Objective of the projectThe aim of the RUNAT project was to develop and strengthen the expertise and know-how of rural and nature tourist companies in the Republic of Karelia and Eastern Finland. Main activities• The investigation of tourists needs and expectations in the potential markets for rural and nature tourism and of a training and development program for tourism entrepreneurs in the region.• Development of business skills in product development and e-marketing through trainings.• Creation of networks of enterprises in tourism and other service sector, intermediary organizations, local administration and educational institutions in order to support local economic life and stimulate infrastructure supporting tourism entrepreneurship.• Improvement of cross-border cooperation between Russian and Finnish actors in the field of tourism. Achievements: The entrepreneurs´ e-marketing skills developed and they have created and improved their web-pages and social media marketing actions. They are available in the most important searching engines and portals and are familiar with the cooperation with the marketing portals of Tourism Information Centre of the Republic of Karelia and Karelia Expert Tourist Service (visitkarelia.travel and visitkarelia.ru). The training and development process was going on during the whole project implementation and the participants´ expertise and know-how were developed and strengthened step by step. The market research gave in-depth insight on the needs, expectations and motivations of potential Russian rural tourism customers and identifying of rural tourist segments, social media groups connected to tourism in Finland and Republic of Karelia as well as the image and attractiveness of Eastern Finland and the Republic of Karelia in Central European target markets. The results of the market research are useful for the development of tourism products and e-marketing. With the help of market insight entrepreneurs can develop products for specific target groups and better focus their marketing actions. The results have been utilized in the training and development process and they can be used in the product development in the future. The market research has been published in English and translated in Russian. The information is available for wider audience on the project website, the websites of the partners and the website of the Tourism Information Centre in the Republic of Karelia.The local and cross-border networks between tourism companies, intermediary organizations, entrepreneurs in service sector, local administrations and participating educational institutions have been created. The active cooperation gives a chance to improve the selection and quality of the tourism services as well as the image and attractiveness of the areas.