Project No. C034
Light in the Dark: Off-Season Tourism Piloting Results presents the main outcomes of the piloting phase carried out within the Light in the Dark project. The report brings together the results of testing newly developed off-season tourism experiences and shows how they performed both at the planning stage and in real off-season conditions.
Between 2024 and 2025, small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Finland, Åland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden took part in the piloting process. In total, 25 products were evaluated and 15 were tested with real participants. More than 400 survey responses were collected from potential customers, tourism professionals, DMOs, SMEs and other stakeholders, providing a broad and reliable basis for the analysis.
The report compares initial expectations with actual visitor experiences and highlights both strengths and areas for improvement. It focuses on practical aspects such as clarity of information, logistics, storytelling, sustainability and perceived value. Overall, the findings show that live piloting helped refine the products and made them more suitable for off-season tourism across the Baltic Sea Region.
The analysis was carried out with the support of AI-assisted data processing to ensure consistency and comparability of results. The report was prepared by Kurzeme Planning Region
Project “Light in the Dark”
Light in the Dark is an Interreg Baltic Sea Region project aimed at developing innovative experiences to extend and create new seasons beyond the traditional summer season. The Challenge Inventory survey is conducted in all participating countries: Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It is aimed at SME’s in the Northern Baltic Sea region and explores the interest of small and medium-sized businesses in expanding their operations beyond the traditional summer season as well as the challenges they face regarding seasonal variations in tourist flows.
More about the project: https://www.kurzemesregions.lv/en/projects/tourism/light-in-the-dark/
Project manager:
Anna Elizabete Upsava
+371 26369876
anna.upsava@kurzemesregions.lv
