Skrevet av: Marlies De Vooght, Eimund Eknes, Karl-Oskar Grimstad, Karina Gustavsen og Meloni de Zilva, Destination development gruppe 5, høst 2019, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge avd. Bø.
Park Nome
Park Nome will be an adventure park in Nome where you can enjoy indoor skydiving with a VR experience simulating a jump from the skies above Nome.
For us, the DNA of Nome is its natural surroundings and wilderness. They have the Telemark Canal, amazing lakes, beautiful forests and much more. We want to put nature in the spotlights by creating an adventure park where people can challenge themselves while being outside and enjoy the fresh air. The idea is not to have one big attraction such as for example Bø Sommarland, but rather many smaller activities run by independent companies, all connected to the concept of Park Nome.
There is no doubt Nome is unable to fund a large project like this, which is the reason our plan is based on attracting local and national companies to Nome. We are focusing on the VR experience with indoor skydiving, but the goal is to work together with many stakeholders and make Nome an attractive destination that attracts new stakeholders like restaurants, hotels/hostels and other activity providers. We do not only want to focus on creating a park for tourists but also attract locals from the nearby regions and make Nome a more attractive place to both settle down and with opportunities within tourism based business.
In the beginning of the project, the main question we asked ourselves was: ‘What can we create to attract more young people to Nome?’ We started thinking about things we like as young adventurous people and we also looked for trends in the Norwegian tourism sector. We did some research and ended up with extreme adventure, solo-travelling, sustainability, customer centricity etc. but we also wanted to include VR in our new product.
We mixed everything together and started brainstorming with the ideas we already had and so we came up with the idea of indoor skydiving with VR. It is something we would all like to do and we are convinced that people would love to experience this. They can enjoy a unique experience in the beautiful environment without causing harm to it. Indoor skydiving is also less time consuming, excessive, costly and dangerous which will encourage more people to try it. Skydiving with VR does not exist in Norway today and will give the visitors a green experience of skydiving. In addition to the indoor skydiving, we will lay the foundation for a local skydiving club, where the airstrip and local plane community can create a business.
Our target group is the following:
- Young adventurous people who are willing to challenge themselves.
- Sportive people who love nature and being outside.
- People who travel alone or in group and who are ready to enjoy a special experience in Norway.
Adrenaline junkies will definitely find what they are looking for at our Park, but also less sportive people are welcome at Park Nome to have a new, challenging experience.
Our main idea is creating a meeting point in Ulefoss that will be the “Park Nome visitor center”. We were thinking that this centre would contain our main attraction which is the indoor skydiving with the possibility of using VR. There are also lots of opportunities for other stakeholders to cooperate and become a part of the project. People can get information about Nome and different activities that Park Nome, and Nome has to offer inside this centre.
Our main stakeholders are the local stores where tourists can stop by, the local restaurants, the transportation companies etc but as mentioned earlier we also focus on potential stakeholders like ho(s)tels, B&B’s, new restaurants, activities providers etc.
Luckily, we can use the available resources like the bus stops to bring people to Park Nome. We will also use the hiking and bicycle trails so people can combine all of the activities and the existing infrastructure for the local inhabitants.
We want to work together with the local inhabitants, they know the region and they can share their knowledge with the tourists and give them a unique experience. To expand our park and make our vision possible on a limited budget we want to work together with other companies in the tourism industry like Norsjø Cabelpark, the canoe rental company etc, the bungee jump company in Rjukan. We want to make Nome (and Bø) municipality a region that is known for its adventurous and challenging experiences.
As we want to attract young people we want to use social media as a marketing instrument. We want to share our customers experiences on our social media channels like Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. We will also be working with influencers from our target groups.
Park Nome is located really close to University of South-Eastern Norway, campus Bø. We want to give a student discount to the students so they can spend their free time at Park Nome with their friends. We also hope that Visit Norway, Visit Telemark and Visit Bø will pick up our concept and share it with their visitors.
To sum it up: Park Nome will be a network of activities connected by hiking and bicycle trails, roads and the Telemark canal. We will give new life to existing stakeholders as well as attracting new businesses. We will give the locals a region full of activities and opportunities, and encourage people to settle down. And last but not least: we will make Nome municipality the center of extreme and outdoor activities on the east coast of Norway.
See you soon at Park Nome!