Heli Ilola

The softening of adventure tourism

ABSTRACT As a consequence of diversification with regard to tourists and their perceptions on adventure tourism, there has been a supposed softening of Arctic adventure tourism. To determine if any such changes were occurring, a study of adventure tourism services from Finnish Lapland was undertaken. This study incorporated methodological triangulation and used two different data sets drawn from an on-site survey of tourists (n = 308) and thematic interviews with tourism actors (n = 5). With respect to Lapland, the study determined that a softening of adventure tourism and diversification in tourists’ groups was occurring. Specifically, the study found that tourists possessed inadequate competencies and knowledge regarding Arctic destinations; entrepreneurs demonstrated increased preparedness to pull out mid-activity and that there was a need for multi-skilled, service-oriented actors within destinations. Subsequently, more research is needed on the soft dimensions of tourism in the Arctic, in order to address, for example, what kind of competencies are needed from different actors.