20 June 2024
In just a few short years, when the new airport in South Greenland opens, Icelandair will be the only airline offering a direct international route to our region. Therefore, Icelandair is a key stakeholder for tourism development in our region, both in summer but hopefully also in winter. It is necessary for their sales agents to build up their knowledge and network in the region, if they should increase their marketing efforts for South Greenland.
To achieve this goal, five Icelandair sales agents and one Icelandic photographer / videographer travelled almost all the way through South Greenland, together with the Tourism Destination Manager from Innovation South Greenland, Sarah Woodall, from 11-15 June 2024.
Visit Greenland (the national tourist board) and Visit South Greenland (the tourism department within Innovation South Greenland, which is the regional DMO, destination management organisation) have worked closely together to make this Icelandair FAM tour a reality.
Widespread cooperation with local tour operators
In the course of five days / four nights, the Icelandair group experienced the most welcoming local people, who showed them the wildest nature and gave them a mouthful from the garden of Greenland. As DMO (destination management organisation), Visit South Greenland (which is the tourism department within Innovation South Greenland) planned the trip in such a way that a whopping 18 local tour operators, based in 7 different locations, could contribute to the FAM tour program and get invaluable visibility.
From Tunulliarfik Fjord to sheep farms, to the regional capital and down to the country’s southernmost town and Tasermiut Fjord, many local tour operators in South Greenland cooperated with each other to present the region as one cohesive destination with an enormously wide and diverse experiences portfolio.
“I am always totally filled with pride over the local tour operators in South Greenland after these types of trips, and this time was no exception. All the tour operators were just spot-on with their pitches and products, and they really impressed the Icelandair agents. The local tour operators’ passion for sharing their backcountry, towns and homes with others was so evident. After having planned this trip for months, it was so rewarding to see it all finally come to life”, says Tourism Destination Manager, Sarah Woodall.
Every year, Visit South Greenland plans a host of activities, including FAM trips, content trips with local photographers / videographers and press trips with international media, to give visibility for local tour operators. In the course of each year, we aim to include all of the approximately 60 local tour operators.
Program Itinerary
The sales agents landed with the Icelandair flight on the night of Tuesday 11 June 2024 and went directly over to Qassiarsuk within the UNESCO World Heritage Site to spend the night. The next day, they spent almost a full day with UTV driving tours to sheep farms and a networking lunch and presentations in the settlement’s cafe, together with the sheep farmers that offer tourism activities. Arctic agriculture in both the Viking/Norse era and in present day were also highlighted through a visit to the Brattahlid ruins and reconstructions as well as to Upernaviarsuk Research Station and Qaqortukulooq / Hvalsey ruins.
Gastronomy was a big focus with very special meals prepared by not one but two EMBLA Food Award nominees, namely Salik Parbst Frederiksen of Tasermiut Camp and the Nielsen Family who host the annual Tasiluk Food Festival. They made huge Greenlandic buffets with all of the most delicious ingredients from fjord and farm, even including sheep from their own flock.
Last but not least, nature-based wellness immersed in the overwhelming mountain and fjord environments was a running theme. They experienced alternating sessions of saunagus and polar plunging and also spent a full day in the one-of-a-kind Tasermiut Fjord and an evening dip in Uunartoq Hot Springs.
The Tourism Destination Manager at Visit South Greenland / Innovation South Greenland planned the itinerary. The full program is available here.
A classic FAM tour for sales agents
Round trips like this one are called FAM tours (short for familiarisation) and are a classic tourism industry activity between destinations, local tour operators and international business partners in order to build sustainable, long-lasting and mutually beneficial working relationships between all parties. The agents travel around in the destination, stay in accommodations and experience tours just like travellers normally do, but then they also have the extra task of meeting local tour operators personally and getting information from them about what they offer and how they do business with cooperative partners.
In the future, the Icelandair sales agents can use this knowledge to do more promotion of South Greenland as a tourist destination within their own marketing channels. They can also use the knowledge to make recommendations to their own partner agents who want to sell holidays to Greenland using the Icelandair flights.
Cooperation between national and regional stakeholders
Visit Greenland (the national tourist board) and Visit South Greenland (the tourism department within Innovation South Greenland, which is the regional DMO, destination management organisation) have worked closely together to make this Icelandair FAM tour a reality.
The airfare was sponsored by Icelandair themselves, while Visit Greenland and Visit South Greenland financed the remainder of the trip. The Tourism Destination Manager at Visit South Greenland planned the itinerary, as mentioned, and was the in-person host while the trip took place.
“We are happy about the great cooperation we had the whole way through, and we feel the FAM trip was a huge success. We are looking forward to the follow-up communication and next steps, which includes preparing for meeting again during upcoming sales conferences like Vestnorden in the Faroe Islands in autumn 2024 and Icelandair Mid-atlantic Tradeshow in Iceland at the beginning of 2025. There is so much potential in South Greenland, and I can’t wait to see how tourism will develop in the next couple of years,” concludes Sarah Woodall.
