Sustainable Jyväskylä Region

Developing responsibility sometimes requires a balancing act and making difficult decisions.
A lot of emissions are generated by travel, but on the other hand, tourism also creates new jobs, increases the vitality of regions, and enables, for example, funding for the maintenance of nature trails and national parks. Visit Jyväskylä Region is committed to developing responsible tourism in the region and supports local travel entrepreneurs in their responsibility-based work.

The tourism area is involved in the nationwide Sustainable Travel Finland programme, the goal of which is to highlight and develop sustainable tourism throughout the nation. After fulfilling the programme’s seven criteria, participating companies are awarded the Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) label as proof of their commitment to sustainability work. The brand also helps to identify the responsible tourism operators in the Jyväskylä Region. Over 50 of the region’s enterprises have become part of the programme, and a growing number of these companies have already obtained STF certification. Acquaint yourself with the stories of the responsibility work the region’s STF-certified companies have taken on.

In addition to national training and development programmes, the region has also actively co-operated with local companies, educational institutions and other actors. In the Making the Responsibility of Tourism Visible in the Jyväskylä Region project, a joint style of responsibility-based communication and a checklist for developing the cyber security of companies in the tourism field were, for instance, created. Our set goal is to continue working with responsibility-related themes and work together for the Jyväskylä Region to make it a “shining example of a responsible and internationally successful nature-, adventure- and cultural-based tourism area, renowned for its good accessibility and active co-operation”.

Visit Jyväskylä Region is the official DMO (Destination Management Organization) of Central Finland, whose purpose is to support the region’s businesses and to develop the visibility of the entire region in the tourism field. We promote responsibility-based expertise and awareness in both our co-operative networks and internally in our own operations. We are committed to conserving natural resources and have completed the Ecocompass environmental programme to support our activities for responsible development.  

The Ecocompass helps organisations to identify the environmental impacts of their own operations and to find concrete tools to reduce them. The fulfilment of goals is monitored by a designated environmental officer, who also actively participates in training events dealing with sustainable tourism. All personnel are committed to the systematic development of environmental work and conceive new measures together as support for these goals. At the moment, special attention is being paid to the development of operations for, e.g. the reduction of brochure waste, making procurement environmentally friendly, and organising responsibility-related training.