Editorial: Tourism issues and international borders in the Nordic Region

The Northern Ladoga region as a prospective tourist destination in the Russian-Finnish borderland: Historical, cultural, ecological and economic aspects

“…The findings relevant to the Swedish-Finnish borderland, in which geopolitical changes in the state have turned the "landscape of defence into an open landscape and established new practices in tourism to emerge" (Prokkola 2010) could be applied to the transformation of the Northern Ladoga region in the Russian-Finnish borderland in the circumstances of the changes taking place in the 1990s. According to the border tourism theory, "borders themselves create unique advantages that make borderland an important destination" (Timothy et al 2016). The study supports conclusions received from other border regions, in that the influence of political and socio-economic transformations accompanied by changes of border function have had crucial implications for the development of tourism (Więckowski 2009(Więckowski , 2010Prokkola 2010).…”

“…The Northern Ladoga (natural and historical) region thus gained a new opportunity to develop, and started to transform from a 'closed' border area into a destination for tourism. Thus, since the 1990s, the border has been a landscape modifier (Timothy et al 2016) of the Northern Ladoga region in the wider context of the Russian-Finnish borderland.…”

“…However, borderlands also tend to feature unique historical and cultural potential and natural landscapes (Więckowski 2010). Since the 1990s, in the circumstances of remarkable geopolitical transformations "border studies have become a prominent research topic in several academic disciplines" (Timothy et al 2016). The growing role of tourism within borderland areas that has significant implications for local and regional development has led to an increase in numbers of studies in this field.…”

The Arctic in tourism: complementing and contesting perspectives on tourism in the Arctic

“…This bordering process of the Arctic is both theoretically and practically difficult task. Although boundaries and bordering often refer to a nation state's affairs, Rumford (2012, p. 887) has stressed that bordering and bounded spaces "are not always the project of the state" as businesses and people can also actively construct and transform borders or in some cases even erase them (see Rumford, 2008;Timothy, Saarinen & Viken, 2016). Balibar (2002) has further emphasised that borders as socio-political ideas are everywhere, and they can transform and move by being linked to mobile subjects.…”

Bordering the “other”: the case of the Finnish-Russian border

“…An increase in European borders reveals a move in the opposite direction to the state of border and trans-border mobility research. Border studies have departed from 195: 1 (2017) Reflections: Extreme Geographies thinking of borders as lines and given structures to the performance of borders and bordering practices, while the empirical evidence from Europe shows a return to barriers (van Houtum 2010;Timothy et al 2016).…”