Working Together for Greater Regional Focus: Three LTOs Launch a Funding Project to Promote Regional Products

Working Together for Greater Regional Focus: Three LTOs Launch a Funding Project to Promote Regional Products

The local tourism organizations (LTOs) Fehmarn, OstseeSpitze, and OstseeFerienLand are working together to advance the development of regional value chains. As part of a project funded by the LAG AktivRegion Wagrien-Fehmarn e.V.*, the feasibility study “Jointly Marketing Regional Products” was launched.

The Wagrien-Fehmarn region, with its towns and municipalities, is home to numerous direct sellers and offers a wide variety of regionally produced products. At the same time, demand for transparently produced and regional products is growing—among both locals and visitors. However, there has so far been no common, overarching strategy for marketing regional products within the region. This is precisely where the feasibility study comes in: It aims to examine how regional products can be marketed in the future in a way that makes them more visible, more tangible, and more economically successful. Tourism plays a particularly important role in this regard—for example, as a multiplier and an additional sales channel.

“Regional products stand for authenticity, quality, and identity. With this feasibility study, we want to find out how we can join forces and work together to create new marketing channels—for the benefit of producers, tourism businesses, and the entire region,” explains Jacqueline Schumacher of LTO OstseeFerienLand.

A key outcome of the feasibility study is the catalog of measures that was developed in collaboration with tourism professionals and regional direct marketers. This was based on an ideas workshop in which a total of 13 direct marketers from the region participated. Moderated by Destination LAB, concrete project ideas were discussed, further developed, and assessed for their feasibility within the Wagrien-Fehmarn Active Region. The result is a practical action guide comprising a total of 13 measures in the areas of events, experiential offerings, digitalization, and collaborations. These include, among other things, a regional event pool, culinary bus tours visiting local producers, social media campaigns, digital profiles of local providers on tourism websites, and new collaboration formats between the tourism and direct marketing sectors. The first projects are already underway—including the regional get-together, a central platform for exchange and networking, which took place for the first time on May 12 at the Lafrenz fruit farm. The study clearly shows that many of the measures developed can be implemented in the short term and with manageable effort. In this way, the project lays a concrete foundation for making regional products more visible in the future, strengthening cooperation within the region, and creating new tourism experiences with a regional focus.

Through this joint project, the three LTOs are sending a clear message in support of regional cooperation, sustainable tourism, and the strengthening of local economic cycles in East Holstein.

*The Wagrien-Fehmarn Active Region is one of 22 Active Regions in Schleswig-Holstein and part of the European LEADER funding program. The goal of this funding initiative is to sustainably strengthen rural areas. It is financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).