A BSTRACT 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.
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.
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