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Branding Europe’s wilderness areas

Zoltán Kun, Executive Director, PAN Parks Foundation

Willem Guitink, Deputy Chairman, PAN Parks Foundation

zkun@panparks.org

Sustainability becomes an important factor of decision making process for consumers and the corporate sector

• companies have been starting to switch their priorities for sustainability in product design

• consumers are enthusiastic about sustainable products

• non-traditional tourism destinations such as protected areas also move into the spotlight

• migrating towards the mainstream of consumption activities results in an important question: how to deal with the dual demand of tourism consumption and preservation of resources?

Sustainability moves into the mainstream

The ideal situation

The role of media of projecting these new destinations

Protected Areas asnew destination

Tourists / Visitorsas consumers

TRAVEL MEDIA

The travel media ask the questions• how to define a protected area?• what is the brand of protected areas?

versus the Reality

Guaranteed

high level

protection of

Europe’s

wilderness

capitals

supported by

all Europeans

Photo: Joep van de Vlasakker

The Vision of PAN Parks Foundation

Europe’s nature is still under threat

• protected areas are under-valued, and quite a lot suffer from poor management practice

• wilderness is a concept appreciated globally, but most people is not aware of Europe’s wilderness areas

• how would people value these species?

Photo: Jari Peltomaki

Why did we start the concept?

• how many people would understand the value of Euro coins for nature?

Photo: Maciej Grzegorzek

PAN Parks Foundation’s verification method ensures management excellence of protected areas

There are strict Principles and Criteria for protected areas to join our network

• Principle 1: Rich Natural Heritage (e.g. at least 20.000 hectares)

• Principle 2: Nature Management excellence

• Principle 3: Visitor Management excellence

• Principle 4: Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy (approved by local stakeholders)

• Principle 5: Partnerships (defines which business partners can join locally)

We develop PAN Parks as Europe’s premium wilderness tourism brand• to see protected areas well-managed from conservation and tourism point of view

• our parks to offer high quality experience

• tourism as a promising new financial mechanism for nature conservation

• therefore we work with

1. investors (the focus of this presentation)

2. tour operators

3. local tourism providersPhoto: Lennart Bratt

We consider tourism as strategic partner sector and want to turn it from a threat into an opportunity

Wilderness is a concept appreciated globally, but most people are not aware of Europe’s wilderness areas

• wilderness attracts the people’s attention from emotional point of view

• the interpretation of wilderness is different for each individual, it is sometimes even hard to translate it!

• there is a certain level of experience we can guarantee: no logging, no hunting, pure nature with succession process, etc…

Wilderness is in the focus of our new brand

The network of PAN Parks as of May 2007Our network stretches from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean and the Caucasus

• places providing a unique wilderness experience

• a network of 9 protected areas and several local entrepreneurs working together for the realisation of the sustainable development

• we do not own these areas so we are obliged to cooperate with different partners and sectors

• we aim for a total European coverage!

Who are our consumers and how to reach them?Is there an optimal way to project wilderness as an emotional need?

• „awakening” consumers interest in ecotourism, who are united by shared set of VALUES, and can be any age, sex, or race, but our typical consumer is:

• in the US: 53% female, 47% male, median age, median household income, median home value (source: Frances Figart, 2007)

• our communication tools are: press trips, feature stories and internet

• there are three related research questions:

• what is the perception of wilderness versus the functional identity of the Certified PAN Parks?

• what are the costs and benefits locally of implementing the PAN Parks concept?

• what are the training needs for local partners around the Certified PAN Parks? Can we deliver these training needs?

There are two central questions for building and marketing our brand

support, preserve, enjoy Europe's wilderness!

www.panparks.org