Scan Magazine | Business Profile | Læsø Kommune
Salt, seaweed and the next generation Shaped by the salt and fishing industry over hundreds of years, the Danish island of Læsø is reinventing itself as a gourmet destination and, increasingly, as a home for young families. But islanders still believe that life is best lived away from the fast lane.
Modern outlook taking shape
plains Johansen. And yet, there are signs of opinions beginning to shift towards a more modern outlook. There is a growing interest in combining simple living with quick information, growth and consumer products. In 2017, Læsø will get one of Denmark’s fastest internet connections, with both upload and download speeds of 1GB, and during the past year the price of ferry transport has almost halved, providing a boost for the tourism economy and opening up the possibility of commuting to and from the island.
“Traditionally, people here are sceptical towards new inventions. They just like things the way they are. And they decided to live here exactly because we offer a different, less stressful way of life,” ex-
For the municipality, the challenge is much like walking a tightrope, as demand for modern comforts continues to be leveraged with the old craving for tran-
By Thomas Bech Hansen | Photos: Læsø
“We turn the clock back ten years over here,” says Tobias Johansen, Læsø’s mayor since 2014. With just shy of 2,000 inhabitants spread just over 100 square kilometres, the island is not a vast area to govern, and the common attitude is indeed that life is not always lived best in the fast lane. In recent years, the people on the island have blocked proposals such as a combined dam and windmill project, which would enable the fer88 | Issue 97 | February 2017
ry harbour to move and thereby reduce travelling times to the mainland to just 30 minutes instead of 90. Plans for a marine national park suffered the same fate.