Title	CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE
Brand	VISIT FAROE ISLANDS
Product/Service	TOURISM
Category	B05. Cultural Insight
Entrant	VISIT FAROE ISLANDS Torshavn, DENMARK
Idea Creation	MENSCH Copenhagen, DENMARK
Idea Creation 2	SANSIR Torshavn, DENMARK
PR	TRAVEL PR London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR 2	MGA MEDIA GROUP New York, USA
PR 3	EHRENBERG SØRENSEN KOMMUNIKATION Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production	KOVBOYFILM Torshavn, DENMARK

Name	Company	Position
Rune Hørslev-Petersen	Mensch	Client Service Director
Tor Verland Johansen	Sansir	Director
Bogi Henriksen	Sansir	Creative Director
Flemming Boutrup	Mensch	Copywriter
Frederik Preisler	Mensch	Chief Creative Officer
Isabella Sofie Nielsen	Mensch	Project Manager
Rasmus Mikkelsen	Ryot Studio	Head of Ryot Studio
Anna Taussi	Ryot Studio	PR & Content dsitribution manager
Paul Clements	Mensch	Art Director

Summary

"One of the boldest tourism campaigns yet devised" - The Guardian. Over the past five years, the number of tourists in the Faroe Islands has increased significantly. The many tourists created a paradoxical problem for the Faroe Islands Tourism Board, Visit Faroe Islands. The country's infrastructure and natural environment had a hard time keeping up with the increase in tourist numbers, and the tourism industry started to become more and more unpopular among the Faroese locals. So how could Visit Faroe Islands continue to develop tourism without destroying the foundation on which it rests? The creative solution consisted of a closure of the main tourist attractions in Faroe Islands for tourists for an entire weekend. Instead, the country was open to ‘voluntourists’ who could visit the Faroe Islands at their own expense and work alongside locals on maintaining the islands' trails, lookout points, signage and fences. Despite a media budget of DKK 0, the story reached 511 news media with a total online readership of 3.7 billion and 34 million social media actions. In less than a week, 3,500 people had signed up, and over the weekend, ten concrete maintenance projects were carried out with 100 volunteers from 25 different countries. The locals' perception of the tourism industry improved by 15 percentage points, from 56% to 71% in favour of tourism (measured year-on-year). The campaign resulted in a relatively high increase in tourism of six percent, equivalent to 12,000 people. Economically, this means an increased turnover in the Faroe Islands of more than 165 million Danish kroner (over 22 million Euros). The initiative has become a recurring event in the Faroe Islands and has helped inspire other tourist boards in the world to create similar initiatives. "Closed for Maintenance, Open for Voluntourism" was named one of the 10 most innovative initiatives for the planet in 2019 by the World Economic Forum. “Other destinations will follow Faroe Islands' lead” - World Economic Forum.

Please tell us about the cultural insight that inspired the work

The cultural insight about the locals' perception of tourism inspired the 'Closed for Maintenance' campaign. We were seeing a downward trend in tourism approval ratings, with one of the main reasons being the detrimental effects some tourists had on certain popular tourist attractions. The campaign looked to preverse and maintain these areas by working to solve real problems in these areas. By inviting tourists to help, they became a part of the solution instead of the problem. After the campaign, we saw a 15% increase in locals' perception towards tourism, from 56% to 71%.