Aalto Cultural Tourism Ecosystem Project 2022-23

The Aalto Cultural Tourism ecosystem project aims at strengthening the network of Alvar Aalto destinations by creating an international tourism ecosystem. The Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland granted the project funding to the Alvar Aalto Foundation and it is implemented by Cultural Route on Aalto’s Architecture and Design Heritage Association. This support for the renewal of the cultural and creative sectors enables the recovery of the cultural tourism business to be accelerated after the pandemic.

The goals of the ecosystem project are the promotion of cooperation between Aalto destinations and local operators, cooperation with international tour operators, the development of new Aalto cultural tourism products and their marketing. In addition, the project fosters the use of innovative technology in cultural tourism with the help of Augmented Reality (AR). Alvar Aalto’s unrealised or demolished buildings are modeled and made visible on the Alvar Aalto AR Route. The AR technology brings added value to the tourists by offering a new kind of experience on top of visiting the cultural destinations.

Concrete measures of the project include creating contacts with potential ecosystem actors, promoting cooperation with international travel agencies at travel fairs, organising an Aalto familiarisation trip, a survey for tour operators and Aalto tourism productisation workshops for the network of operators. The partners of the project are Blueberry Consulting Oy, Avidly Agency Oy and Flyar Augmented Reality Studio Oy.

More information:

Project Manager Maija Oinonen maija.oinonen@alvaraalto.fi

Project presentation at the 11th Annual Advisory Forum, Cultural routes of the Council of Europe in October 2022z, Photo: COE