For Österlen.
Together.

* Tomelilla municipality does not actively participate in co-operation with other municipalities today.

Advantages of the programme

• Effective way to leverage money for marketing abroad.
• Simple. You send a sum (approx. 50,000 SEK) to Visit Skåne, which decides how this money will be used.

Disadvantages

• No focus on the Swedish market - 89% of tourists in Österlen came from Sweden in summer 2023.
• It does not have the power to decide how campaigns are organised in our local markets.
• Most foreign tourists end up in neighbouring cities. Österlen is too unknown and too far away from the tourist flows.
• The name Österlen is not used in marketing when Visit Skåne/Visit YstadÖsterlen markets our region abroad! One consequence of this is that we have lost more than 20 years building up the Österlen brand in the Danish market. The Öresund Bridge has wanted to use Österlen in its marketing ever since the bridge opened in 2000!

• Downwards. Started already in the period 2015-2019.
• Short season: low occupancy during Easter weeks, May, June, August and September.
• The development potential to reach a normal level* was 81,000 guest nights in the summer of 2023, including Ystad: more than 110,000 guest nights.
• Upswing during the pandemic years. 2023 back to 2019 level.

* Target = May + September 50%, June + August 70%, July 100%.

Decreased occupancy in accommodation facilities, weakest in August:

• minus 10% in camping
• minus 21.6% on Swedish camping tourists
• minus 8% in hotel/B&B*

*In addition, hotels/B&Bs lowered their prices on average by about 25% + put more rooms on OTAs (read Booking.com/Hotels.com) to save the occupancy rate.

Most municipalities in Sweden do and have done wrong for decades. Municipalities usually manage tourism activities. The money goes to the reception part (tourist office activities) instead of driving traffic to the resort. The small part of the budget that goes to marketing goes abroad.

This realisation was already present in 2012, both in the industry and in the municipalities in Ystad/Österlen. The industry and the municipalities(!) jointly formed an economic association with the aim of establishing an industry-led Destination Company.

The company was formed de facto and the Sparbanken Syd Foundation contributed SEK 1 million. Unfortunately, the tender documents were controlled by Tourism in Skåne AB, where all marketing activities were to be directed towards ... abroad. Therefore, the Destination Company could not even respond to the tender. Consequence: Destinationsbolaget was wound up before it had even started and the million went back to Sparbanken Syd.

• Focus on attracting guests to Österlen!
• Let the municipalities handle the reception part.
• The industry will lead the way.
• Everyone should contribute - show why!
• Create an organisation where everyone is involved: industry, business and municipalities!
• Organisational form: economic association. Democratic, where all members can have their say. Best for qualifying for grants.
• Build a marketing function to reach out - co-operation agreement with österlen.se.
• Focus on Sweden and neighbouring markets.
• Marketing budget should be in place. Clear objectives.
• Österlen should be the best digitally, with a focus on marketing/sales/activities.
• Measure, evaluate and analyse Österlen.se and its digital activities continuously using a few carefully selected KPIs
• Maximise the summer months.
• Create new seasons. Example: "Bad weather report" to surfers during winter time.
• 5 ants are more than 4 elephants. Many small local actors but BIG together!
• Translating all information into 4 languages with a focus on neighbouring markets - Swedish, Danish, German, English.

Österlens Besöks- och upplevelsenäring Ekonomisk Förening

Member organisation. The united force where all parties are represented. Led by the industry, sets short- and long-term goals and plans, applies for grants. Controls the marketing function, i.e. österlen.se. The industry is represented on the board by Pontus Hansson Cederberg from Brösarp Gästgifveri and Ola Ambuhm from Fritid Österlen/Campingnäringen. The board is completed by Morgan Ristmägi, Salana and Mr Frans Mårtensson, HKM, from the property owners/infrastructure sector,

The Chairman of the Board is Klaas van Ommeren, who has a background as CEO of a destination company, marketing director of a ferry company, several hotels and a resort company (7 (app) hotels and a ski centre). He has been a consultant in the hospitality industry - in his own company and as an employed CEO (National Centre for Rural Tourism in Norway). Österlen is the sixth tourist destination he now works with. He is now co-owner of Lunkaberg Bed & Breakfast in Gislöv.

Destination Österlen AB = österlen.se

• Established player who has built Österlen into one of the most visited online destinations in Sweden with no budget
• No start-up time, as the site already attracts 600,000 visitors/year.
• The average visitor spends 2 minutes 22 seconds on the website.
• 26,500 followers on Instagram, with a growing number of followers on other social media channels.
• Offers direct booking of accommodation/activities directly via österlen.se.
• The right skills and locally rooted.
• Christian Esbjörnsson, Kivik/Simrisham, university educated in Tourism. Several years of work experience from various international tourist villages, including 3 years as marketing manager for the Dutch Tourist Office in the Nordic region. Operates hotels and restaurants in Simrishamn since 2003.
• Mr Peter Carlsson, Simrishamn, filmmaker/photographer based in Simrishamn. The man behind almost all reports from Österlen in lifestyle magazines over the past 25 years, including Elle Decoration, Residence, Lantliv, Gods & Gårdar. Worked with Tareq Taylor, Tina Nordström, Daniel Berlin to name a few. www.peter.se
• Noak Karlsson, Simrishamnspåg, The spider in the web for österlen.se since 2017. Wide network of contacts, trained in web development.
• Lars Rabe, the nestor. From Malmö's hottest advertising city years, he headed for Österlen. Long-time resident of Borrby. Made more websites than any other in Österlen.
• One of the country's largest archive with pictures/films from Österlen.

Advantage(Almost) no other tourism organisation focuses on the Swedish market => easier to reach out when everyone else is still playing Follow John and market themselves abroad.

If we do it locally and together => Sustainable. And knowledge stays in the community.

5 out of 6 stakeholder groups have holiday home owners as an important target group - but no market channel to influence them other than social media!

Simrishamn (2022)

The number of overnight stays in holiday homes is more than 3 times higher than commercial traffic!

* Annual amount is based on surveys in Norway where each holiday home spends 99 000-112 000/year.
** 4832 holidaymakers x 3.5 persons x 48 days = 811 776 guest nights.

The trade turnover in Simrishamn is 1.44 billion. Revenues from tourists account for more than 1/3 of all trade turnover!

The destination company is developing a tool for stakeholders to actively reach and influence holiday home owners 3-4 times/year.

Document for the municipality how important holiday home owners are for the economy of the local business community. This is done through a simple survey where holiday home owners are asked to answer questions about how they spend money in the municipality.

THIS MARKET DATABASE WILL BE WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD!

1. Put Österlen on the map
2. Brand development
3. Booking, sales, marketing
4. Making Österlen the most visited Swedish destination on the internet

Pilot project 3 years: SEK 24 million

• Tillväxtverket provides money for development.
• Therefore, we will include a visitor strategy in our application for funding to develop a Masterplan for Österlen.
• The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth will require the political endorsement of the plan and the commitment of the municipality(ies) to make these investments.
• The development of a Masterplan - including a visitor strategy - has not been done in Sweden before. Therefore, the application must be a national pilot project.
• Ensures the best opportunity for funding from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
• It also fits well with our focus: long-term and sustainable.
• Continuity requires all parties to work together. The industry, the municipalities and the business community.
• Local actors ensure that we build long-term and sustainably. Expertise and knowledge remain in the community.

Economic sustainability
Increased marketing will improve the economy and safeguard jobs.

Environmental sustainability
We are initiating a masterplan for sustainable tourism development at Stenshuvud National Park and the beaches including a visitor strategy (new in Sweden).

Social sustainability
We will bring together not only the industry, but also the rest of the business community and municipalities, to ensure that we invest sustainably and long-term

Cultural sustainability
A concerted investment in cultural and arts events is important for the destination, visitor numbers and the local population.

Statutes ÖBEF

Cooperation agreement ÖBEF-DÖAB

Annual market fees

Constituent meeting minutes 2023.12.07

Strategy 1: Short-term

1. Look at the picture of the day = look at the symptoms
2. Clarify the status - map - terrain = include definition of problems
3. Proposed solutions = description of the collective actions we are taking to get on the right strategic track

Strategy 2: Long-term and BY THE BOOK

Objective: Description of what we want to achieve in the next 5 years

Roll: Description of how, and with which tools, we will work to achieve the defined future

Action plan: Description of all actions to be implemented in order to act in line with our defined role.

With this strategy, we are anchoring the basis for a Masterplan with a visitor strategy.

Step 1
Support from major stakeholders who help create the framework or infrastructure for destination marketing.

• Property owners
• Sparbanken Syd
• Österlens Kraft
• Major tourism operators with signalling value
• Simrishamn and Tomelilla municipalities

Step 2
Informal - physical - meetings with Tillväxtverket

• Present the status, the rough plan and the ambitions
• Documenting/manifesting commitment
• Documenting ambitions
• The "what if" discussion

Step 3
Informal position/clear signal from politicians

• documenting/manifesting commitment.
• document the ambitions
• liaise with the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth
• identify the design and processing of our application

Step 4
Sales to economic operators in Österlen

• document the ambitions and commitment of the major players
• make the actors realise that it is profitable to develop the market function for Österlen.

The challenges

• Large parts of the industry are not professional/lifestyle operators
• Many have never paid for any form of promotion other than participation fees in small networks
• Trade: believes that customers come with tourists => lets the accommodation sector take the market task
• Based on experience from previous projects, you will have some freeloaders, who think it is OK that others pay

We believe that we have the business community and Sparbanken Syd with us and will follow this to the municipalities. We want to discuss and promote an application to Tillväxtverket. A national pilot project including a visitor strategy for sustainable development - where the business community, the industry and the municipalities are united behind the project.

Contact:

Destination Österlen AB - österlen.se
Christian Esbjörnsson, 070-874 82 60
[email protected]
Peter Carlsson, 070-843 25 11
[email protected]

Österlens Besöks- och upplevelsenäring Ekonomisk Förening - ÖBEF
Klaas van Ommeren
0793-037590
[email protected]