Tourism Profile Danish North Sea Coast

The present report was prepared as part of the Interreg project Developing Sustainable Tourism in the North Sea Region - Applying the Tourism Learning Area Concept (ToLearn) and focuses on the current situation and future challenges of coastal tourism in the Danish NSR. The findings are based on statistical data, a number of analyses on Danish tourism and twelve semi-structured interviews with experts on tourism in the region. Aims of the research were:

the investigation of demand and supply characteristics, the assessment of the region's sustainability, the examination of communication, cooperation and learning structures, the review of innovative projects and evaluation of the region's innovativeness, and the identification of actors shaping tourism related policies and development strategies.

Overall, tourism demand and supply in the Danish NSR has hardly changed in the last five years. However, while e.g. the number of overnight stays has stayed relatively stable, several significant changes in the composition of tourism demand were noted. On the one hand, the segments empty nesters and seniors travelling without children have become more significant as a result of demographic changes in the major source markets. On the other hand, the domestic demand grew in importance while the German market, especially due to the continuous shortening of holiday stays, has declined in terms of overnights but has slightly recovered in the geographically closer southern part of Jutland. Despite the latter observations, the Germans continue to account for most of all overnights and remain the dominant segment in the southern parts of the peninsula, while the domestic demand prevails in the north. Despite the above described changes and the differences among origin markets regarding their preferred type of accommodation, the most used types have continued to be on the one hand holiday houses, predominantly used by Germans but increasingly also popular among Danes, and on the other hand, camping, traditionally very popular among Danes. These prevailing types of accommodation target independent car travellers and allow for cost-saving self catering. In contrast to the coastal tourists, the MICE segment has demonstrated much higher daily expenditure and moderate growth thus being identified as a target group in the region despite its limited size. The pursuit of the MICE market and the trend of frequent shorter stays are viewed as an opportunity for extension of the season, as tourism in the Danish NSR has been concentrated around the summer months. The tourists' appreciation of the nature in the region and the awareness of its quality as well as the consumption of culture in various forms are planned to form the basis for the development of off-season products. Changes in the information and booking behaviour such as the rising importance of the internet and differences among the segments related to the timing of destination choice have to receive further consideration.

Tourism supply is at a consolidated stage of development. The overall number of accommodations and beds has varied little in the last 5 years despite the dynamics in the industry in terms of SME start ups and close downs. A few major construction projects shape the supply and intensify the competition, as the new centres offer state of the art accommodation and entertainment facilities. The supply of all types of accommodation is seasonal, i.e. many businesses close in the off-season, a situation which inhibits the extension of the season. The private attraction sector is also characterized by increasing competition as new attractions enter the market and existing attractions regularly update their offer. However, they play a secondary role as attractions based on the natural and cultural assets of the region prevail. Due to the price level in Denmark and the fierce competition for tourists, quality schemes are widespread. Next to the popular star qualification, there are various systems based on the type of business, themes and environmental friendliness. As these quality schemes predominantly apply technical criteria, they are of limited use in the assessment of supply quality. The tourism labour force plays a crucial role in the delivery of satisfying tourist experiences. The high turnover, large share of insufficiently skilled staff and shortage in tourism employees lessen the quality provided; these issues are thus identified as challenges to tourism development.

An assessment of tourism's sustainability in the Danish NSR turned out to be very difficult due to the limited suitability of the applied method. The experts' evaluations differ as they apply a wide range of potential indicators to measure a criterion's degree of importance and interpret the very vague criteria differently. This, on the one hand, prevents generalization and, on the other hand, illustrates the complexity of the concept and pursuit of sustainability. Only one best practice project on sustainable tourism could be identified thus indicating that sustainability is not explicitly on most of the experts' agenda. However, this does not mean that this concept is not important. Instead, the interviews indicate that while sustainability is not an issue in a Danish context to the same extent as in other countries, its principles have been integrated in tourism development.

There are numerous networks shaping tourism development in the Danish NSR. Next to permanent networks such as business associations and marketing alliances, project based cooperation shapes tourism development. While projects have always been an important component of development in Denmark, changes in the public funding system encourage project based work. Important actors shaping regional tourism are municipalities and the national government as they decide on legislation and funding, local and regional DMOs as they link stakeholders and coordinate activities on the various levels, and businesses and their associations as they co-fund and implement activities to improve tourism in the Danish NSR. While the importance of cooperation and networks is acknowledged by the tourism actors, caution prevails as to when the benefits of cooperation outweigh the "costs" of sharing expertise with competitors.

Competence development is a priority issue in all strategy papers. Formal settings for learning are primarily offered by public actors such as the Ministry of Education and higher educational institutions as well as private business associations. In addition, components of learning are frequently incorporated in projects on tourism development. They focus predominantly on issues related to business operation, thus corresponding to the needs identified by the experts. However, various factors, which are frequently demand related, inhibit the use of the educational offer. Examples in this regard are limited human resources preventing the participation in courses and the unawareness of training needs by both staff and management.

Several innovation projects in the Danish NSR were identified, of which most focus on product improvement or development. While their innovative character is indicated by the focus on the inclusion of new ideas and the intention to improve tourism supply and thus the competitive position of the region, the success of these projects in terms of their commercial value is fairly unknown. A number of actors are commonly associated with innovativeness such as R&D departments and DMOs. As those actors cannot work in isolation, tourism staff plays a major role in the generation of new ideas and the implementation of innovative concepts. However, their attitude towards change may differ: some individuals actively encourage innovative behaviour while others resist change until inevitable. Thus, investments into human resources are needed in addition to financial resources for funding the development and implementation of new ideas.

The tourism policy is shaped by a number of public actors on various levels. The national government with its ministries and the municipalities are the most powerful governing bodies, while the influence of the newly created regional governments is still unclear. The tourist boards are the traditional coordinators of tourism development by guiding strategic planning and arranging tourism projects that relate to the set policy priorities. The tourism strategies developed on the various levels influence the public investment behaviour and the choice of activities undertaken by the DMOs. However, the lack of conformity among the strategies has lessened their effects and led to the call for more cooperation between the levels. In addition, the regional tourism development is affected by the overlap of regional and destination boundaries and the clash of responsibilities, as the newly created regional governments take over tasks that were previously in the hands of the regional DMOs. The associated uncertainties about the actors' roles and authorities may inhibit the effectiveness of regional tourism policy.

In conclusion, the study explored particular issues related to tourism development in the Danish NSR. As the report forms the basis for comparing the regions along the NSC the findings are generalized. Hence, the complexity of tourism in the Danish NSR is not reflected entirely by the analysis, i.e. the findings may be challenged by pointing out conflicting individual cases. Despite such restrictions, the report is considered valuable for the specified purpose.