100,000 Bookings and Counting: A Milestone Moment for Tromsø Villmarkssenter

At Zaui, we love nothing more than celebrating our customers’ success stories. Today, we extend a heartfelt congratulations to Tromsø Villmarkssenter on their 100,000th booking, a milestone that stands as a testament to decades of passion, perseverance, and innovation. Tromsø Villmarkssenter, founded by renowned musher Tove Sørensen, has grown from just two huskies into one of the world’s premier dog sledding adventure companies. For over 30 years, Tove and her family have opened their home outside Tromsø, Norway to visitors from around the globe, sharing the magic of Alaskan huskies and Arctic nature through sustainable outdoor experiences.

Born from Passion: Tove’s Arctic Dream Becomes Reality

Tove’s journey is as inspiring as it is unconventional. In her late 20s, she discovered her love for dog sledding and even quit her job as a lumberjack to pursue it. She started with two dogs in 1988 and initially saw mushing as a personal passion, training for long-distance races like Europe’s Finnmarksløpet. Everything changed in 1990 when a friend asked her to take some visitors on a short dog sled tour. “I didn’t want to earn money on my hobby at first,” Tove admits, but she agreed and it was a revelation. After guiding that first small group through the snowy wilderness, she saw their rosy, smiling faces and knew there was an incredible opportunity and this is what she loved.

Thirty years ago, Tove quite literally opened her home to guests, hosting them on her family property in Kvaløya island. What began as a one-woman operation with a couple of huskies has since blossomed into a world-class adventure enterprise, now home to hundreds of Alaskan huskies and welcoming tens of thousands of visitors each year. By 2019, Tromsø Villmarkssenter had a kennel of 300 dogs and a team of about 100 staff to cater to the growing demand. Tove’s unwavering mission through it all has been, as she says, “to bring people out into nature and show them what I love so much. It’s the combination of the dogs and the nature… that is a fantastic combination.” - Tove Sørensen, Founder of Tromsø Villmarkssenter

From guided Northern Lights sledding under starry Arctic skies to summer hikes with huskies under the midnight sun, every experience is rooted in Tove’s deep connection to the wilderness. Guests aren’t just observing, they’re participating in Tove’s way of life. Many leave profoundly moved: visitors have been known to shed tears of joy after cuddling husky puppies or finishing a sled ride through a snowstorm, overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment. “Sometimes I sit down after a tour and think, what just happened?” Tove laughs. “People hug me and say it’s the most fantastic thing they’ve ever done.” For city-dwellers who’ve never seen such unspoiled nature, let alone from a dogsled, the experience is often life-changing. And that is what keeps Tove going even after three decades: “I still love it because people are so happy.”

Growing the Pack: Putting Huskies and Quality First

What truly sets Tromsø Villmarkssenter apart is an unyielding commitment to quality, not just in the adventures offered, but in the care for their beloved huskies. “The dogs are doing the job for us… we have to take care of each dog,” Tove emphasizes. Animal welfare has always been the top priority. “I tell my staff, never save money on food for the dogs,” she says. Each of the Alaskan huskies is treated with love and respect, they’re family. Visitors immediately notice this ethos: “The ethos of the place is to maintain the dog’s welfare first and foremost,” one recent guest observed in a 5-star review. From ensuring the dogs are well-fed and healthy (never too skinny or too fat, as Tove insists) to giving them ample affection and rest, the team makes sure the happiest dogs lead the happiest guests.

This dog-first philosophy guided the company even through challenges. In early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a halt, Tromsø Villmarkssenter suddenly found itself with 300 energetic dogs and no tourists. Rather than compromising on care, they launched an innovative “Borrow a Buddy” program, temporarily loaning huskies to local families for exercise and companionship during lockdown. “We put the word out on Facebook, and got an overwhelming response, hundreds of people volunteered to host a dog,” Tove recalls. The initiative was a win-win: the community got comfort and cuddles from furry friends, and the dogs got the attention and activity they thrive on. Many of the older dogs ended up finding permanent loving homes through an “Adopt, Don’t Shop” retirement program, which placed over 100 retired sled dogs with families. Thanks to these efforts, Tove’s kennel emerged from the pandemic leaner but healthier, now with about 200 huskies happily running and playing at the center.

Excellence Over Excess: The Philosophy that Paid-off

Through ups and downs, Tove has deliberately kept her focus on excellence over excess. Even as demand for tours grew rapidly in the late 2010s, she resisted the pressure to simply expand at all costs. “Everyone says ‘grow, grow, grow,’ but I don’t want to just get bigger. I want us to be the best,” she affirms. This meant carefully managing tour sizes and staff to ensure every visitor gets a personal, authentic encounter with the dogs and nature. Large tour groups are split into smaller teams so each guest receives individual attention. “Quality and service are the most important, if not, we will not survive,” Tove says firmly. It’s a philosophy that has paid off: Tromsø Villmarkssenter enjoys a stellar reputation and numerous repeat visitors. “Our goal isn’t to be the cheapest or the biggest, but to give the richest experience,” Tove explains. By holding fast to that vision, she has built a sustainable business that makes guests feel like part of the family. Indeed, when visitors arrive, they’re literally stepping into Tove’s home, an intimate touch that few tourism operators can offer.

Embracing Innovation: From the Black Book to an Online Booking Boom

While the heart of Tromsø Villmarkssenter is undeniably its huskies and guides, another key to its success has been embracing technology, notably, a partnership with Zaui that transformed their booking process and fueled their growth. In the early years, Tove managed reservations the old-fashioned way: with pen and paper in a black book by her bedside. “Every time someone booked, I wrote it in my black book,” she recalls of those days. This simple system sufficed when bookings were sparse. Tove even remembers mushing with a guest in the sled and jotting down a new reservation request in her book once they returned! But as the business grew, the risks and inefficiencies of the black book became apparent. In 2010, Tove’s son Alex Sørensen returned home to help with the family business, bringing fresh eyes and tech-savvy insight. “I asked to see the bookings, and Mom pulled out this black book... I said, we can’t do this anymore,” Alex recounts. He knew a modern solution was needed to handle the increasing demand and to avoid double-bookings or lost reservations.

Alex took charge of the hunt for a booking software that could meet their needs. At first, the search was frustrating. “I thought it would be extremely easy to find software… but few actually met our needs,” he said After trial and error with one system that wasn’t a perfect fit, Alex finally struck gold in 2012. While researching other tour operators, he came across a Canadian adventure company’s website and noticed the note “Powered by Zaui” on their booking page. Intrigued, he reached out and soon realized Zaui’s reservation system checked all the boxes. The following year, Tromsø Villmarkssenter came onboard as one of Zaui’s first users in Scandinavia, and they never looked back.

The impact was immediate and game-changing. “As soon as we switched to Zaui, we saw an enormous increase in online bookings,” Alex notes, remembering that sudden surge in web reservations. The convenience of 24/7 online booking opened the floodgates: customers from around the world could now secure their dog sled adventures with just a few clicks, any time of day. The team at Villmarkssenter felt the difference: “We wake up and see 40 new bookings from the night before that are automatically scheduled and paid for,” marvelled one manager, describing the new reality of business. Instead of late-night phone calls or manual diary entries, reservations flowed in effortlessly, even while the team slept.

Crucially, Zaui’s system helped Tromsø Villmarkssenter scale sustainably. With automation handling the heavy lifting, Tove and her staff could focus on what they do best: crafting unforgettable experiences and caring for guests and dogs, rather than pushing paperwork. Online sales soon comprised the bulk of their bookings, and overall visitation skyrocketed. In 2013, not long after adopting Zaui, annual guest numbers had already more than doubled from a few years prior, climbing to roughly 12,000 visitors, and kept rising ever since. Alex is the first to point out that this growth was made possible by the technology behind the scenes. “Without Zaui, we would not have been able to grow like this,” he says plainly. The software became an engine driving their expansion - from enabling real-time online payments and up-to-date availability, to connecting the tours with major travel resellers and OTAs for greater global reach. “There was no other system we could find that took all of these elements to run the business efficiently,” Alex adds. By partnering with Zaui, Tromsø Villmarkssenter could bring their rustic wilderness adventures into the digital age, seamlessly linking an age-old Arctic tradition with the expectations of the modern traveler.

Today, booking a dogsled ride or aurora camp at Villmarkssenter is as easy as booking a hotel- and that’s by design. “For me, it’s important that when people go on our website to book a trip, they can just click, click, click… and it comes straight into our system through Zaui. That is fantastic,” Tove says. This frictionless process has not only improved the guest experience (instant confirmations and secure payments), but also provided Tove’s team with predictable revenue and smoother operations. Pre-paid bookings help finance the care of the dogs year-round, even through the slower summer months. In short, technology has empowered Tromsø Villmarkssenter to share their love of Arctic adventure with more people than Tove ever imagined possible back in her “black book” days.

100,000 Bookings and Counting: A Celebration of Success

Reaching 100,000 bookings is more than just a number, it’s the culmination of years of hard work, love, and adaptation. From that first tour with a few curious travelers to booking number 100,000, what a journey it’s been! This milestone is a chance to reflect on how far Tromsø Villmarkssenter has come. Tove went from writing names in a notebook to running a thriving operation where bookings roll in from all corners of the world each day. Her once small kennel has grown into a “home in the wilderness” for visitors seeking authentic Arctic adventures, with a legacy spanning generations. (Tove’s son Torkil, who was literally born into the business, now co-manages it and even races sleds himself, carrying on the family tradition.) Together, they have made Tromsø Villmarkssenter a cornerstone of the region’s tourism economy and a must-visit attraction for anyone traveling to Northern Norway.

What makes this achievement even more special is that it was never driven by profit or numbers alone. “Everyone has to earn money- that’s okay but for us money was never the main goal,” Tove reflects. “The quality, the service, that’s the most important. I think that is why we are successful.” In an industry sometimes tempted to prioritize volume over value, Tove chose a different path: putting people and animals first, and trusting that success would follow. Hitting the 100k bookings mark validates that philosophy. It proves that you can do well by doing good, by delivering excellence consistently and staying true to your values.

As Tove and her team celebrate this milestone, we at Zaui are proud to have been part of their journey. “I am very proud of us, and proud that Zaui sees it,” Tove says, acknowledging the partnership. It has been our privilege to support Tromsø Villmarkssenter behind the scenes, providing tools that help share their “home in the wilderness” with the world. Nothing makes us happier than seeing our customers thrive, and Tromsø Villmarkssenter’s story is one that truly warms our hearts.

To Tove, Alex, Torkil and the entire Villmarkssenter family, congratulations on your 100,000th booking! Here’s to the next hundred thousand adventures, the countless smiles yet to come, and the continued success of your beautiful Arctic story.

In Tove’s own words, “we will not stop” - and we can’t wait to see where the trail leads next. Cheers to many more years of happy dogs, happy guests, and thriving partnerships!