Tourism, Nature and Sustainability
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Tourism, nature and sustainability A REVIEW OF POLICY INSTRUMENTS IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Tourism, nature and sustainability A review of policy instruments in the Nordic countries Hogne Øian, Peter Fredman, Klas Sandell, Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir, Liisa Tyrväinen and Frank Søndergaard Jensen TemaNord 2018:534 Tourism, nature and sustainability A review of policy instruments in the Nordic countries Hogne Øian, Peter Fredman, Klas Sandell, Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir, Liisa Tyrväinen and Frank Søndergaard Jensen ISBN 978-92-893-5622-0 (PRINT) ISBN 978-92-893-5623-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-92-893-5624-4 (EPUB) http://dx.doi.org/10.6027/TN2018-534 TemaNord 2018:534 ISSN 0908-6692 Standard: PDF/UA-1 ISO 14289-1 © Nordic Council of Ministers 2018 Cover photo: Unsplash.com Print: Rosendahls Printed in Denmark Disclaimer This publication was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. 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The Nordic Council of Ministers Nordens Hus Ved Stranden 18 DK-1061 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel.: +45 3396 0200 www.norden.org Download Nordic publications at www.norden.org/nordpub Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................................7 Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 9 Recommendations ............................................................................................................10 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Sustainable and unsustainable tourism....................................................................14 1.2 Tourism and megatrends ....................................................................................... 16 1.3 Tourism development and the Nordic countries ...................................................... 17 1.4 Literature search and selection............................................................................... 19 1.5 The main aims and structure of this report ............................................................. 20 2. Tourism in the Nordic countries – current trends ................................................................21 2.1 Iceland ................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Sweden .................................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Finland ................................................................................................................... 29 2.4 Norway ................................................................................................................... 33 2.5 Denmark ................................................................................................................. 37 3. Public rights of access in the Nordic countries ....................................................................41 3.1 Norway ...................................................................................................................41 3.2 Iceland ................................................................................................................... 42 3.3 Denmark ................................................................................................................ 42 3.4 Sweden .................................................................................................................. 43 3.5 Finland ................................................................................................................... 44 3.6 Summary ............................................................................................................... 44 4. Instruments involved in sustainable tourism management ................................................. 47 4.1 Sustainability .......................................................................................................... 47 4.2 Economic instruments ........................................................................................... 48 4.3 From hard to soft visitor management approaches ..................................................55 4.4 Policies and administrative instruments ................................................................. 59 5. The applicability and consequences of implementation of policy instruments in the Nordic countries............................................................................................................... 63 5.1 Public rights of access and mass invasion ............................................................... 65 5.2 The paradox and dilemmas related to the public rights of access ............................ 65 5.3 Developments of infrastructure as a response to the influx of tourists......................67 5.4 Economic instruments in Nordic contexts ............................................................... 68 5.5 Soft visitor management approaches in Nordic contexts ......................................... 73 5.6 Policy and planning in Nordic contexts ....................................................................76 5.7 Legal and administrative regulation of visitation ..................................................... 77 5.8 Horizontal and vertical integration in planning process: the case of second homes in Norway ................................................................................................................... 77 6. Conclusions and recommendations....................................................................................81 6.1 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 84 References .............................................................................................................................. 87 Sammendrag...........................................................................................................................97 Anbefalinger ..................................................................................................................... 98 Preface Tourism is one of the fastest growing economies of the word. This does not only imply that economic growth is increasing, but also that more travellers demand a greater variety of destinations and attractions and that the experiences tourists are seeking are becoming diverse. In view of these changes sustainable development of tourism are becoming an increasingly complex matter to achieve. Recently, the Nordic countries have experienced a rapid growth in numbers of visitors. At some popular nature attractions this has resulted in crowding, environmental damage, costly rescue operations and overload on public infrastructure. Economic instruments such as entrance fees are frequently proposed to regulate and manage the volume of tourists to vulnerable sites and nature in general. While being common in many countries