Our region is labeled as a Sustainable Destination. It's a national scheme and a quality mark developed and owned by Innovation Norway, for destinations that work over time to reduce negative impacts on the environment, nature, and local communities. At the same time, we work to strengthen positive social and cultural values, while constantly striving to provide guests with the best possible experience at the destination.
For us, it's important to focus on the overall picture of our destination. We achieve this by delivering annual reports and recertifying the destination every three years.
During recertification, we respond to a delivery - also called a Standard - consisting of 6 themes, 31 criteria, and 84 indicators. Many of the responses involve both member companies and municipalities associated with Visit Narvik through cooperation agreements. In 2024, this applies to the municipalities of Narvik, Gratangen, Lavangen, and Bardu.
- Destination Management: Destination management refers to the actors who, together, formally or informally, lead the development of tourism at the destination. Destination management has a unifying and coordinating role in the governance and management of tourism at the destination. In 2024, a formal destination management is established in the Narvik region.
- Strategic Basis: The destination has a multi-year strategy followed by concrete action plans that are publicly available, developed through an inclusive process, and based on a goal of increased sustainability and good visitor management. There should also be a system to monitor the development of tourism activities, and actions and results should be regularly measured, evaluated, and publicly reported. The reports are continually evolving, with what is reported falling under annual reports. Destination management should also ensure responsible marketing and profiling with respect for nature, culture, local communities, and guests. Through our strategy for responsible marketing, we work to ensure this to the greatest extent possible.
- Preservation of Nature, Culture, and Environment: This theme has a total of 13 different indicators to be addressed. It covers everything from an overview of material and immaterial culture and heritage that can be a resource for tourism, including plans for its preservation, to actively working for increased use of local resources, food traditions, and local food and beverages for visitors. It also includes an overview of important natural and cultural areas for tourism, how visitor management is handled, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and emissions from guests' transportation to, from, and within the destination, identification of risks and measures related to tourism's adaptation to climate change, reduced energy consumption in tourism, energy efficiency, reduction of water consumption, proper waste management, and setting environmental and climate requirements in procurement and acquisitions.
- Strengthening of Social Values: There are 7 indicators under this theme to be addressed. Monitoring of local employment, status, and pride in tourism, guest surveys, member surveys, resident surveys, as well as efforts to ensure that important cultural and natural attractions, facilities, and services are accessible to user groups with special needs, and that information about this is available before and during the visit, are included in the response here.
- Economic Viability: Local economic value creation and the ripple effects of tourism, a destination company with positive equity and positive operating results, focus on balanced development of arrivals/year-round tourism for broad local employment, development in guest nights, and cooperation between small and larger companies are some of the indicators to be addressed under this theme.
- Cruise Supplement: At our destination, we also address additional criteria and indicators for cruise destinations. Under this criterion, efforts should be made for an increased number of environmental certifications, there should be a multi-year destination strategy, developed through an open process, for integrated development of cruise and land-based tourism, destination management including the Port Authority should, through an inclusive process at the destination, find a consensus level on the number of cruise calls and cruise passengers throughout the year, necessary infrastructure should be ensured to minimize the impact from large groups, environmental challenges related to cruise calls should be mapped out in collaboration with the Port Authority and other relevant actors, and local value creation based on cruise tourism should be promoted to the greatest extent possible.