Salla-Gate – Business and Tourism Partnership (KO322)
Funded by Kolarctic ENPI 2007-2013

Objective of the project

Overall Objectives: The project area consists of the East Lapland municipalities in Finland and five neighbouring towns in Russia. This is a cross border economic activity partnership area, where there is a constant flow of business activities across the border. The project aims to increase the successful utilization of the favourable conditions of the area. Cross border cooperation will enable the partnership area enterprises to participate in the Barents region mega projects, particularly in the mining sector. The area will have a cross border goods and passenger traffic network with related services. Specific Objective: Project's specific objective is to create a functioning network of entrepreneurs and companies in two key industries; tourism and supporting services for mining. Economic cooperation within the chosen key industries will be supported by creating a functioning support network and services for the businesses. Closer cooperation will enable common knowhow, and benefit the whole area.

Main activities

The project focused on the following four objectives which were put into practice by wide and active networking Objective 1: Development of enterprise services in the partnership area within the key sectors tourism and mining support services day/date. For this objective, the project participants attended fairs, seminars, study trips etc. Objective 2 Increasing of through education For this objective, the project carried out educational activities in marketing, languages, recruitment etc. Objective III Fostering cooperation within the tourism industry Again, the project aimed at developing this by study tours, discussions, conferences who focused on networking between the tourism companies on the area and creation of joint travel packages. Joint marketing was carried out and some minor investments were done in order to improve some infrastructure and services (e.g. road signs, websites, ski tracks) Objective IV Fostering cooperation within the mining support services This objective was also pursued via meeting face to face. This meant meetings, visits and other ways of networking.

Achievements

Salla Gate – Business and Tourism Partnership, brought together the East Lapland municipalities in Finland, and the Kandalaksha, Tersky and Kovdor districts and cities of Apatity and Kirovsk on the Russian side of the border. The focus of the project was on two key industries: tourism and supporting services for mining. The project built a support network to help the companies in the partnership area to participate in mega projects in the Barents region, particularly in the mining sector. In the tourism industry, cooperation was fostered by solid investments and by improving know-how and joint marketing of tourism services in the project areas.