With a unique combination of year-round winter bathing in Nuuk, wellness, sauna and wishing for hot tubs under the dancing light, Nuuk Wellness project won a product and business development course for tourism companies and entrepreneurs in Nuuk, Greenland.
This happened under the heading Tourism Boost 2017, where four came to the final.
The four projects were:
Mette & Vilhelm Willumsen with Nuuk Wellness, Terkel Andersen with Nuuk City Tours, Anne Nivíka Grødem with MAMAQ – Nuuk by Mouth and Christian Jerimiassen with an augmented reality incoming center.
The winners were found by the vote at the Future Greenland Business Conference in front of 430 potential mentors and investors, where the spectators helped select the winner per vote.
It is one of several intentions from the Sermersooq Business Council (SBC) that works with destination development in Greenland’s capital Nuuk.
“With citybrandet Colorful Nuuk, the business council puts the capital on the international country map. This is done in cooperation with local tourism actors, companies and entrepreneurs. We always try to work with the local tourism industry to develop tourism in Nuuk. Operators are those who have expert knowledge and know the needs of tourists, and therefore they are the best to give SBC input to what tasks are to be solved,” says Stine Selmer Andersen, Business Advisor at SBC.
“These collaborations have resulted in the brand Colorful Nuuk and development of the city through initiatives ranging from marketing seminars and courses to practical tasks such as website, city maps and physical street signs, “says Stine Selmer Andersen.
However, the Future Greenland Business Conference also gave critical voices about tourism in Nuuk.
Opportunities
“Greenland is a land of economic opportunities, says Asii Chemnitz Narup, mayor of Nuuk/Sermersooq local council, with tourism at the forefront.
The Future Greenland 2017 conference encouraged a new discussion of these opportunities.
Greenland has lots of potential, but it has to take the initiative. “My question is, why is nothing happening?” the mayor asks.
More needs to be done to build tourism infrastructure, from hotel accommodation and cafés to toilets and rubbish bins.
Although nearby Iceland is “drowning in its own success as a tourism destination”, Greenland has yet to experience a tourism boom of its own, yet still faces many of the same capacity problems.
There should be easy Wi-Fi access for visitors to upload their pictures of Greenland to social media sites.
Plastic competes with the wildlife during whale-watching and streets are littered with rubbish. And visitors do not always get the same service standards or memorable experiences they can get in other countries,” says Asii Chemnitz Narup.
