Please note that the application period is now closed.
Hello to you in Central Finland!
Do you have ideas about how an ordinary traveler/tourist could be involved in local activities? How could a traveler volunteer in your community as part of their trip? How could this benefit your hometown or village, for example? Do you want to diversify your own activities or increase the vitality of your community? Here is a unique opportunity!
The Value Project, a joint effort of Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences and the Villages of Central Finland, organizes a voluntourism product idea competition.
Who can participate?
All residents of Central Finland can participate in the competition, alone or in cooperation. You can participate whether you represent a company, a community or as an individual!
What kind of product idea?
This is not a product contest, but a product idea contest. This means that your product can be so new and innovative that it is still at idea level. You should describe the volunteering activities and tourism services that are part of it. The various sections and questions of the application form will help you with planning. Pay special attention to responsibility issues! It doesn’t matter if all the blocks haven’t locked in place yet.
If you are not sure what voluntourism is all about and whether your idea is part of it, you could get acquainted with the concept beforehand. Please note that most of the project materials are in Finnish, but you can still go through them. We have a few presentations and videos in English as well. You can find the materials on the project website: https://www.aitomaaseutu.fi/hankkeet/keski-suomesta-vapaaehtoismatkailun-karkimaakunta-value.
Who will evaluate the ideas?
Product ideas will be evaluated by the expert jury:
- Tanja Rämä, Village Ambassador, Central Finland Villages Association – from a rural perspective
- Saana Jaakkola, Editor-in-Chief, Valpas Media – from a responsibility perspective
- Rositsa Röntynen, Project Manager, Jamk, from the perspective of service development
- Minna Tunkkari-Eskelinen, Senior Lecturer, Jamk – from the perspective of tourism entrepreneurship
Prizes
The winner of the competition will receive:
- sparring with a tour operator to refine and commercialize the product idea – the jury will guide towards the more suitable sparrer, either Maria Ojajärvi, Suomen Ekomatkaajat, or Parvathy Venugopal, Green Escape, depending on the theme and content of the product idea;
- media visibility in the form of an article / interview with Valpas Media.
Prizes cannot be converted into cash.
Time, form, and other conditions of the competition
You can enter the competition by filling out the Webropol application form. By this, you agree that your information will be processed for the purposes of the competition and the project. The project will use the product ideas as part of its study of the potential of volunteer tourism in Central Finland. If you have given permission for it, your personal information will also be used in the planning of further development. Personal and product idea data will be passed on to partners outside the project (Valpas Media, Suomen Ekomatkaajat, Green Escape) only to the extent that they need it to implement different parts of the competition.
You can present your product idea in Finnish or English.
The product idea search starts on 1.4.2022 and ends on 30.4.2022. The jury will evaluate the ideas received shortly after that. The winner will be notified in person as well as on the Value project website.
The Value Project will not participate in the implementation of ideas. For example, if sparring leads to the commercialization of a product or the establishment of cooperation, this will not take place within, during or as part of the project. Facebook does not participate in the organization of the competition but solely acts as means of communication.
Please note that the application period is now closed.
Competition results
There were only few entries in the competition during the application period. Because of this the jury decided that no prizes will be awarded. Our warmest thanks to all participants.
