Funding was granted for the development of digital leisure services

The Ministry of Finance has awarded grants for 2020 for municipal digitalization projects. The city of Kankaanpää applied for a grant to develop digital leisure services in the North Satakunta and southern Ostrobothnia regions. The funding requested was €127 and was granted in full. The other municipalities involved in the project are Pomarkku, Siikainen, Jämijärvi, Karvia, Isojoki, Karijoki and Teuva.

The project aims to map outdoor routes, nature trails, hiking trails, cultural destinations and tours, and local sports venues in the participating municipalities. The aim is to create digital maps of these, which will be collected on a common platform that works on mobile devices.

– The Corona era has created a huge boom in local tourism and hiking, which has created the need to develop the accessibility of leisure services in digital environments. Information, for example, about recreation routes and the area's diverse leisure destinations is often difficult to find in one place, if at all. A platform that utilizes spatial information enables a more diverse examination of the possibilities of one's own local environment, project coordinator of the City of Kankaanpää Heli Puputti says.

The project will not start its own application development, but will utilize existing platforms. Cooperation has been initiated, for example, with the Turku University School of Economics and the Pori units of the University of Tampere, which operate in the Pori University Centre, and which have implemented the regional DigiLuonto Satakunta joint project (ELY 2019-2021).

– Digitalization is needed to develop the region's attractiveness, accessibility and well-being. Platform economy solutions and smart technologies can be used to create new types of content and tools to support the sustainable growth of regional tourism, leisure, culture and events. This will also increase the comfort and well-being of local residents, says the project researcher Thomas Pohjola From the Pori unit of the University of Turku School of Economics.

Other partners in the project include Lauhanvuori-Hämeenkangas GeoPark, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences' Ecomuseum project, and Metsähallitus. The project will start in spring 2021.