Maa- ja metsätalous, matkailu vai teollisuus?

Koillis-Suomen julkisen ja yksityisen sektorin toimijoiden näkökulmia matkailuun ja aluekehitykseen

Abstrakti

Tourism has been widely used in recent years as a replacement
for traditional forms of the economy in peripheral
areas. At the same time it has become recognised that
sustainable tourism planning and development is needed
in order to maximise positive and minimize negative impacts
of tourism within communities. The views of the
host community should also be taken into account in
planning and development if the tourism industry aims to
be sustainable. The purpose of this study is to examine the
opinions of the key persons (officials and councillors) and
the entrepreneurs towards tourism and other industries
as a tool for regional development in four municipalities
in North-Eastern Finland. The case study illustrates that
the public and private sector actors generally had a highly
favourable attitude towards the development of tourism,
but they did not usually see tourism as the only industry
to support. There are differences in attitudes towards the
development of tourism and other industries between
municipalities which can be explained by community-level
factors, such as number of tourists, stage of tourism development
and volume and stage of the regional economy.
The challenge for the future will be to develop deeper
linkages between the tourism industry and local traditional
knowledge and production sectors.