Co-creation workshop gave platform for new Wadden Sea services

The first co-creation workshop held by the National Park Authority in Tönning, Germany, was attended by 11 partners of the Schleswig-Holstein National Park. The consultant, Wolfgang Günther from NIT in Kiel, was moderating the workshop, which was hosted by the Multimar Wattforum in Tönning. The initial date in March had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown. So this was the first time National Park partners were able to attend a workshop (following a strict hygiene concept) – and it was fantastic.

With partners from different parts of the tourism industry a lively discussion produced many ideas on how to combine different and create new World Heritage offers to provide visitors with a unique Wadden Sea World Heritage experience.

The aim of the workshop was to provide national park partners with a platform to network and so create the opportunity to bring small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) together to combine their tourism offers components with those of other partners, e.g. guided bicycle tours and story/fairy tale telling.

With organised co-creation workshop the Interreg VB North Sea Region Programme project PROWAD LINK aims to unlock the potential of natural areas as a driver for jobs and sustainable development. SMEs were approached for this workshop to include nature as a brand and so create benefits for both, SMEs and the environment.

14 project partners in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, led by the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, working with interested SMEs will use the “nature-business-benefit-cycle” concept to develop new, sustainable products and offers in the pilot regions of the Wadden Sea (DK, D, NL), Geiranger Fjord (NO), Wash & North Norfolk Coast (UK). The 3-year project is co-funded by and carried out in the framework of the Interreg North Sea Region Programme under the Programme Priority 1 “Thinking Growth”. The programme is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union.