Leverage Cruncho’s technology for sustainable tourism

During this past year, Cruncho has been one of the innovation partners in Nordic Innovation’s project about Sustainable Tourism in Nordic Harbor Towns carried out by Green Innovation Group.

By taking part in this initiative, we were able to leverage our technology and innovate for sustainability by combining efficient use of resources and digital solutions for harbour cities that have now become our long-term partners.

Nordic Innovation is a part of the Nordic Council of Ministers and since 2020, together with Green Innovation Group, they have been running a special initiative that aims to facilitate Nordic partnerships between the private and public sector about innovation in the harbour tourism industry.

The overall goal is to contribute to more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable tourism. Activities under the program have focused on the development of new sustainable business models and innovative digital solutions.

One of the key challenges in this initiative is facilitating greater public support for more integrated tourism practices. Cruncho was chosen as an innovation partner for this project as our technology addressed the challenge directly by diversifying the visitor’s experience and allowing local representatives to feature specific attractions or venues that align with local needs.

We created three customised platforms: Cruncho Guides, Cruncho Now and Cruncho Events for Visit Helsingborg and Aland.com. These guides that were integrated on the partners’ websites display everything the destinations have to offer on a single platform. This includes for instance places to visit, activities, restaurants, bars, museums, hotels, and live events. Except for browsing through engaging crowdsourced content, visitors can also let the recommendation engine create a personalised list of things to do based on personal preferences. In parallel to this, the city or municipality can include and promote hidden gems and attractions that would otherwise be overlooked due to usual promotions of mainstream tourist attractions from e.g. tour operators. The platform also allows the integration of local contributors. As a result, locals can present a more authentic offering, feel more connected to tourism, and visitors have a more unique and customised digital and physical experience.

The findings of this project are as follows: the innovation projects in Helsingborg and Åland highlight that Cruncho’s technology can increase the relevance and authenticity of the local offering to tourists while reducing congestion around top attractions. This type of digital tailored city guide can easily be implemented in other towns and cities. Over time, this could lead to increased acceptance of tourism in the public sphere, since more stakeholders will take part in the benefits of more dispersed tourism. Tourists will feel more welcome in person, and locals can demonstrate pride in their local area. In addition, the implementation of a single platform in multiple cities improves the customer experience of tourists travelling throughout the Nordic regions, as their preferences and experiences inform future recommendations.

A big thanks to Nordic Innovation and Green Innovation Group for trusting us with these innovation projects and to our partners, Visit Helsingborg and Åland.com, who have both become our clients after the innovation projects period.

Click here to download the full report and here to see the solutions from our clients’ page.