Kick-off 15.09.2016 Good morning everybody. Nice to see so many well known faces on a big day like this. My name is Audun Pettersen and I`m Head of Tourism and Food at Innovation Norway. First of all: congratulations to NMBU for starting up one of the biggest research projects within tourism in Norway

Innovation Norway and Tourism 2015 Competence Advisory Network Finance Marketing 1300 customers 21,5 mill users Visitnorway.com 250 B2B-activities MNOK 902 press value 58 courses 918 companies 6 sustainable destinations Market advisory 35 business networks 2 ARENA 1 NCE MNOK 338 Loans and grants Two words about Innovation Norway. Owned by the Ministry of Trade and all the Counties of Norway. About 700 colleagues spread out in all counties in Norway and in more than 30 countries abroad. Totalt annual turnover is about 5,2 billions norwegian kroner and as you can see, tourism one the largest sectors in Innovation Norway, larger than oil&gas, the health industry, ICT. It is actually the thirds largest industry. Hva leverer Innovasjon Norge til norsk reiselivsnæring. Her er en liten oppsummering fra årsrapporten fra 2015: Profilering: som inneholder digital tilstedeværelse i egne (Visitnorway) og andres kanaler (SoMe, Tripadvisor, Youtube mfl), kampanjer, bransjebearbeidelse, pressebearbeiding: 1300 kunder 21,5 mill besøk Visitnorway.com 250 B2B-aktiviteter MNOK 902 presseverdi Kompetanse: 10 ulike praktiske kurs for reiselivsnæringen: 58 kurs Med 918 bedrifter Rådgiving: 4 bærekraftige reisemål som innehar merket for bærekraftig reisemål Markedsrådgiving Nettverk: 35 bedriftsnettverk (største næring!) 2 ARENA (USUS og Lønnsomme vinteropplevelser) 1 NCE (Tourism) Finansiering: MNOK 338 lån og tilskudd. All time high – i sterk konkurranse med andre næringer

Tourism should be a knowledge based industry Why ? is Tourism should be a knowledge based industry Sustainable development of the tourism industry Adventure travel is one of the fastest growing segments Tourism is an industry, not a phenomen So why are Innovation Norway is supporting Biotour? There are three main reasons: 1: Tourism should be a knowledge based industry and we believe that tourism research is undervalued and underestimated in Norway. 2: Most of tourism in Norway is naturebased. It started with English lords comming to Norway fishing salmon and climbing mountains, and now we are seeing signs that tourism can too popular at some destinations with tourists hiking the Pulpit rock and Trolltunga with in shorts and crocks. Is that the type of tourism we want? We believe in a sustainable development of the tourism industry and carrying capacity is a central term here. We as an industry should be evaluated in terms of value creation and not number of pax 3: Adventure travel is one of the fastest growing segments, according to ATTA – I believe some you are heading to Adventure summit in Alaska in a few days – at least I hope so. We need more knowledge of the behaviour of the adventure tourists, its impacts – both positive and negative But – there is a large but: please look at tourism as an industry and not as a phenomen. In other words: do research for the tourism industry, not on the tourism industry.