2019, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge avd. Bø.

Catch – Cook & Consume

The concept/idea and how we came up with it

Norsjø Lake plays an important role in the DNA of Nome. We came up with the concept/idea by brainstorming on how we can use the Norwegian culture to our advantage for our concept. The first thing we agreed on was, it should be something you can do during free time. We researched on activities you could do in Nome, but there were little to none, which might be the reason why not many people knows about Nome. So we directly thought about fishing for fish like trout in this lake, and we came up with an original concept in order to attract more tourists : Catch – Cook & Consume. Finally, with the excursion day in Nome, we have seen with our own eyes that all (or most of) the needed infrastructures were already there: mainly a harbor and a restaurant. So we decided to keep this idea and try to make it doable.

Relation to local identity, cultural heritage and «the DNA of the region»

What is it that makes Norway so special and why do people visit Norway? We’ve got friends from another countries and when I mention why they want to visit Norway, their answer is first the northern light. Next comes the environment and landscapes.

Our idea is mainly focused on the landscapes and environment of Nome. We want them to see and feel the nature of Nome and Norway. With our idea, this can become a reality. By catching the fish yourself, it shows the culture of Norway. When you think about food in Norway from a foreigner perspective, what is Norway known for? It is fish. With our idea you can fully immerse yourself with the culture of Norway.

Available resources in Nome that support the concept/idea

For our idea to be able to work, we would need fishing boats, fishing rod, a place to have the restaurant and a harbor to park the fishing boats. All of it can be found in Nome. Luckily, we found a perfect spot to have the restaurant and it is right beside the harbor. Unfortunately, there are already a restaurant located there. Possibly, they could work with us and find a solution to be able to help us achieve the Idea. For the fishing boat and fishing rod, the fishing association in Nome would be a possible partner. They could lend us their fishing boats and possibly cooperate with us.

Ulefoss gjestebrygge. Foto: Privat

Which stakeholders are being involved?

This topic is uncertain, because this is potential investors/stakeholders for our idea. We think that our concept can be supported by Nome municipality, because our project is supposed to attract tourists in this area. We also think the university USN is a potential stakeholder because they are a part of CUPIDO project, and their competence on fresh water. The same with Visit Bø, which is the local tourism marketing association and the fishing associations, the same with the restaurant.

Who would be the target groups/tourists that we would want to attract?

We want to attract tourists both inside and outside of Norway. It is a seasonal event and attraction, and most of the international tourists comes in the summer, which is suitable for our idea. Our target group for this attraction are mainly: families, couples or groups of friends. We mainly focus on groups, because this attraction will be on the expensive side and it will be cheaper for each individual. The more customers, the cheaper the cost for each individual.

What national/international trends support the concept/idea?

Our concept will be a sustainable tourist activity and it’s also directly linked to the natural environment of Nome. Why we think our idea is sustainable? First, Norsjø will have fishes in the sea. Second, it is an attraction which is linked with the nature. Within the national/international trends, we have come up with a new Idea, maybe not a new trend. We make the customer do things by himself/herself with the help of professionals. We offer them the satisfaction of catching their own fish and cooking their own meal.

How could VR/AR be integrated in the idea?

We have chosen to not integrate AR/VR in our idea. The reason behind this is because, it is not appropriate for our concept. The reason why is that you cannot feel it, only see it throughout a screen inside the goggles. It is not the same feeling as being there in the exact moment at the same location. It is not worth investing on something that is not important for the concept and the idea.

How could the concept/idea be marketed?

In terms of marketing and communication, there a lot of possible options, such as:

  • Video advertisement: We think that the best way to attract tourists is to have video advertisements which will show the experience of the different steps. The fishing activity, the cooking moment and finally the result. The video will be edited in three parts, each of the parts presents step by step without relation (except with Nome environment). At the end, we show that you can experience that three specific activities in one : the Catch – Cook & Consume concept.
  • Posters: Attractive posters with one photo for each activity and the name of the idea. We can use this posters design and create flyers in the same way. The flyers would be distributed in the different tourism places in Telemark (Hotels, restaurants, museums…)
  • Social media: By creating social media accounts, with a particular hashtag (for example #CC&C) we can post photos/videos about the concept and the experience to improve our visibility.
Kategorier
Destination development

Destination development – Nature Trend Days

Destination development gruppe 3. Foto: Elisabeth K. Brodal.

Skrevet av: Kristina Bore, Christina Berstad, Maria Barcons, Espen Stensrud, Elisabeth K. Brodal. Destination development gruppe 3, høst 2019, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge avd. Bø.

Nature Trend Days

Our concept to the CUPIDO project is to make a program that represents Ulefoss in a summer festival called Telemarksveka. The festival is a one week festival in cooperation with TV2, with small and bigger events all around in Telemark. As we did some research, we noticed that Ulefoss is not really represented in this festival. Nome is partly represented, with Kanalrennet in Lunde. We want to represent Ulefoss in the best way to attract national tourists and also draw some attention to the fact that people could move there.

TelemarksVeka is already a concept,  the main idea around TelemarksVeka is to promote different places in Telemark, and to get more tourists to visit Telemark, to create an interest for Telemark for people who does not live here.  They make events in Bø, Lunde, Notodden and shows the places from their best sides. They are using TV2 to send it on tv, to get TV2 included they have been using celebrities so people will have a good reason to look at the show at TV, and attend the event.

After some research, we found out that Ulefoss is not included at TelemarksVeka at all, so our idea is to make an event for Ulefoss, called Nature Trend Days! We thought to include/represent Ulefoss in Telemarksveka would be a great opportunity to show TV watchers what the destination has to offer. Also prove that Ulefoss has something to be proud of, and it has potential to be an amazing tourist destination after all. In our program for TelemarksVeka we want to include both cultural and nature components and make the event in a modern way.

Øvre Verket. Foto: Maren Sandbakk

To attract the television and more people we want to use famous Team Ingebrigtsen. To show people the beautiful nature Nome has to offer, we will arrange a hike with Team Ingebrigtsen. Here people can sign up, and walk the beautiful Skarravegen, from Ulefoss to Vrangfoss. On the walk you pass Ulefoss Hovedgaard with its beautiful park and museum with old horse vehicles. You pass Eidsfoss sluice by going over the steam gates and end up at Vrangfoss sluice, which  with is five locks is the canal’s largest and most impressive building. We also want to use Jenny Skavlan to have a fashion show. This will be in cooperation with the clothing stores Cigill in Ulefoss and Victoria & Henrik in Lunde. There will be shown clothes from their stores, but locals will also have the opportunity to donate clothes they don’t use anymore, and other people can buy them after. This is a activity supporting the huge trend we have now in sustainability and also hence the name.

To illustrate the heritage and the local culture of Ulefoss, and show it so people will explore it and feel it, we would like to use AR in cooperation with MS Victoria. The visitors will be able to see how Ulefoss looked 100-200 years ago, with the iron factory and they will see how they lived that long ago. We will illustrate the old houses, and also with someone telling the story of Ulefoss so it will be put into context. This is something that could be a permanent activity in Ulefoss in cooperation with Telemarkskanalen.

MS Victoria. Foto: Maren Sandbakk

To complete the event, we need the entire local community to collaborate. And we need available resources as Søve High School, MS Victoria, Nome Municipality, Telemarkskanalen, Øvre Verket and TelemarksVeka. We need this resources to promote the local identity, so we can show Ulefoss from their best site, and include every small detail.

As stakeholders we want to use local firms, to invest and to participate in the project. Local companies should have something to offer to the visitors and tourists, they should prepare offers, sales, free entrance. We want the whole town to gain something on this project over time.

Our target group would mainly be families, but of course we want to reach out to everyone. This will mostly be people from the cities/towns nearby such as Seljord, Notodden, Bø etc. The arrangement will be mostly fitted for families, which they can participate in.

Compared to earlier years, there is now a greater desire for authentic cultural experiences where the tourists wants to experience something different. This is something we are trying to offer the tourists visiting Ulefoss/Nome/Telemark.. This goes under the trend social and cultural. There is also a significant increase in the use of every sort of technology. That is why we want to adapt the AR with the app, as everyone always has their phone with them now. Our use of Team Ingebrigtsen would also go under this category, as they are huge in social media, and will give us even greater expansion. 

We want to arrange the activities so that it is as sustainable as possible, as that is a huge tourism trend now. For example we want to attract a market that isn’t too dependent on too much travel, therefore appeal to the people in Bø, Sauherad, Skien etc. Also arrange it so that people get the best experience possible because that is what people expect, especially when it comes to customer service etc.

We also want to make Nome more competitive as a destination, we feel like they aren’t doing enough to raise the tourism market within the destination. There is a increasing trend when it comes to tourism, people are traveling more than ever and they want to experience something different, this is something we had in the back of our heads when developing our idea.

We decided to implement artificial reality while MS Victoria is taking place, visitors/tourists will be allowed to see how was Ulefoss village 200 years ago and its heritage from the river coast. They would only need to download the AR application on their mobile phone, for the ones who can not download it we would provide them tablets so that everybody could enjoy the experience.

First of all through Telemarksveka. This is marketed through TV, and also a lot on Facebook with different events that people can engage in. We would also use the popular platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. To reach out to our audience we would choose platform depending on which they use the most and where it’s easiest to reach them. To attract both locals and people from the bigger cities we want to focus the marketing on local experience and support. We know that the marketing true celebrities profiles gives a extreme range, they have a lot of followers both young and adults, so we are hoping that the celebrities who will take a part of the event, will promote it on their own social channel. We will also ask to use the social channels of Visit Bø, and local newspapers. (TA, Bø blad, Kanalen).

We strongly believe that this will bring more attention to Nome as a destination. Because of the use of nature, AR and celebrities it will hopefully reach out to a lot of people, and highlight some of the attractions Nome has to offer. 

Kategorier
Destination development

Destination development – Ironworks Experience

Destination development gruppe 2. Foto: Privat

Skrevet av: Paula Sánchez, Caroline Andersen, Mariken Andersen, Stian Andersen og Mohamad Abdul-Rahman Aziz. Destination development gruppe 2, høst 2019, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge avd. Bø.

Ironworks Experience

Introduction

For this work, we chose to focus on Ulefoss’ industrial history. Their industrial history is relevant for Norway as it is one of the oldest industrial operations in the country. More specifically we are going to use the ironworks as a museum where visitors could buy tickets to either explore the museum by themselves or sign up for an organized tour. We are going to include other aspects to this tour to make it a unique experience.

How it came about

During the brainstorming phase of this project, we had a couple of ideas, with one that stood out: the Ulefoss and Lunde Town Festival. This festival was going to span over a weekend, and we had planned many activities so that everyone who visit would have something to do.

We were set on this idea, until we were told, by our lecturer, to cut down on the activities, the target groups, and drop the activities in Lunde, and instead just focus on our AR aspect of the festival, and thus was our lecturers idea born, The Ironworks Experience.

Local identity and DNA

So for this idea, we have as the main focus to showcase Nome’s history and culture. We will have a historical tour, that will showcase the beginnings of the industrial manufacturing. In addition to that, we will showcase the culture of the area by introducing the visitors to local produced food, and having a paintings gallery showcase by Elisabeth De Lunde at Ulefoss ironwork, and maybe have her husband, Jakob Zethner perform a little opera concert in an empty area in the ironworks.

Available resources

To make our event into reality we are depending on some available resources around in Nome. The municipality will also help us with funding and organize different stands and where we can have them. The farmers will help us provide with local products that a catering company from Notodden called «Det lille extra» will use to serve people food.

Unavailable resources

For the unavailable resources, we have concluded that we only need the help of an external company related to IT, to carry out the explanation of these virtual reality activities. And also to help and monitor that the activity is carried out devoutly.

To get financial help for the ironwork’s experience, we had thought about promoting some local businesses, making a raffle, maybe the municipality of Nome can help or cultural organizations want to participate in the festival.

Target groups

At our festival, we are gonna be focusing on the Norwegian people (people from other countries are welcomed as well), locals and others. We will be focusing on families that could be interested in the industrial history of Norway in a new modern method, AR. In addition to focusing on students (Organized school trips), we thought it would be interesting for schools if they organized student trips to Nome, so they could visit our one-day ironwork experience day. The students will then learn and check out AR, and also learn more about the history of Nome (ironworks).

Stakeholders

We have also been in contact with different stakeholders that will help us with activities and products at the festival. The famous Topaz shoes will be present in the festival and the organization will help us with prizes and stands. The famous artist Elisabeth De Lunde and her husband Jakob Zethner will have a gallery of paintings and an opera performance. This is a very exclusive for this event and we hope this will engage people. The local paper Kanalen will help with marketing and make people be aware of the festival. We will also have Topaz present their different models of shoes and sponsor us with prizes for the people who are coming.

Trends

Trends that we are focusing most on are sustainability, history, environmentally friendly impact and the use of modern technology.

By providing the catering company with local products from the farmers to cook for the visitors, we would have managed to support the locals, and we will not have to think about transport of all the ingredients and products, which is environmentally friendly. In addition to that, by having our entire program happening in the ironworks, no fuel would need to be used to move the visitors around. This will also in turn immerse the visitors more into the historic aspect of the tour.

And finally by using new technology, we manage to add a sense of immersion and making the entire experience more interesting and unique to the ironworks.

Marketing

We will be focusing on having an good communication plan with the participants, from the beginning to the end. We are gonna be using social media to market our Ironworks experience day, as well as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. At Facebook we could create an own event for the festival. We will also be creating an own webpage for the day. Since we are trying to attract different target groups, we might have to use other ways than the internet, like newspapers, posters, send out information in posts, emails, and radio would also be an option. This is because not everyone might be updated on social media and we want to reach out to as many people as we can. That’s why we have to use different kinds of marketing.

AR (augmented reality)

We intend to use AR for two main reasons, first is how user friendly this technology is, and secondly how widely available this technology is, and could fit into anyone’s smart phone. The combination of these two factors, make this idea easily implementable. If the municipality invests some money into this technology, we could hire some mobile app developers to make an app that can play a part in our historical tour. As the visitors enter the iron works in Ulefoss, we could have QR scan code posters for the app hanging around in the lobby or hall where the tour starts. This will of course require the installation of a free WIFI-signal, so the visitors have the opportunity to download the app. As the tour starts, we can have specific parts of the tours to be interactive with our app.

These parts or areas of the tour could be machinery, hallways or other areas where some sort of activity was present when the factory was working, and when the visitors would point their phone cameras on them, a visual presentation of the scene would appear on their phone screens in real time. For example, if we pick a hallway where workers used to go through to get to their work, the visitors would point their phone cameras on this hallway, and on the screen, they would see the hallway projected from their camera, and on top of that, an animation of workers from that era would be walking through the hallway. This could be done across parts of the museum that the tour organizers would recognize as important.

Kategorier
Folk som får ting til å skje

Kanalrennet satser større

Rundt 360 personer deltok i Kanalrennet i Lunde i juni 2019. Foto: Maren Sandbakk

360 personer deltok i Kanalrennet i Lunde i 2019. Nå jobber IL Skade og KRAFT-prosjektet for å finne plass til enda flere deltakere og gjøre Nome til en treningsdestinasjon.

Etter et initiativ fra KRAFT-prosjektet i Nome kommune har Terje Mognes, leder i Kanalrennet-komiteen, Peter van Heerebeek ved Lunde Vandrerhjem og Erling Skoe ved Telemark Kanalcamping funnet fram til flere overnattingsmuligheter i Nome. Dette åpner for at enda flere kan delta i det populære Kanalrennet og Kanalrennet Junior.

– Vi har funnet 30 ekstra senger som vi ikke har visst om, fordelt på fire forskjellige steder, forteller Peter van Heerebeek ved Lunde Vandrerhjem, som skal håndtere den ekstra utleien nå som påmeldingen til rennet har startet.

For påmelding, trykk her: https://signup.eqtiming.no/Pamelding/Kanalrennet-2020/g295.18947?Event=kanalrennet

I tillegg er det muligheter for å overnatte med bobil, campingvogn eller telt på Telemark Kanalcamping, eller leie å telt for de som ikke har eget.

Erling Skoe (f.v.) ved Telemark Kanalcamping, Peter van Heerebeek ved Lunde Vandrerhjem og Terje Mognes, leder i Kanalrennet-komiteen, samarbeider med KRAFT om å øke kapasiteten på Kanalrennet. Foto: Mikkel Helweg

Under Telemarksveka myldrer det av rulleskiløpere i alle aldre som deltar i Kanalrennet og Kanalrennet Junior. Både Team Telemark, det norske landslaget og flere langløpslag har lagt treningssamlinger til Lunde og deltatt i Kanalrennet i etterkant. Men Mognes ønsker å løfte fram Nome som en destinasjon for treningssamlinger for lag ellers i året også.

– Det er et fantastisk terreng for rulleski- og barmarkstrening, det er rulleskiløype på strekningen Bø-Lunde, og ellers er det traseer og veier med lite trafikk. Her er det gode muligheter for alt fra små barn til eliten, forteller Mognes.

Mognes håper at å tiltrekke seg flere lag vil komme lokalsamfunnet til gode. Nome kommune er en attraktiv sommerdestinasjon, og har lang barmarkssesong. Det støttes av van Heerebeek fra Lunde Vandrerhjem og Erling Skoe, som driver Telemark Kanalcamping. På den måten kan overnattings- og spisestedene i kommunen også nyte godt av satsingen til IL Skade.

– Hele nærområdet vil dra nytte av det. Det betyr omsetning og besøk i bygda for både overnatting og restauranter, avslutter Mognes.

Kategorier
Destination development

Destination development – Iron Games Ulefoss

Gruppe 1: Sahal Mohammed Abdulle, Raissa-Ingunn Volden, Barabara Rebeca Ajtujal. Foto: Elisabeth Kastet Brodal.

Skrevet av: Rebeca Ajtujal, Sahal Mohammed Abdulle , Raissa-Ingunn Volden Destination development gruppe 1, høst 2019, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge avd. Bø.

Iron Games Ulefoss

When you visit Ulefoss, its industrial soul, history, infrastructure and architecture stand out. The iron foundry was founded in 1657. At the end of the 17th century, the iron foundry was Norway’s largest producer of different types of iron. This activity is part of the cultural heritage and it is important to value it, keep it and pass it on to the future generation in order to conserve it.

We felt the iron factory and the history around it were at the core of Ulefoss and how it came to be what it is today. At Øvre Verket you will get a sense of how people lived from the first half of the nineteenth century after the factory entered the Cappelen family’s possessions. Additionally, you will get to see some of the objects produced in the iron factory, which is situated only a few minutes’ walk away from Øvre Verket. Given the importance it has in Ulefoss it could be much more exploited.

Foto: Rebeca Ajtujal

Today the main production of the iron factory is manhole covers. Of all the other products they produced over the years, only a few beautiful oven models from the early years of the factory are still produced in a limited number. Unfortunately, the iron factory is not open to visitors for security reasons.

Our idea is to allow people to “visit” the factory nonetheless using VR and be able to see how it works in a far more engaging and interesting way than traditional short films or just guides talking. The idea is to show the process of iron forging now with the current techniques and technology, and thereafter show how it would have been done when the factory was created, so people can see the evolution. The VR would naturally be available both in English and Norwegian, and maybe in other languages depending on where the majority of visitors come from.

Iron games escape room

The industrial vibe and the presence of the iron factory and objects are great ingredients for escape rooms, and as Ulefoss doesn’t have an escape room yet, we think this would also work great in combination with the VR. The museum (Øvre Verket) is a good place for establishing this for economic reasons (if one or several of the existing houses can be used rather than having to build a new building,) but also because it is situated in vicinity of the actual iron forgery (2-3 minutes’ walk) making it more real for tourists. In addition, the museum contains real ancient objects from the forgery, and we think that after learning and seeing the process through VR it is important to have something tangible to look at and the opportunity to buy some minor objects as souvenirs. The escape room could be situated in one of the bigger buildings with several rooms if we want a longer and more complex escape story. In terms of the content it should build on the formation of iron, its chemical properties and other characteristics such as its role in the human body. It will also address how iron has been used from the iron age until today and how it has been produced throughout the different ages including how it is done today in Ulefoss Jernverk.

Foto: Rebeca Ajtujal

The duration of the escape room should be one hour. We think this is short enough to attract tourists staying in Ulefoss only half or a whole day. We think the escape room and the VR are likely to attract students from the region to visit also the rest of Øvre Verket.

Marketing

From a marketing perspective, package deals should be proposed for people travelling with the canal boat (boat, VR, escape room, visit of the rest of the museum) and also for those travelling by other means. For example, packages including bus tickets (from Bø, Skien…) to Ulefoss with the VR, escape room and museum. This would be especially relevant for students. We also think they should have package deals with and without the escape rooms, since the latter will probably not be as relevant for older tourists or tourists who have a short amount of time to visit Ulefoss.

In order to promote the destination in a more cost-efficient way, the municipality or Telemark museum could propose internships to marketing and Tourism students. Special deals could be offered to high schools and universities who promote Ulefoss on their webpages (English and Norwegian). This would require the collaboration of the municipality, the factory owner, the county, the bus company (Telemarkekspressen), the students who would be interested in promoting these attractions in exchange for internships and the University’s involved.

One of the challenges Ulefoss faces in the tourism sector is its lack of visitors in the low season. Both the escape room and the VR would attract people throughout the whole year. Our main target groups would be university students in the area. Companies and other organisations could be interested in using the escape room for team building, while middle school classes from both Midt-Telemark, Nome and Grenland could incorporate the Museum with the VR as part of their education program in history.

After visiting Øvre Verket, the VR or the escape room it would be good to have a sales point where people can buy small traditional objects such as miniature manhole covers, jewellery made with iron, mini “Troll-biler” and other traditional objects that are easy to transport. These souvenirs could also be sold on the Telemarkanal boats.

One of the challenges in making this project possible is obtaining the permission from the iron factory owners to enter the factory in order to film and make the VR actually possible. Although this may be complicated, we think it is in their interest as well given that we would be promoting their factory, its brand name and its products to a broad public.