Friday 19 January 2024, the first meeting of the Scientific Council of The South Fyn Archipelago took place. It was actually a very exciting encounter.
Carsten Humlebæk from CBS participated to represent the field of action that deals with Geotourism, bringing in the discussion references to the results of INCULTUM.
The South Fyn Archipelago is aspiring at becoming a UNESCO Global Geopark and it is expected that the official designation will come soon, hopefully at the next UNESCO Global Geopark Executive Committee meeting (spring 2024).
In the Council biologists, historians, archaeologists, and geologists meet and several of the tools and methods that INCULTUM has resulted in can be used in the Geopark context. There is a lot of overlap between the interests that INCULTUM’s pilot projects in peripheral and remote areas have in ensuring sustainable development and the interests of the Geopark’s smaller communities have in their own areas.
Officially, the focus changes from ‘cultural tourism’ to ‘geo-tourism’, but in the Geopark context it is still about ensuring sustainable development with tourism as a tool, and that is 100% the same thing that is experimented in INCULTUM.
Examples could be the alternative/innovative business models that are being implemented in the INCULTUM pilot project in the province of Granada in Spain. Similar models could be used to regulate and incentivize development along the Øhavsstien, a 230 km hiking trail around the Southern part of Funen and the larger islands. Also, the use of the tools and methods developed in INCULTIM pilot in Sweden can be experimented in relation to investigating the behavior and movement patterns of tourists at a location in collaboration with with the locals, for example on some of the islands of archipielago as Drejø, Lyø, Avernakø or Strynø.
Pictures of the wonderful places can be explored on the website of Geopark: have a look and be fascinated!
The Archipelago Trail, one of the longest hiking routes in Denmark, is accessible online: 220 km of hiking trails set against the backdrop of the South Fyn Archipelago.
Further information about the meeting are available here, in Danish language.
