Sustainable businesses in touristic nature areas share their best practice examples

The online publication “Sustainable businesses in touristic nature areas – Best case examples from 5 countries” covers stories of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) on how they incorporate the responsibility of protecting the nature area around them into their enterprises.

The brochure shows five examples from two pilot regions of the Interreg project “Prowad Link”: the Wash/ North Norfolk Coast and the Geiranger Fjord. The publication is a living document to which new examples will be added with the aim to inspire other entrepreneurs to make their nature areas their biggest assets and thrive for more sustainability in their local tourism – following Prowad Link’s motto to “protect & prosper”.

In the current version of the document you can read about electric cars for hire with a story and a smile, a hotel that also takes responsibilities for the village, a community brewery, a special cheese, a sail powered boat tour service and a touristic farm that takes care of the area’s landscape. Additionally films and webpages are liked with each case for further information and impressions. As the project moves on, more examples, also from the Wadden Sea World Heritage region, will be added.

The publication was compiled by the project partners University of Groningen and Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the framework of Prowad Link. The transnational Interreg project aims to unlock the potential of nature as a driver for jobs and sustainable development. This is achieved by working directly with SMEs to develop nature as a brand, creating mutual benefits for SMEs and the natural environment. 14 partners from five countries (Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom) are working in collaboration to build knowledge about sustainable business operations in touristic nature areas and to develop sustainable products and services.