Project owner: Municipality of Östersund in Sweden and Nidaros Pilgrimsgård in Norway.
Collaborators in Sweden include the municipalities of Sundsvall, Ånge, Bräcke, Krokom and Åre, and Härnösand diocese, and in Norway collaborators include the Pilegrimssenter in Stiklestad, along with the municipalities of Trondheim, Verdal, Levanger, Stjørdal, Frosta, and Malvik.
Funding: Interreg Sweden-Norway.
Project period: 13/02/2023 – 12/02/2026
Main goals
The project aspires to create a social border-region through shared cultural heritage and thereby develop St. Olavsleden as a powerful national and international travel destination. The measurable goal of the project is that 3,000 people will hike/cycle along the trail in summer 2025, creating around 45,000 overnight stays.
To succeed in achieving this goal, the project must generate growth by focusing on two target groups: business owners and visitors.
Business owners
The businesses that provide accommodation, food, guiding and transport along the trail are important to the project. First, the project would like existing providers to grow and receive more visitors. Second, we aim to encourage more businesses to be part of the development. This will be achieved through training, networking and improvement of the physical trail and its accessibility.
Visitors
Visitors from all over the world who want to hike, cycle and possibly ride horseback along St. Olavsleden support growth creation for these businesses. To get more visitors to choose St. Olavsleden as their destination, the project will focus on marketing and sales via trade fairs, tour operators, digital communication, travel journalist visits, digital maps and social media.
Interplay
The interplay between these two target groups is incredibly important as developing St. Olavsleden can be viewed as a Catch 22 situation. If no hikers come, nobody will want to open a B&B, and if there are no B&Bs, nobody will want to come. That’s why we believe and are investing in both!
St. Olavsleden extends across two countries, Sweden and Norway. The trail is a cohesive product that has been jointly developed by the two countries and cannot be managed separately by the countries. Hikers and pilgrims view the trail as a hiking route where information, signposting and marketing should be recognisable and comparable along the entire trail. For this reason, the St. Olavsleden Project – hospitality through shared cultural heritage – is being run as an Interreg project.
Project owner: The project owner is the Municipality of Östersund. Co-participants include the Municipality of Sundsvall, Näringslivsbolaget i Sundsvall AB, and the municipalities of Ånge, Bräcke, Krokom and Åre.
Funding: Financed by the regional development fund in conjunction with the municipalities and regions located along the St. Olavsleden route.
Project period: 28 June 2019 – 31 September 2022.
Main goals: As a collaborative effort, the project will create the right conditions for the growth, innovation and continuous competitive development of the private sector, both on the national and international markets.
The objective
The objective of the project “S:t Olavsleden – a part of regional development” is to strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of the region through regional cooperation that supports the development of small and medium-sized companies, and promotes vibrant rural communities. Additionally, the project will support the regional development strategies of Jämtland Härjedalen and Västernorrland, and preserve and develop the unique natural and cultural heritage as well as the attractiveness of the counties.
This project is the backbone for the development of St. Olavsleden and it is of major significance for a number of development projects that are based on St. Olavsleden, such as Pilgrims utan gränser (Pilgrims without borders).
St. Olavsleden as a component of private sector growth
The goal of the project is for local businesses to notice a major impact from St. Olavsleden. Many businesses along the route already receive guests that hike the trail during the summer. However, through the project and with training and support we want to help businesses reach the next level. Primarily, the project aims to support cultural and creative companies by creating the conditions for cultural workers to live and operate both in cities and in the countryside. Furthermore, there is great potential for new companies to start up along the route, both accommodation providers and activity companies. This is promoted by the project and we work actively to support people who want to start a new business.
The project has a clear vision which involves every party in the project working to develop the local business environment in each municipality.
New destinations grow through marketing
St. Olavsleden is a unique asset with great opportunities, but it takes time to develop a new destination.
Empirical studies show that it requires approximately seven years to achieve this, and taking former projects into account, we were already in the fourth year of development when we started this project. During the period of the project we will carry out aggressive marketing via the website and social media, and continue earlier successful media efforts. We want to put the region firmly on the international map through the St. Olavsleden brand, and from a socio-economic perspective we want it to be a natural key component of regional and local tourism.
Focus on cooperation
In summary, during the course of this project we aim to build on the stable network of stakeholders and private individuals that believe in and want to invest in St. Olavsleden. We will do this by continuing to develop that which is already good and also identifying new areas for development, to attract new target groups to the route and enable more companies to start up and grow, based on the potential of St. Olavsleden.
One part of this effort will include establishing a regional business network which gathers entrepreneurial forces under a common brand and identifies, crystallises and boosts potential business opportunities linked to St. Olavsleden. The relevant municipalities have a key role in this work.
