The Centre for Recreation and Tourism Research (CRTR) at UHI will lead both the trans-national management, monitoring and reporting of the project and internal and external communications. Aside from its competence in leading trans-national projects detailed below, the Centre is one of the UK’s leading adventure tourism research centres. Affiliated to the School of Adventure Studies, which teaches a undergraduate course in Adventure Tourism Management, CRTR has undertaken a wide range of adventure tourism knowledge exchange and consultancy projects, both in the UK and overseas. It has developed and co-hosts the annual adventure conference and collaborates on academic work with universities across the globe. It is a founder member of the Adventure Tourism Research Association, with worldwide membership, and collaborates with the Adventure Travel Trade Association, based in the USA. As such it is recognised widely as a major player in the adventure tourism industry.

Derry City Council has successfully delivered a wide range of EU and other funded capital and revenue projects on time and to budget. Council has recently delivered major capital projects such as the £10m Guildhall Restoration; the £1.2m Lighting Strategy. In addition we have delivered a £3m Destination Northwest Rural Marketing programme led by Derry City Council in collaboration with Failte Ireland.

They have also managed the £300k ARC NW (through EU and DARD) Rural Tourism Marketing Programme. This project has been shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIPR) Pride Awards.

Wild Norway is a cluster of outdoor suppliers run by a bunch of solid wood Norwegian men and women who each operate SME’s in the slow adventure market place. Over the last four years the organisation has been working closely on facilitating knowledge and contacts transfer in the travel trade to SMEs in the central Norway region. It clusters together, and delivers courses to, over 60 SMEs in product development, storytelling, professionalization, joint marketing and sales. The organisation most recently participated in and led the NORA-funded slow adventure project, involving partners in Faroes, Iceland and Scotland.

ETOUR was established in 1997 by the Swedish Tourist Authority, Swedish Travel and Tourist Association, and Mid Sweden University and is the leading producer of scientifically published tourism research in the country. Since its inception, a major focus of ETOUR’s work has been on nature based tourism and outdoor recreation – topics which are central to the “slow adventure” concept.

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly is a Managing Authority for an EU Regional Operational Programme for the period 2014-2020. The Assembly has performed this role since 2000. The Assembly is also the designated National Contact Point in Ireland for the Atlantic Area and Interreg Europe Programmes as well as the Regional Contact Point for the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme 2014-2020. The Assembly has also participated as a partner in a number of EU transnational projects. The Assembly is currently leading two transnational projects – the TESLA Project which provides innovation supports for early stage firms (Project funded under the North West Europe programme) and the Marnet project which is a marine socio economic project funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme.

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Naturpolis aims to promote profitable business and to support job creation in Kuusamo region, as well as to promote regional, national and international co-operation. Tourism is one of the most important business sectors in the area, especially nature tourism. Naturpolis has lead and participated in numerous tourism projects since 2005 and it has active co-operation with SMEs, development organisations, research institutes and authorities. Naturpolis will lead the WP5 in the project. Communication with SMEs in the region and the dissemination of results will be done in close co-operation with Metsähallitus.

Naturpolis has lead over 40 EU co-financed projects since 2005 when it was established. In addition it has been a partner in numerous other organisations’ projects. Most of the projects have been tourism related and thus also internationally oriented. International projects have been funded by ENPI Karelia CBC Programme.

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A considerable part of nature-based tourism focuses on national parks and their immediate surroundings. As the authority responsible for managing national parks and other protected areas in Finland, Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services creates partnerships to promote increasing tourism and this work also promotes public well-being and brings income to rural regions. The companies offering slow adventure-like products are usually programme services companies in Tourism. Many of them are situated in bigger cities or near holiday resorts or other tourism destinations. Finland certainly has enough nature and the nature is free for everyone to enjoy thanks to Everyman’s Rights in Finland. Most of the programme services take place in Finnish nature and often on protected areas, including our 37 national parks and about 500 other protected areas with different status. National parks are very much part of Finland’s image, serving to increase both Finland’s attractiveness as a destination for international nature-based tourism.

The Hornafjordur Regional Research Centre (HRRC) was established in 2002 and has since that time forged close contacts with the tourism sector in Southeast Iceland. The HRRC is a founding member of Ríki Vatnajökuls ehf (Realm of Vatnajokull), the tourism, food and culture cluster of Southeast Iceland, and has worked with the cluster on many previous occasions. It has also worked with tourism clusters and enterprises in neighbouring municipalities, in particular Skaftárhreppur. A large part of the HRRC´s research and R&D activities over the last decade has been devoted to tourism projects, both academic and applied. It was e.g. the trans-national lead partner in NEST and the Icelandic lead partner in NEED and has also received several grants from both national (e.g. Food and Sustainable Tourism, funded by the Icelandic Research Council) and regional sources for tourism projects. In recent years, the HRRC´s main emphasis has been on the development of sustainable tourism and winter tourism in South/Southeast Iceland.

The Hornafjordur area is in many ways ideal as a case study for the SAINT project. Because of its spectacular and varied nature (including many outlet glaciers) there is already a long history of adventure tourism of many sorts in the area. In total, there are about 15 companies working in this field, the largest of which employ more than 100 people on an annual basis. Recent years have seen the emergence of a number of small family-run businesses in this sector, the oldest of which are now growing quite quickly. Efforts are also currently being undertaken by the Municipality of Hornafjordur, Vatnajokull National Park (another longterm collaborator of the HRRC) and the tourism cluster to develop a network on new walking and hiking paths for tourists and, in general, to promote the Hornafjordur area as one of the prime outdoor recreational and adventure tourism destinations in Iceland. Training programmes for mountaineering have been developed at the East Skaftafell County Upper Secondary School.

The objectives of the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre include:

• to promote and improve tourism research in Iceland
• to facilitate cooperation between Icelandic higher education institutes in the field of tourism studies
• to facilitate communication and collaboration with the Icelandic tourism industry and other stakeholders
• to facilitate cooperation between domestic and foreign researchers in the field of tourism studies

Leitrim County Council as a key public service has two major responsibilities – to provide good quality accessible services in an efficient and effective manner and to exercise our civic leadership role to promote the economic, social and cultural development of the County in a balanced and sustainable manner.

Our strategic objective for Economic Development is – To lead, mobilise and support Enterprise and Economic Development in Leitrim, in conjunction with relevant agencies, and ensure that our physical and social infrastructure is sufficiently developed to support this.

A key supporting strategy within that is – To continue to proactively develop and enhance the natural tourism base within the County and support and participate in the development of regional and cross-border tourism capacity and facilities.