New Projects
B2B – USAID & INUVA IBI Inclusive Business Incubator Mentorship
B2B – Future Greenland
B2B – Icelandair FAM Tur
B2B – Adventure Travel World Summit
B2B – AECO General Meeting
B2B – European Indigenous Tourism Conference project application
Vestnorden
Vestnorden is a tourism industry sales conference that takes place every year in September or October in one of the three west nordic countries – Faroe Islands, Greenland or Iceland. In 2024, Vestnorden will be held in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.
The purpose is to promote the three countries as destinations that can easily be combined in one trip thanks to greater transport accessibility and similar concepts. In the course of more than 20 individual meetings per participant, destinations and travel agents can create sustainable sales relationships.
As a destination management organisation (DMO), ISG participates using the name “Visit South Greenland” to promote South Greenland as a one of a kind destination and to market the experiences that local tourism operators offer. Additionally, ISG helps local tourism operators with preparation for the conference when they participate themselves.
New Projects
Development – Micro-infrastructure fund
Development – Environmental and Maintenance Fee for Cruise Ships
Development – Uunartoq
Development – North Atlantic Native Sheep & Wool Conference
INUVA Cooperation
INUVA expands upon its pilot project to map business development potentials and challenges in small communities outside the capital region, now in collaboration with ISG, to focus specifically on tourism development in Nanortalik and the surrounding area. The methodology is based on the principle of local anchoring in which the local community’s wishes and needs must always be at the center of planning any business development actions.
Winter Tourism / Season Expansion
We continue to work toward establishing a year-round direct international flight connection for South Greenland, in cooperation with key partners Icelandair and Air Greenland. The current international connections are only available for part of the year (spring and summer). Of course, the route must be economically viable for the airlines, filled with both Greenlandic and tourist passengers. Therefore, tourism packages must be developed to show and promote experiences in South Greenland in the autumn, winter and spring seasons. A starting point is the two inspirational marketing films we made in 2021 to begin creating demand for the winter season.
Narsarsuaq Branding Campaign
Due to the coming new airport in South Greenland, which will result in a new traffic pattern, Narsarsuaq is going to have a changed position in the region and will require new branding. Specifically, it will need to be branded as a destination one goes to for itself, instead of a destination one experiences automatically by adding it onto the start or end of one’s holiday when passing through anyway for air transportation.
Therefore, we must create a dedicated marketing campaign together with the local tourism stakeholders within Tunulliarfik Fjord to show it as a broader destination with a cohesive range of adventure experiences including: hiking to the Greenland Ice Sheet, Farm Holiday, american history, forest discovery and special geology. This marketing campaign should also highlight which transport options and accommodations are available.
National Highlights
Over the last couple years, the Government of Greenland has supported tourism development through a project to help facilitate a handful of attractions in each tourism region that make that region completely unique in comparison to others. ISG delivered a number of suggestions for which attractions should be included, and Greenland Visitor Center made a final decision about which locations made the list.
These selected locations are called National Highlights and in South Greenland they are: Gardar ruins in Igaliku, Brattahlid ruins in Qassiarsuk, the church ruin in Qaqortukulooq and Uunartoq. Given that several of these places lie within KUJATAA, South Greenland’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is naturally close cooperation with the KUJATAA Site Manager and Park Ranger, both of whom also work at ISG. A fifth highlight is still to be determined.
New Projects
Strategy – NORA Committee membership
Strategy – Naalakkersuisut / Government of Greenland Zoning meeting & hearing
Strategy – Cruise Workshop 2024, AECO Port Readiness Meeting
Strategy – Interns (2)
Narsarsuaq Working Group
Narsarsuaq is on the cusp of significant change as the time nears when South Greenland’s new airport will open in 2026. Therefore it is important to carefully plan how the settlement can navigate the transition in the best way possible, regarding both daily logistics and infrastructure but also economic viability. Tourism is currently the largest private sector industry in Narsarusaq and therefore ISGs Tourism Destination Manager participates in the working group.
There are 5 tourism operators with base in Narsarsuaq plus an additional 9 tourism operators in nearby settlements in the fjord, Tunulliarfik Fjord. The working group meets monthly for several years to discuss and decide about the future of Narsarsuaq and includes members from the Government of Greenland, the municipality Kommune Kujalleq, ISG and GE Business Association, as well as local business owners from time to time.
Airport Working Group
The opening date for South Greenland’s new airport is fast approaching, so the region on the whole is at a precipice of big change with regards to transportation, traffic patterns and the associated business development opportunities. It is necessary to carefully and strategically plan based on how the traffic pattern will be, what the capacity will be and prepare for an anticipated increase in travellers in the region.
Given that tourism is one of the industries upon whose shoulders the most responsibility is being put in order to increase traffic to the region, ISGs Tourism Destination Manager participates in the working group. The working group functions as a steering committee of sorts that meets once a month to discuss actions that are presented by various sub-groups (commissorium) within individual industries, including tourism. The municipality Kommune Kujalleq is the primary contact person for the Airport working group.
New Projects
Content – Uunartoq & Hot Springs film
Content – AI Opener Course for DMOs
Content – special campaigns in connection with book releases (4)
Press Trips
South Greenland has a wonderfully diverse experience portfolio, but travellers can only be inspired by it if they can see, hear and read about it. By cooperating with international media (photojournalists, social media influencers, adventure magazines, bloggers, and the like), South Greenland can benefit from their enormous network and audience, often globally, in order to bring South Greenland out to the world.
ISG invites media to South Greenland and plans tailormade trips for them, so that they can experience and document the region for themselves, and then share their photos, films, thoughts and content for others to be inspired by. We often cooperate with Visit Greenland to host these press trips where Visit Greenland takes care of the media’s travel to South Greenland, and then ISG takes over for the in-region experience. In 2024, there is a wish to create content about the following topics: winter adventure, Farm Holiday, hiking, gastronomy and the Christmas / holiday season.
Visit South Greenland Website
The website www.visitsouthgreenland.com was launched in order to communicate tourism-related information and inspiration in South Greenland. Website visitors can navigate based on destination or activity, and there is also a complete list of every single tourism operator, accommodation and transport company in the region. In 2024 the website will be updated with the latest photo content, as well as with theme-based inspiration pages, that bundle similar travel elements in one article.
Online Marketing
ISG runs social media accounts under the handle @visit_southgreenland in Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to display visual content of South Greenland as a unique travel destination throughout the seasons. The accounts feature daily content from all corners of the region in order to show everything from “everyday pics” to professional photography. We also boost many of the posts as sponsored content in order to ensure the content reaches particular audiences / market segments throughout the world