Full circle innovation in four phases
Initiated by Nordic Innovation, the X-Nordic Travel Contest (XNTC) programme has centred on the guiding purpose of strengthening the sustainable and competitive future of the Nordic tourism industry.
To achieve this, the XNTC programme was designed for full circle innovation through four distinct phases, each with distinct target groups for involvement:
Firstly, mapping and identifying the main challenges of Nordic tourism together with the Nordic tourism sector and industry.
Secondly, inviting solutions and new thinking to address these challenges together with universities and Nordic startup ecosystems.
Thirdly, matching solutions with industry and challenge owners to test in collaboration with a view to solution viability, accessibility and scalability in real-world and cross-Nordic contexts.
Fourthly, unfolding new solutions in a cross-Nordic context, and promoting tested solutions for further Nordic adoption and innovation.
In practice, the XNTC programme has applied many different methodologies and approaches throughout all four phases: From hackathons to design sprints, playful mapping tools, surveys, discovery and explorative interviews, prototyping, data analysis, awareness raising, and more. All to stimulate new thinking and new collaboration between Nordic startups and Nordic tourism industry.
PHASE 1: LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
(SPRING–SUMMER 2023)
XNTC started by inviting the industry to share their problems: What are the real and solvable problems that the Nordic tourism industry needs to address for a more sustainable and competitive future of the sector. This phase involved:
- 6 workshops across Denmark, Norway, Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Sweden with more than 150 tourism stakeholders involved.
- A Nordic survey of 140 tourism businesses and industry representatives.
- 18 in-depth qualitative interviews
- One Academic Panel of 6 members to contextualise, challenge and qualify insights and findings of workshops and interviews.
Read the summary of phase 1 with a catalogue of challenges identified across the Nordics here.
PHASE 2: SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS
(FALL–WINTER 2023)
Loaded with challenges from the Nordic tourism & hospitality industry, the XNTC programme shifted focus to sourcing solutions through open innovation activities, including:
- Hackathons and design sprints, carried out in collaboration with universities and startup ecosystems, each focused on different challenges.
- Mapping of 400+ Nordic tourism, travel & hospitality startups to gain overview of the status of innovative solutions already available in the tourism landscape and using this to identify key trends and opportunities for further matchmaking.
PHASE 3: PROBLEM ACCELERATORS
(SPRING–FALL 2024)
With new solutions identified, XNTC now entered a phase of unfolding solutions in customised development and test tracks. Methods applied in this phase included anything and everything from sprints to matchmaking, different kinds of product, market and partnership tests, ongoing mentoring, industry awareness activities, and new market introductions.
Solutions tested could generally be put into three different categories:
- New ideas: Completely new ideas, and ideas out of a hackathon or sprint.
- Step-Ups: Early-stage solutions needing mentorship and introductions to develop it further.
- Ventures: Solutions already established, but within a different marketplace – and with potential to be introduced / adapted to the tourism market via matchmaking, testing and mentoring.
Ultimately, most of the successful development and test tracks fell within the categories of New Ideas and Ventures.
PHASE 4: MARKET-READY
(FALL 2024 - SPRING 2025)
It became clear throughout that process that building awareness and openness 1) towards new solutions, and 2) towards tourism as a possible market, and 3) of the potential and benefits of cross-Nordic collaboration for innovation and market access, was much more important than initially expected.
The final phase of XNTC stretched into early spring of 2025 with three key focus areas:
- Supporting startups and solution owners in promoting their innovations across the Nordics for further scale and distribution.
- Increasing awareness of available solutions, of tourism as a potential market, and of the cross-Nordic innovation and tourism market potential.
- Ensuring the legacy of XNTC lessons learned – hence this Guidebook that you are currently reading.
OVERVIEW OF XNTC PHASES & TIMELINE
