Up Norway has secured funding for a two-year ‘Journeys with Meaning’ tourism project, launched with strategic input from Globetrender, to turn Scandinavian values into year-round tourism exports and reshape how Norway presents itself internationally. Robbie Hodges reports

Norwegian travel company Up Norway has been awarded NOK 5.75 million from the Research Council of Norway for a two-year innovation project titled “Journeys with Meaning”. The initiative, developed with strategic input from Globetrender at its launch, aims to reposition Norwegian tourism exports by making Scandinavian values a central reason to visit.

Internationally, Norway is best known for its fjords, mountains and dramatic scenery. While these attractions draw large numbers of visitors, they also create strong seasonality and concentrate tourism in a limited number of destinations. The Journeys with Meaning project seeks to address this by developing travel concepts that are less dependent on weather, geography and peak summer demand.

The launch of the Journeys with Meaning project was marked by a full-day strategy workshop led by Globetrender. Bringing together the entire Up Norway team, research collaborators and selected experience providers, the session set the intellectual and commercial foundations for the two-year initiative.

Designed as both inspiration and action, the day began with an immersive presentation on international travel trends and futures methodology. Globetrender unpacked core Scandinavian values — trust, equality, independence and biophilia — and demonstrated how forward-thinking brands, both within and beyond travel, are building distinctive propositions rooted in cultural identity and purpose.

The workshop then examined the rise of the “Transformation Economy”, a key macro-shift identified in Globetrender’s mega-trends research. As consumers increasingly seek personal growth rather than passive consumption, travel is evolving from delivering memorable experiences to facilitating measurable change. This shift has profound implications for trip design, requiring operators to rethink every stage of the customer journey — from intention and booking through to post-travel legacy.

In the afternoon, the focus turned to applied foresight. Using established strategic frameworks, Globetrender guided participants through exercises to identify long-term risks and opportunities, ensuring that innovation efforts were future-resilient as well as market-ready.

Working in groups, attendees were challenged to answer a bold question: “What transformative travel future do you want to create for Norway by 2036?” Through vision-boarding exercises combining words, imagery and concept development, teams translated trend insights into tangible ideas — laying the groundwork for experiences that aim not only to attract visitors, but to shape the future identity of Norwegian tourism exports.

A core ambition of the Journeys with Meaning initiative is to create new forms of tourism export that generate income domestically while also sharing aspects of Norwegian and Scandinavian society with international travellers.

The project brings together research institutions, tourism operators and technology partners. Together, they will develop a research-based framework for experience design, new year-round travel concepts, and systems to better match guests with destinations and local communities. Tools will also be created to measure social and economic impact.

Food and dining will play a central role in the Journeys with Meaning programme. Experiences will focus on local ingredients, small-scale production and shared meals as a way of introducing travellers to Norwegian culture and sustainability practices. The project also emphasises inclusivity, aiming to design value-based experiences that are accessible across different ages, abilities and travel styles.

Further research will be conducted in collaboration with democracy expert Carl Henrik Knutsen and experience designer Ann-Jorid Pedersen. Together, they will examine which Scandinavian values are most distinctive, which resonate most strongly with international travellers, and how these can be developed into scalable concepts.

Tourism is currently undergoing change. Many travellers are seeking trips that offer learning, reflection and personal development. At the same time, Norway is looking to strengthen year-round value creation and expand tourism as an export industry. By positioning values, knowledge, food and cultural understanding as travel motivations in their own right, the Journeys with Meaning project aims to respond to both trends.

Torunn Tronsvang, founder of Up Norway, says: “We want to help renew the understanding of tourism exports. It is no longer just about exporting nature-based experiences, but about exporting societal values. When travellers experience how values such as trust, equality, independence and outdoor life are lived in Norway, and take these perspectives home with them, it creates ripple effects.”

Jenny Southan, CEO of Globetrender, says: “Up Norway is not just developing new journeys — they are part of a broader movement. The tourism actors of the future will not only serve travellers; they will help shape how people live and think. With this project, Up Norway takes a leading role in this development.”

Åsa Grahn, associate professor at NHS, University of Stavanger, adds: “The future of tourism must be both research-based and meaningful. When we develop concepts rooted in values and social responsibility, we strengthen competitiveness while making the industry more attractive to the next generation. Through this collaboration, the sector gains access to research-based tools for experience design, business modelling and value communication.”

Up Norway is now inviting tourism operators, public authorities and academic institutions to engage with the Journeys with Meaning project and contribute to shaping the next phase of Norwegian tourism exports.