The goal of STRIVE is to enhance the sustainability of tourism in the South Baltic region, focusing on festivals as key cultural and economic drivers. Festivals can attract thousands to millions of visitors annually, accounting for up to 30% of a region’s yearly tourist numbers. Approximately 70% of these attendees make significant economic contributions through expenditures on accommodation, food, cultural activities, and local businesses. As such, festivals represent a crucial source of revenue and a cornerstone of financial stability for their host communities. However, the high influx of visitors also brings substantial challenges, including environmental pressures and infrastructure overuse, which threaten the long-term viability of festivals and their host regions. STRIVE seeks to address these issues by transforming festivals from short-term events into engines of sustainable tourism. Six major festivals across the South Baltic region have been selected as pilot sites to test innovative strategies that combine ecological responsibility, economic stability, and cultural enrichment.
At the heart of the project is the development of a Festival-Driven Sustainable Tourism Model, designed as a transferable blueprint for the entire South Baltic region. This model integrates scalable solutions with insights from a comprehensive sustainable tourism strategy. It offers practical approaches to make festival operations more environmentally sustainable while fostering cultural tourism. The ultimate aim is to create a flexible framework adaptable to diverse regional contexts, enabling long-term sustainable festival planning. Another key component of STRIVE is the creation of policy guidelines to embed sustainable principles into festival planning and local community activities. These guidelines are intended to promote structural changes in governance and legislation, ensuring the enduring impact of the project’s results.
Environmental challenges and the cultural significance of festivals transcend national boundaries, making international cooperation indispensable. STRIVE unites the expertise and resources of regional partners from four South Baltic nations, fostering the exchange of best practices and strengthening solidarity among the countries involved. The project establishes a shared foundation for solutions that extend beyond individual national contexts. STRIVE envisions a South Baltic region where festivals are not only cultural highlights but also exemplars of sustainable tourism, promoting ecological responsibility, economic resilience, and cultural diversity.
