Norwegian Experience Conference 2024

12 November 2024

Norwegian Experience Conference 2024

Museum Nord and SKREI recently attended the Experience Conference 2024 in Bodø. The Experience Conference takes place once a year and gathers a large number of actors from the tourism industry in Nordland and the rest of the country for a two-day program of knowledge and inspiration. With interesting seminars, thought-provoking presentations, film clips and pleasant meetings in between, this year’s conference provided a lot of input that we will take with us into the further work of Museum Nord.

This year’s experience conference had three main themes:

Export and internationalisation

Tourism has been designated as one of Norway’s official export industries because of the great potential for growth and economic ripple effects. But what exactly is export maturity? And is it even possible to set ourselves up for success in international markets while working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? Dag Terje Solvang from the Norwegian Trekking Association gave an enthusiastic presentation on “Norwegian nature, our foremost export commodity” where he addressed relevant issues such as wear and tear in nature, the responsibility of businesses and the challenges of the right to roam. Visitor management became an important keyword.  

Challenges with overtourism were also the subject of an interesting debate later in the program, in continuation of Trygve Steen’s article from this summer:
https://www.nrk.no/ytring/et-baerekraft-reiseliv-krever-nye-regler-1.16969709
Must tourism be regulated in order to become sustainable? The panel may not have reached a conclusion, but several concrete measures and interesting perspectives were highlighted.

It was also particularly inspiring to see a film report from Kunstsilo in Kristiansand, about how they have worked to launch the new museum for an international audience. Something that has contributed to impressive visitor numbers in the opening year.
https://www.kunstsilo.no/no

Regenerative experiences

From sustainable tourism to regenerative experiences. A new term is spreading in the industry. But what exactly are regenerative experiences? And is there any difference between sustainability and regenerative?

The conference began with several parallel seminars. In one of them, the English trend specialist and tourism expert Ben Martin went into more detail about the concept of regenerative tourism. In short, it’s about the guests helping to make the place they visit better, rather than just maintaining or refraining from doing damage. In this sense, regenerative tourism builds on the mindset of sustainable tourism that takes care of both environmental, social, and economic considerations.

In a film report from Copenhagen, the organizers talked about the launch of a green currency that nudges visitors to sustainable actions at the destination. With CopenPay, guests can, for example, pick up trash to unlock free use of an e-bike. The project has received a lot of attention in the international press and is planned to be continued for next summer.

An intelligent and inclusive tourism industry

Artificial intelligence and digital solutions can affect market demand and the competitive situation over time. With this as a starting point, Ronny Brunvoll talked about how they at Visit Svalbard work to extend the stay time of their guests.

CEO Liv Dingsør of Digital Norway gave a presentation on the use of AI in companies, with many concrete tips and advice. She also reminded that Digital Norway has a number of free courses and learning content in its web portal that is open to everyone.

In the last part of the conference, the topic of inclusive tourism was raised, with presentations from Christine Baglo from Innovation Norway and from the Sunnaas Foundation’s project Adapt2Explore, which has included people with reduced mobility on a surfing trip in Lofoten.  

See the full program for the Norwegian Experience Conference here:
https://norskopplevelseskonferanse.no/Program/program2024

Thank you for two inspiring and educational days!