Investing in local school trips

The pandemic meant that course and conference guests stayed away from Falstad Centre Operations, an authentic Second World War memorial site in Levanger. Exhibitions, events and educational programmes for young people were also cancelled.

When a Swedish school class got in touch in March 2020 to ask if they could visit, as the pandemic had put a stop to trips to Auschwitz, CEO Odd Ivar Berg had an idea. Although the pandemic also prevented them from travelling to Norway, a greater focus on school trips could offer opportunities for the future.

Soon afterwards, we announced a grant to support the tourism industry's transition and reopening. The Levanger-based company discussed the idea with one of our advisers and received guidance on what to apply for.

'We were really motivated by the sparring and dialogue with the adviser. Our support has been crucial to the transformation project. The call for proposals came at just the right time. We were already well aware of our expertise and experience in the industry, but had never had a truly innovative project of our own – until now,' says Berg.

'This is a good example of a company turning the challenges of the pandemic into new, sustainable tourism experiences. They have an exciting transformation project,' says our financial adviser Grete Løveid in Trøndelag.

Falstad Centre Operations has adapted the accommodation rooms and is creating a dedicated teaching space. The team is also developing a comprehensive programme that is being tested with school groups. Berg says they have already received many bookings and hosted school groups for residential visits lasting several days.

'The experience has been very positive, both for us and for the school groups. They see that the Falstad Centre is well suited to students learning about wartime prisoners, the Holocaust, human rights and democracy. Although travelling to places such as Auschwitz feels important, we believe students learn just as much here,' says Berg.

Although the initiative was launched in response to the pandemic, growing environmental awareness could help take it further. Schools and parent groups are likely to choose to travel to a Norwegian memorial site by bus or train rather than fly. The main target group is lower and upper secondary school students.

'We expect our turnover to triple based on the Norwegian educational travel market alone, but there is also considerable potential in nearby markets. We are conducting market analyses in Sweden, the Netherlands and England, and we are particularly confident that Swedish schools will start using our services as early as next year,' says Berg.