About Studio Arctic
Pleased to meet you; my name is Wietse Dijkstra. Strategy, innovation and passion for the arctic are the key drivers of my consultancy firm Studio Arctic, which I founded in 2014.
‘Making a difference’ for all stakeholders in the arctic tourism industry is what I’m aiming for. That’s what I did as nature guide in Finnish Lapland between 2004 and 2007 for international tourists, for suppliers and tourists in my role as product and marketing manager for the Dutch tour operator Voigt Travel, and what I’m still doing as freelance consultant. A thesis about flight infrastructure to the North of Scandinavia resulted in a master degree Strategy and Innovation at University of Groningen.
Studio Arctic supports regions, EU tour operators, airports, airlines and other stakeholders on various levels. Moreover, Studio Arctic designs northern lights and midnightsun group experiences for the label Arcticans.
Projects and services
Arcticans Groups
Since 2014 Studio Arctic designs and organizes exclusive and innovative group tours to the arctic. During the years we have created a once in a lifetime experience for almost 2000 Dutch, Belgian and Spanish travelers. Where Studio Arctic is the designer, EU tour operators are the sellers. Studio Arctic is one of the initiators of the Arcticans, since 2019 the name of the community of enthusiastic arctic travellers. www.arcticans.nl
Northern Lights apps
Together with 3 arctic and IT specialists Studio Arctic developed an innovative Northern Lights app template, which is customizable for tour operators, regions, accommodations, etc, The app calculates a Northern Lights chance per location based on our own developed algorithm, provides realtime solar wind data, webcams and much more. Visit www.arcticans.app for more details.
North Iceland
The thing we learned from the past is through creating accessibility to relatively unknown destinations or region within a ‘legitimated’ destination, a new market could be created. With this in our head, and thinking as how a traveller would think, we analysed the possibilities on Iceland. Studio Arctic was involved in the route- and product-development which resulted in direct flights from Rotterdam and Amsterdam to Akureyrí.
Arctic tourism statistics
Studio Arctic created an extensive database of overnight and arrival statistics of all nationalities per region in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The database is complemented with new data, monthly. This clearly visualized data is of interest for tour operators or other stakeholders, in order to make strategic decisions based on trends or for instance define its market share.
Route development and yield
For the Dutch ‘arctic market leader’ Voigt Travel, Studio Arctic is responsible for the route development to its primary destinations in the North: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Greenland. During the sales seasons the yield of the charter flights is continuously managed.
Presentations
Sharing my enthusiasm of the arctic and the tourism industry is one of the most privileged thing to do. In my yearly guest lectures I share my insights about destination development with the master students of University of Groningen. Furthermore, I ‘present the arctic’ on travel workshops or seminars.
New route to Sweden and Finland
In order to meet the need in the market for a more solid infrastructure from Benelux to North Scandinavia during summer and autumn, Studio Arctic supported the development of the new route Rotterdam – Skellefteå – Rovaniemi – Rotterdam. The triangle corridor is the perfect fundament for efficient and attractive cross-border products in Northern Sweden, Finland and Norway.