Arctic Food Plus

Food tourism at its best offers travelers immersive and participatory experiences, and it can enhance the attractiveness of tourist areas by considering locality, sustainability, and year-round appeal. In Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, the European Capital of Culture year, Oulu2026, and the increased number of visitors it brings, is an excellent opportunity to highlight the region’s food tourism potential. However, successfully developing food tourism requires understanding the customer, strong communication, understanding the importance of storytelling, and increasing the skills and cooperation of industry players.

The aim of the project is to identify the type of customer who visits the region for food tourism, to build a shared story that we want to tell them, and to get companies to utilize storytelling in their operations. The goal is for the shared Arctic Food Lab story to be easily utilized by companies in various ways, such as in communications, social media content, and product packaging. The project aims to ensure that companies understand the benefits and opportunities of storytelling and can make the shared story their own. Another goal of the project is to improve companies’ understanding of the customer and the customer journey.

The project aims to increase networking among food and tourism companies and to facilitate the co-creation of new food tourism concepts in Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu. The goal is for the Arctic Food Lab network to grow (especially in Kainuu) and be vibrant, with its members understanding their opportunities for participation. The Arctic Food Corner events aim to enhance companies’ skills related to customer understanding, storytelling, and its practical application, such as in communications or service concepts. The goal is for companies to become familiar with various tools and methods that can also be used in the co-development of food and tourism operators.

The project enriches existing customer profiles from the perspective of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu and creates customer personas based on customer data. The project continues to develop the Arctic Food Lab food tourism story and creates a channel-specific toolkit for food and tourism companies to use in their marketing. Workshops related to storytelling will also be organized for companies.

The communication and marketing skills of the target group companies will be developed in Arctic Food Corner events. Additionally, the project will organize three seminars and produce publications related to the theme.

Students will participate in the project’s activities through development tasks and theses. The project will also identify best practices from other cultural capitals and food tourism networks, both domestically and internationally.

The project is being implemented in collaboration with Oulu University of Applied Sciences, the Oulu Cultural Foundation, and Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. The project is co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the funding is granted by The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu.

Photo: Arctic Food Lab, Lauri Kaikkonen