Light in the Dark – Increasing resilience in rural and coastal tourism in the northern Baltic Sea Region by developing off-season experiences

Light in the Dark

Building resilience beyond the peak season: Light in the Dark at CAMPUS 2026

26 October 2026

At CAMPUS 2026, Light in the Dark explored how addressing seasonality can contribute to more resilient destinations and create value for businesses, communities and places throughout the year.

Technical details

At the turn of September and October, tourism professionals and destination representatives from across Europe and beyond gathered in the Turku Archipelago for CAMPUS 2026, organised by the Digital Tourism Think Tank together with Visit Turku Archipelago. The programme explored everything from climate action, regenerative tourism and visitor flows to new ways of measuring the value tourism creates for destinations.

For Light in the Dark, one question felt particularly familiar: how can destinations become more resilient by looking beyond the traditional peak season?

Seasonality has always been at the heart of Light in the Dark. Across the northern Baltic Sea Region, the project has worked with tourism SMEs and destinations to develop sustainable, nature-based experiences for autumn, winter and spring.

Rethinking what successful tourism looks like

Several CAMPUS presentations offered interesting perspectives on what resilience can mean in practice. The presentation on “Wonderful KPIs” from Chile challenged the focus on traditional tourism indicators such as arrivals and GDP. Instead, destinations were encouraged to consider cultural, ecological and community wellbeing, and to involve local actors in deciding what success could look like.

Visit Finland also presented its move “from pledge to plan”, showing how climate action can extend beyond reducing emissions to include nature-based solutions, climate adaptation and regenerative approaches.

These perspectives are particularly relevant for off-season tourism. Developing tourism outside the busiest months is not just about filling beds or extending the tourism calendar. It can also be part of creating more resilient destinations, supporting businesses and communities across a greater part of the year while considering the wider value tourism brings to a place.

The setting made these conversations especially tangible. CAMPUS 2026 deliberately took participants beyond the traditional conference room, combining talks with experiential workshops and collaborative work in the Turku Archipelago.

For Light in the Dark, CAMPUS reinforced a key idea behind our work across the Baltic Sea Region: addressing seasonality can be part of building more resilient destinations, where tourism creates meaningful value for businesses, communities and places throughout the year.