Lena Eskilsson

Creating Cross‐Border Destinations: Interreg Programmes and Regionalisation in the Baltic Sea Area

Abstract European Union financed Interreg programmes focusing on cross‐border region building form an important part of the EU integration policy. The region building processes involve many fields of action in which destination development is one. In this article, the latest finished programme, Interreg III, will be highlighted with special focus on cross‐border regions in the Baltic Sea Area. The purpose is to analyse how regional identities are re‐presented and re‐negotiated in connection with cross‐border tourism destination development. These questions are analysed with the help of a methodology based on storylines using three selected programme regions as case studies. In our analysis we have found three storylines that in different ways enlighten our understanding of these regions’ (actual and possible) political identities: the notion of borders, the practice of history and the future‐oriented visions. The study reveals the presence of two fundamental and contradictory visions grounded in the European project: regionalisation and internationalisation. It also shows that the cross‐border region co‐operation processes share a narrative characterised by liberal economic rationality. Political issues are downplayed in relation to economic issues, even though in the case of tourism political issues like regional identity are not possible to avoid.

Cultural Heritage across Borders? – Framing and Challenging the Snapphane Story in Southern Sweden

Cultural heritage has developed into an important tool in marketing and destination development projects. Cultural heritage, as well as multiplicity, is also a political concept that has become important in the academic and public debate. The aim of our study is to analyse cultural heritage as a tourism and marketing product in relation to multiplicity. The discussion focuses around how the story of cultural heritage is constructed, whom it is for and what is incorporated and what is not. These questions are discussed using a marketing project in southern Sweden aimed at developing attractive activities related to the story of the Snapphanes (a resistance group active in the Swedish‐Danish war in the 17th century) as a case study. The conclusion highlights how local identity‐making is not always easily combined with place marketing processes. The article claims that it is important to leave space for the “bottom‐up” to keep a more diversified storytelling.