Attracting tech-savvy visitors to Estonia: Follow-up meeting

On 13 May 2025, the Policy Learning Platform organised a peer review follow-up event for the benefit of Põlva County Development Centre, Estonia. 

In October 2023, the Põlva County Development Centre benefitted from a peer review on the topic of 'Regional branding for attracting tech-savvy visitors, (re)designing community-based services'. The peer review was organised in Leitrim, Ireland, and involved experts from Ireland, Finland and the Netherlands. The two days were full of policy discussions and site visits and concluded with a set of recommendations for Põlva County.  

Now, 1,5 years later, the experts were invited to South East Estonia again to continue the discussion and take stock of the advancements made. 

One of the goals was to open up the remote work discussion in Estonia to a broader stakeholder group. Hence, the event was called “The Nordic-Baltic Remote Work Conference” and involved representatives of the Startup Estonia regional development working group, members of the remote working network Kupland, and HR specialists representing various national ministries.  

The group of international peers shared their experience and advice on remote work and co-working spaces: 

• Stephen Carolan, National Hubs Network Manager, Western Development Commission, Ireland  
• Pauline Leonard, Atlantic Economic Corridor Project Executive, Western Development Commission, Ireland
• Femke van Akker, Tourism policy officer, Province of Fryslan, the Netherlands 
• Jenny Sandström, founder/researcher, Jämtland Härjedalen, Remote Lab, Sweden 
• Ricardo Gonçalves, Head of Innovation, Investment and Strategic Planning Division, Municipality of Fundão, Portugal 
• Dimitris Manoukas, PhD candidate in Youth Studies and Cultural Industries at Panteion University, Greece, and a member of Rural Radicals 

Participants gathered in groups to discuss regulations, incentives, community management, and next steps that could be taken in Estonia. Some of the key recommendations were: 

• Awareness should be raised among employees and employers of the benefits of remote working. Considering certain ambiguity or confusion around some regulations, it would be beneficial to have a toolkit or guidance document for HR personnel in order to encourage the use of remote work. The guide should also cover good practices on how to maintain a good remote community and interaction with remote workers, as currently, HR specialists are often alone in figuring out the most appropriate systems. Such a guide could be developed by Kupland in collaboration with the Startup Estonia regional development workgroup.  
   
• A step beyond would be to create a national one-stop shop for remote working in Estonia. This could potentially be integrated into the Visit Estonia portal to make remote working opportunities more visible and accessible to digital nomads. The annual technology conference Web Summit should also be considered as a high-visibility event where to promote remote working opportunities in Estonia. 
   
• While attracting remote workers, one should not forget the local community. Hyperlocal initiatives have worked well in Ireland. Coworking premises should be accessible to the locals. A voucher-based campaign could help identify new users and 'brand ambassadors' from the local community.  

More information can be found in the article written by the beneficiary (in Estonian).