Narratives in Finnish Tourism 31st of July 2017 Lene Kristina Laine Kieldsen Master in Tourism 10th semester Master Thesis Aalborg University Department of Culture and Global Studies Lene Kristina Laine Kieldsen 31.07.2017 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine how Finland is represented in Denmark looking at the narratives in Finnish tourism. The motivation behind the purpose comes from the fact that Danes seem to favor Sweden and Norway over Finland as a destination. The project will therefore look upon how Finland is represented through articles in Danish newspapers as well as how Finland presents themselves through the Stopover Program launched by Visit Finland in cooperation with Finnair. The project will answer the following three questions, 1) What are the current narratives of Finnish tourism? 2) How is Finland represented in Danish news articles and in the Finland Stopover Program? 3) What are the future challenges and opportunities for the development of tourist attractions in Finland?. There are used qualitative methods with a hermeneutic approach as this project interprets the data with a pre- understanding of the topic. The data consists of articles from Danish national daily newspaper through a period of 2 years from 1st of July 2015 to 1st of July 2017. The data is divided up in the following sections; politics, society, sports, tourism, art and culture. The other part of the data is the webpage of the stopover program, which entail the pictures, texts and the video. The results of the analysis are as follows. The current narratives in Finnish tourism based on the finding of the data are nature, art & design, culture and tourism in declining order. Based on the Stopover Program, Finland is represented as a destination where nature is the most important aspect, as Finland see it as unique to their country. The articles are representing Finland as a destination, where culture, sport and tourism are important factors. The geographical location is one challenge for Finland in the future, as well as Finland lacking their own attraction – their own big story. In the future, there are opportunities to use the stopover program to reform the awareness of Finland as a possible destination with several tourist attractions. The paper concludes that it is recommendable Finland adjust their narratives from purely nature to include art, design, culture and tourism as well. Lene Kristina Laine Kieldsen 31.07.2017 Table of Content 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 2. Theory............................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Narratives ............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 Tourist Attraction System .......................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Representation .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 2.4 Choice of Theory............................................................................................................................................................ 10 2.5 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................................................... 10 2.5.1 Northern Finland.................................................................................................................................................. 10 2.5.2 Mixed topics............................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.5.3 Authors ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 2.5.4 Recapitulation ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................ 16 3.1 Research design ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 3.2 Knowledge perceptions ............................................................................................................................................ 16 3.2.1 Qualitative methods ........................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.2 Quantitative methods ........................................................................................................................................ 17 3.2.3 Inductive and deductive methods.............................................................................................................. 18 3.2.4 Ontology..................................................................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.5 Epistemology .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 3.2.6 Hermeneutic............................................................................................................................................................ 20 3.3 Data collection ................................................................................................................................................................ 21 3.3.1 News articles........................................................................................................................................................... 21 3.3.2 The Stopover Program ...................................................................................................................................... 22 4. Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 4.1. News articles .................................................................................................................................................................. 24 4.1.1 Politics and Society ............................................................................................................................................. 24 4.1.2 Sport ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28 4.1.3 Tourism ...................................................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1.4 Art and Culture ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 4.2 Stopover program......................................................................................................................................................... 44 Page 1 of 92 Lene Kristina Laine Kieldsen 31.07.2017 4.2.1 Recapitulation ........................................................................................................................................................ 56 4.2.2 Stopover Program Video ................................................................................................................................. 57 5. Discussion.................................................................................................................................................................................. 62 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................................. 69 7. References ................................................................................................................................................................................. 72 8. Appendices................................................................................................................................................................................ 81 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................................................................ 81 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................................................................ 86 Appendix C ...............................................................................................................................................................................