How the HibriturSelva partnership promotes economic development through tourism innovations

La Selva is a district in Catalonia located between the mountain range known as the Serralada Transversal and the Costa Brava. The tourism sector of this picturesque county has a rather fragmented structure: Tourists flock to the coastal area but there is not much tourism inland. In 2013 the Comarque Council (about 170,000 inhabitants) took the lead in developing the HibriturSelva partnership which aims at diversifying tourism in the region of La Selva through a set of innovations.

Read how this partnership supports SMEs to develop innovations and what has been achieved so far.

You may also want to travel to La Selva yourself to try some of the great tourism offers! 

The partnership HibriturSelva seeks to promote the development of innovations within the local tourism sector by harnessing the knowledge of local stakeholders.

Specific objectives are: 

• Improving the innovation capacity of local SMEs in the tourism sector
• Fostering a culture of collaboration between actors working in tourism through a network approach
• Harnessing the experience and knowledge of the local actors in order to launch new tourism initiatives
• Generating ‘improbable connections’ between actors through ‘open innovation’ and ‘hybridization’ approaches.

The approach used within the project HibriturSelva combines three key elements:

The ‘Eco-System’ concept stresses the importance of establishing connections between local actors, which is only possible when genuine needs are addressed and synergies between the actors involved are taken into account. This enables new partnerships to make joint bids for grants and to launch joint initiatives.

The second pillar, ‘Open Innovation’, responds to the fact that business and public sector organisations do not have sufficient resources, acting alone, to develop and deliver innovations.

The third pillar of the project is ‘Hybridisation’ which promotes a multi-disciplinary approach, including the development of ‘improbable connections’ between actors who may never have worked with each other before, as they have not perceived each other as potential partners.

These social innovations have been triggered by a multi-stage innovation process including:

• An annual call for projects
• Innovation Labs to develop proposals
• Launch of project teams
• Incubation projects
• Development of products and services
• Mainstreaming of new products and services in the local offer.

The innovation process has been supported by a range of communication and training activities such as:

• Creation of the website which provides information about new products and services and resources for the tourism sector
• Development of a digital platform (http://plataforma.hibriturselva.cat) with 306 members, organised in 29 groups
• Dissemination of the monthly HibriturSelva Newsletter  
• Coordination and dissemination of the network meetings
• Training sessions for SMEs on the creation of tourism services and products

So far, nine Innovation Labs have been launched dealing with art, sports, gastronomy, tourism 2.0, education, history, etc.

In the most recent call for projects, participants developed 34 new products and services (http://www.hibriturselva.cat/productesturistics2014) and 12 new packages for travel agencies (http://www.hibriturselva.cat/paquets-agencies).

Some examples of the new products and services include:

1. Course on micro-breweries
   A full day course at the craft brewery La Selvaseria, located in a traditional Catalan farmhouse, to learn all the processes of making this local beer.
2. Movie experience
   A weekend in a house where you can enjoy the experience of making a short film, including writing the script, designing the costumes, doing the makeup and recording …
3. Crafts and legends of the Montseny
   Guided tour around Montseny mountain: discover pottery made in Breda, and the magnificent Castle of Montsoriu. Meet the legends of the castle: knights and ladies, nobles and peasants, stories of love and war…

Face-to-face activities (workshops, seminars, training, working groups)

• 1,362 participants involved
• 296 people are members of working groups
• 120 people trained
• 215 people participated in seminars
• 55 self-employed workers/enterprises have been given advice

Digital activity (HibriturSelva digital platform)

• 306 members have registered
• 1,660 hours of online work has been done
• 39 working groups have been created
• 20,935 submitted messages
• 720 shared photos
• 118 files shared

Web and social network impact

• 12,187 users website/platform
• 168,028 page views website/platform
• 841 followers on twitter
• 941 video plays

 In addition, the project received the suport and funding of La Selva Comarca de l’AiguaTourism Association, the municipalities of Lloret de Mar, Sant Hilari Sacalm and Hostalric.

It is difficult to account fully for the savings that this project has brought in monetary terms. What is clear is that it has enabled the possibility of improving and strengthening the tourism sector in La Selva by changing the management methods in many SMEs and fostering a collaborative environment that enabled the production of better outcomes (34 new products/services and 12 new packages/activities for travel agencies).

Start by attracting the most active local actors.

At the beginning of the project we created a core group within the HibriturSelva network, mobilizing those members who were willing AND capable of contributing to the project and using their network to engage others in the project. This core group of members may include: members who seek an opportunity to add value to their business through this initiative, members who believe in collaborative networks per se and members who are rooted and committed to the area and are willing to collaborate in order to strengthen the local identity.

Focus on the key objective

In our experience working groups tend to multiply the objectives originally set for them and may open too many strands of activity. While some degree of flexibility will be needed, there is a real risk of not being able to produce visible results. Therefore, it is important to focus on one key objective and to deliver quick wins.

Hybridisation and improbable connections

The concept of hybridization has proven to be a powerful and differentiating element within the development of this project. Moreover, the linkage of open innovation with the concept of ‘improbable connections’ has been an attractive feature for many actors. HibriturSelva project has enabled such connections with the creation of spaces and hybridization mechanisms aimed to connect very different actors, while focusing on the creation of innovative products and services. An example is the collaboration that took place between a local association promoting ratafia (a herbal liquor, traditionally made in private homes) and several entrepreneurs, to create tourism products linked to ratafia: liquor preparation courses, guided tours, culinary offerings, etc.

Facilitation vs. intervention

This is one of the most complex points: our experience tells us that it is necessary for the management teams to watch carefully its degree of intervention. The management team should not restrict the initiatives of members but must ensure a good flow that enables the development of the project. The degree of intervention will depend partly on the collaborative history between the actors involved - but it should also depend on their ability to foster an active group of members who are able over time to assume more of a role in the leadership of the initiatives (which is initially likely to be located mainly with the management team).

Money? Later!

A common problem of this kind of project is that stakeholders have the expectation that participation in such a project should provide their organisation with public funding, especially if such project is promoted by a public sector organisation (such as the Comarque Council of La Selva). However, it was made clear from the very beginning that HibriturSelva project was not intended to fund projects but rather to develop viable projects.

Management of the digital platform

Improving the quantity and quality of the online participation has become a key challenge, due to the fact that the platform has been established as a digital meeting point where the majority of interactions between the network’s members will take place. Moreover, the network’s “digitalization” has allowed significantly lower costs than would have been involved in the organization of events and workshops. However, work had to be done improving the visibility of the members in order to promote digital interaction.

Cautious management of expectations

In a project of this kind it is necessary to be cautious in the use of the language and the expectations generated. Maintaining a humble attitude helps to gain credibility. Therefore, excessively ambitious promises or milestones should be avoided. The HibriturSelva network has focused on promoting small-scale initiatives at the start, although it did, of course, intend that these would in turn spark off new initiatives which would be rather more ambitious.