The Culture Finland -project promoting cultural tourism has been evaluated

MDI evaluated the operation, results and usefulness of the Culture Finland project, promoting the coordination of cultural tourism, to Visit Finland (Business Finland) and made recommendations for the development of cultural tourism in the future.

The aim of the Culture Finland programme is to increase cultural tourism to and from Finland by promoting cooperation between parties operating in the cultural and tourism sectors in order to create new, attractive cultural tourism products and services. The aim is to promote cultural exports, cultural and creative productions and employment, ensuring the year-round supply of tourism products.

The programme is considered as constituting an expert body and is generally seen to have succeeded in achieving its objectives. The umbrella programme has been particularly successful in those objectives that are directly achievable with the programme. The practical implementation of the programme has been successful in relation to resources. The benefits for the target and stakeholders often arise through the networks formed by the programme. However, there is a need to strengthen and increase the practical development of the programme in order to enhance its benefits and effectiveness for the programme’s target and stakeholder audiences.

The quantitative data of the evaluation were based on the financing plans of the projects, the implemented financing and the measures. The qualitative material consisted of existing documentary material which was supplemented by the evaluation’s own data collection: electronic surveys of stakeholders and interviews.