The Industry Foundation will include Danish design products in the cruise industry

The Export Association and the Danish Cruise & Ferry Group are in charge of the Onboard Danish Design project. The project will create a foundation for a new export adventure by helping Danish design and interior companies enter the cruise market, which is in huge growth these years.

New project – Onboard Danish Design – will give Danish companies better access to the growing market of the cruise industry.

“The project will help Danish companies create business in a new export market, and this will contribute to a larger Danish footprint in an industry with enormous potential. Cruise industry’s demands, customers and sales processes seperate significantly from land-based projects,” says CEO Thomas Hofman-Bang from the Industry Foundation.

Fastest growing globally 

The Cruise industry is the fastest growing part of the global tourism industry, especially sustainable solutions and green technologies play an important role:

“Danish companies master and are recognised internationally to combine design with a sustainable focus and sustainable solutions, shipowners can give passengers an extraordinary experience, which is an important element of the tourist industry. We have a number of companies that deliver to the industry, but there is great potential for even more Danish suppliers to get a piece if the cake. The project has to deliver that potential,” says Ulrik Dahl, CEO, Export Association.

Tailored clarification process

The project is now entering its first phase, and here the companies have the opportunity to hear more at a number of information meetings across the country. Then comes a clarification phase, where the Export Association sets up experience, knowledge and insight into the cruise industry and knowledge of what it takes to start exporting to a new customer segment, which the cruise industry is for the Danish design and interior suppliers. The next step is individual and tailor-made clarification processes for the small and medium-sized businesses that are ready to take the step forward and open a new export market. Since it is difficult to start exporting, companies will get a boost on a number of parameters that include skills and new knowledge, so that more Danish companies become suppliers to the cruise industry.

Facts about the project Onboard Danish Design

• The project is led by the Export Association and the network Danish Cruise & Ferry Group
• The project partners are Danish Design Center, Lifestyle & Design Cluster and the Wood and Furniture industry.
• The project’s goal is to create a foundation for a new export adventure and ensure an active Danish influence on the fastest growing part of the global tourism
• The project equips the companies to supply interior and design products for the cruise industry.
• The project includes activities in the form of research, knowledge sharing, workshops and seminars together with other actors and decision makers in the cruise industry and interior design capabilities in Denmark and Germany.
• The project will run for three years with support of 4.5 million. DKK from the Industriens Fond, and then the Export Association runs the effort further under the direction of the Danish Cruise & Ferry Group.
• Read more at onboarddanishdesign.dk

Further information

Ulrik Dahl, CEO, Export Association, telephone: +45 30 31 87 88, ulrik.dahl@dk-export.dk

Ole Østrup, Head og Communication, Industriens Fond, +45 23 80 06 60, oos@industriensfond.dk