Slow Travel Features on Eastern King’s Road for an International Cyclist

Abstract

This thesis is commissioned by Outdoors Uusimaa project, of which aim is to research and develop nature based products and outdoor activities for international travelers in Finland. The report was set to find out what kind of slow travel experiences Eastern King’s Road has to offer for an international cyclist in the Uusimaa area. The research was completed in the timeframe of January-May 2017, and it was conducted by using content analysis for Visit websites of Sipoo, Porvoo and Loviisa.

The backbone of this research is slow travel ethos, which is a theme that runs through the whole report. Both tangible and intangible features of a successful cycle trip are addressed, which contribute to the holistic experience of wellbeing, immersion to the moment and culture. It covers wellbeing as a trend, a term coined ‘microadventures’, and the nature resources which are Finland’s trump card. It was discovered that occasional cyclists are the biggest group of cycling tourists, Modern Humanists are the main target market of Finland, of which both were recognized in slow traveling cyclist styles. By using a model for a marketing plan, specific characterizations and distinctive features were found from the target market. Sus-tainability, which covers social responsibility and environmental values was the distinctive fac-tor which separates this target group from other travelers.

By using internationalization criteria and guidelines for sustainable tourism businesses, alto-gether approximate 321 attractions listed on Visit Sipoo, Visit Porvoo, and Visit Loviisa web-sites were individually evaluated, in order to find keywords which matched with sustainability guidelines. However, they could be applied only to companies. Therefore, the internationaliza-tion criteria and the guidelines for sustainable tourism businesses were used for evaluating companies, whereas the rest were searched for other values of slow travelers, such as histor-ical features, traditionality, locality, and nature features. From the 62 selected attractions ap-propriate for the target group, 16 were companies and rest 46 were activities, historical sites, and nature attractions. They all had attributes of sustainability values, but only a few was truly dedicated. Some had these features by default, but did not commercialise or advertise them.

Language was an issue which eliminated many potential companies and services, as they didn’t provide sufficient information in English. Especially the companies on Visit Sipoo web-site have a huge deficit of websites in English, which would be an essential factor for an inter-national traveler to discover their attractions. Online marketing and selling would need to be uplifted for the 21st century: many attractions did not have a website, or it was very rudimen-tary. Relevant information of location, price, and information of the company or service itself was often missing, or provided only by a phone call or email. The Eastern King’s Road has charming features of locality and countryside, but these features need to be advertised more. Organic farming and produce is there, but it doesn’t translate to the international traveler. Eastern King’s Road certainly has potential for attracting this target market but its opportunities are not used to their full potential yet.