Outdoor Express – Smart and sustainable mobility service for nature tourism destinations
About this good practice
Outdoor Express solves the challenge of limited public transport access to National Parks around Tampere, thus decreasing car dependency for nature tourism. This practice was triggered by Tampere's aim to become Finland's leading sustainable and smart nature travel destination.
Outdoor Express operates on weekends during the summer season. Timetables are linked to train connections and booking system integrated with Matkahuolto's webshop and app allow seamless multi-modal travel chain. Digital marketing utilizes partners' online channels and wide cooperation. Local bus operator handles the transport with low emission bus fleet.
Visit Tampere coordinates the service with city owned sustainability agent Ecofellows Ltd. Key stakeholders include:
• City of Tampere and municipalities within National Parks – financial support, marketing and development cooperation
• Metsähallitus – Parks & Wildlife Finland unit (maintains National Parks in Finland) is a key stakeholder in marketing and visitor engagement
• Matkahuolto (nationwide service and marketing company for bus transport) provides e-ticketing solution and app
Main beneficiaries are both locals and tourists, especially international visitors, who get an easy option to reach and enjoy Finnish nature while visiting Tampere.
Outdoor Express addresses the main goals of TAAS project and exemplifies smart and sustainable tourism development by utilizing best available digital tools to provide an innovative mobility solution.
Resources needed
Annual budget 2024 was 41 500€. Transport cost are covered partly with ticket sales (16 000€). Municipal funding from Tampere and other municipalities:
- 17 500 € for coordination, marketing, digital tools
- 8 000 € transport subsidies, ensuring scheduled connections and affordable pricing
Evidence of success
Outdoor Express was first developed and piloted in 2022 with REACT EU funding. Service is now operating from May to early September (36 days, over 2000 passengers in 2024). Average user rate was around 70 % in 2023 and 57 % 2024. Customers mostly local and domestic. User feedback very positive, over 90% would use the service again.
Service is also a tool for destination nature tourism marketing and brand development is a key success. Service is expanding to other regions in Finland in 2025.
Potential for learning or transfer
Outdoor Express is an example of cost efficient smart tourism development, solving need to help tourists reach nature sustainably with easy digital accessibility.
Key steps included:
1. High quality brand and service design responding to identified customer needs
2. Smart digital customer path development utilizing best available online ticketing tools from partnes
3. Wide stakeholder collaboration and finding right partners (local government, state enterprise, and private sector)
4. Sustainable mobility chain development
Service model can be adopted to any region with big enough city surrounded by National Parks or other nature destinations. Possible challenges are securing funding and human resources for service operation and coordinating the cooperation. Wide range of beneficiaries from locals to visots and local companies plus the benefits for destination marketing justify public funding. Utilizing knowledge and solutions of partners enables cost efficient service creation.
Further information
Documents
Outdoor Express - Summary of the Service 2023.pdf
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.