Pekka Kauppila

Local people, nature conservation, and tourism in Northeastern Finland.

The opinions and perceptions of local communities are central issues in the sustainable management of conservation areas. During 2002 and 2003, we studied the opinions of local people about nature conservation and the development of tourism to investigate whether these opinions were influenced by socioeconomic and demographic factors. Data were collected via a survey of local residents in six areas with different histories of land use, land ownership, conservation, and tourism development. We classified respondents by cluster analysis into three different groups according to their opinions about nature conservation and tourism development: (1) sympathetic to nature conservation, but quite neutral to tourism development (57.7%); (2) critical of nature conservation, but quite neutral to tourism development (30.5%); and (3) quite neutral to nature conservation, but critical of tourism development (11.8%). The most important factors for classification were residential area, age, level of education, primary occupation, indigenousness, frequency of contact with tourists through work, and effects of nature conservation on household economy. On the other hand, gender, level of income, land ownership, land donation for conservation, and income from tourism did not affect opinions concerning nature conservation and tourism development. Almost equal proportions of residents living in close proximity to conservation areas in Kuusamo had positive and negative opinions about nature conservation. Residents living in close proximity to conservation areas regarded conservation as something that might reduce employment and incomes. On the other hand, a greater proportion of residents living near tourist resorts and farther from conservation areas had positive opinions about and perceptions of nature conservation and tourism development. Based on the proportional division of all respondents into the three groups, there may be a coexistent relationship between nature conservation and tourism in our study area. When local stakeholders had a chance to commit to the planning process, they had positive perceptions of and opinions about nature conservation and tourism development in their residential areas. As a result, we concluded that negative opinions and a lack of commitment to the planning process may hinder local development.

Sustainable Tourism Planning and Regional Development in Peripheries: A Nordic View

In a declining periphery, tourism is often considered as a vehicle for regional development due to the positive economic impacts of the industry. However, tourism is not automatically the best saviour for all peripheral areas, because it can also cause some negative impacts. Therefore, sustainable planning is needed to balance the benefits and costs of tourism. The aim of this review is to discuss how to develop the tourism industry in order to create positive regional development in the peripheral areas in the Nordic context. The paper presents two approaches to the tourism planning and regional development nexus: the tourism‐centred and regional development‐centred. However, the structure of the regional economy and the tourism resources of the area set limitations for the application of these basic approaches in practice. In this respect, the proposed spatio‐functional model would be an option to increase the positive regional development at the local level in a sustainable way. The model emphasizes a functional collaboration between industries in the core‐periphery framework.

Multidisciplinary and Participatory Approach for Assessing Local Vulnerability of Tourism Industry to Climate Change

Abstract The major part of the attractiveness of Nordic tourism relies on natural resources and features such as the landscape, the flora, the fauna and the four seasons. Lately, it has been predicted that climate change will alter these preconditions of nature-based tourism destinations, which may have severe consequences for the tourism industry. Nevertheless, tourism is also bound to many other societal changes that may influence the economics and the development of peripheral communities dependent on tourism and bring new challenges in maintaining their vitality. For assessing these challenges and potential adaptation measures a multidisciplinary and participatory approach was developed in the EU LIFE+ project VACCIA (Vulnerability Assessment of ecosystem services for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation) Action 12: Tourism. The aim of this article is to evaluate this approach for assessing the local vulnerability and adaptation of tourism to the challenges of climate change in two tourism municipalities of Northern Finland.

A Grid Cell Viewpoint to Resorts: Case Studies in Northern Finland

Resorts are key elements in the tourism phenomenon, because they are considered places for tourism demand and supply. Basically, resorts are geographical units and, statistically, they are traditionally treated as administrative regions, that is as municipalities. However, resorts are often a part of a municipality, not independent administrative regions. When statistically examining the socio‐economic characteristics and changes of resorts smaller than municipalities, GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and georeferenced data seem to be a respectable option. The purpose of this investigation is to present a model, how to define resorts from their surrounding environment by utilizing so‐called grid cell data. The cases deal with the four large resorts – Levi, Ruka, Saariselkä and Ylläs – and their location municipalities (Kittilä, Kuusamo, Inari and Kolari) in Northern Finland. Population is used as an example variable to indicate the changes which occur on different geographical scales, that is municipality and resort levels. The study results show that at the municipality level, excluding Inari, the population development was negative in 1970–2003, but at the resort level the trend was vice versa. In addition, the population of the resorts seems to be concentrated in a smaller geographical area. Finally, the strengths, challenges and opportunities offered by GIS and georeferenced data are discussed in the context of resorts.