The aim of the project is to increase the visibility of the Vuokatti-Kajaani-Oulujärvi region as an international tourist destination and to strengthen the region’s economic activity. The increase in awareness and trade is based on close cooperation between the tourism SMEs involved in the project and other actors involved in the project, on identifying and further developing strengths, and on making extensive use of existing international contacts and development feedback collected from them. The attractiveness of the area will be strengthened and product and communication content will be formed by making use of the most important brands, such as family tourism, health and wellbeing tourism, sport and sports tourism, and camp school tourism. In order to achieve the desired increase in internationality, the project will carry out intensive development work on skills, productisation, cooperation, accessibility and marketing, together with SMEs in the region and other actors in the tourism sector. The project consists of work packages to strengthen the attractiveness of the region and the capacity of companies to develop and implement international trade. International marketing measures are a special focus of the project. The project’s objectives will be achieved by organising tour operators’ visits from the defined international destinations (in particular China and Japan in the case of Asia, in particular Germany for Central Europe, Russia and, where applicable, CIS countries), fairs, where possible, together with national tourism developer organisations (such as Finpro, Visit Finland) and innovative marketing measures in the international target areas (both electronic and print media).The results of the project will strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Vuokatti-Kajaani-Oulujärvi region, as well as the strengthening of existing and opened new markets, increased international trade and increased cooperation between companies and other actors in marketing and product packaging. The effectiveness of the project measures (including the implementation of international marketing) is actively monitored and measured. In this case, it is possible to redirect the measures if necessary, taking into account possible changes in the field of tourism.In addition to the effects on employment, the following result targets will be set for the project:- an increase in tourism income by 10 % (current farm including indirect income approx. EUR 78 million, target of EUR 84-85 million)- an increase in accommodation income by 10-15 % (current situation ca. EUR 20 million, target EUR 22-23 million)- doubling the number of international overnight stays (current status approx. 45 000 overnight stays, target 100,000 overnight stays)- doubling the number of international customers (currently around 10 000 customers, target status 20,000) — building and consolidating an organised business model in terms of sales; the target manager acts as a contact with the marketing officers of companies in the region- stabilising the annual number of users of 100 000 air passengers at Kajaani Airport