Landscapes Lost? Tourist Understandings of Changing Norwegian Rural Landscapes

Abstract

Rural landscapes are the product of consumption for increasing numbers of tourists from urban areas. Many Nordic rural landscapes face a situation called spontaneous reforestation: as mowing and grazing have almost come to an end, scrub and trees thrive. The national tourism industry is concerned, leaning on the assumption that well-managed agricultural landscapes are central to Norway's touristic appeal.This article seeks to investigate how tourists understand and make sense of the landscapes they visit. It presents findings from qualitative interviews with 75 domestic and international tourists, conducted in three different study areas in Norway that are prone to spontaneous reforestation. The tourists were asked to describe the surrounding landscape and to reflect upon the meaning of the landscape and the different landscape elements. Manipulated photos of the past and probable future development were brought into the interview to aid reflection.A main finding is that landscape elements that the tourists perceive as threatened, seem to be preferred over those experienced as plentiful. Another important finding is how the tourists in our study in different ways tend to make sense of the landscapes they visit through their understanding of their known landscapes. Lastly, we find that understandings of landscape change processes are embedded into wider discourses of nature and culture.Key Words: landscape changes, spontaneous reforestation, meaning, rural tourism, Norway . Landscapes Lost? Tourist Understandings of Changing Norwegian Rural Landscapes. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism,, 29-47. doi:10.1080/15022250.2015 IntroductionThe Norwegian fjord landscape topped the charts in National Geographic Travel's annual destination ranking in 2009, strengthening the national tourism industry's belief that fjords, mountains and fields are the country's most unique tourist attractions (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/). A widespread assumption is that well-managed agricultural landscapes are central to the Norwegian tourism product (Randen & Bartnes, 1967;Stang, 2008). These landscapes are now changing. The concern is that further spontaneous reforestation of these landscapes will lead to less attractive tourist landscapes. As yet, little research has been done to investigate this concern (Fyhri, Jacobsen, & Tømmervik, 2009).This article gives an outline of tourists' understanding of and preferences for different landscape elements. A discourse analytical framework is applied to data from interviews with tourists who visited three tourist landscapes prone to spontaneous reforestation. Two research questions are investigated: 1) How do the tourists understand the Norwegian landscape and the change processes that are going on? 2) What discursive elements can be identified in these understandings? Agricultural Industrialization and Land Use ChangesThe landscapes that tourists consume have not been shaped with the tourism experience in mind; rather, this value is a positive externality o...

The relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services and the effects of grazing cessation in semi-natural grasslands

“…How characteristics of the vegetation are valued is largely subjective (Bryce et al, 2016). In this study we evaluated aesthetic appreciation based on personal communication with stakeholders during field surveys in cultural landscapes in Norway (semi-structured interviews with the farmers in this study as well as stakeholders in other projects; see Wehn et al, 2018) and relevant literature (de Bello et al, 2010a;Ford et al, 2012;Vinge and Flø, 2015). High abundance of herbs and diversity of plants provides higher numbers of flower types and colours which are aesthetically appreciated (de Bello et al, 2010a;Ford et al, 2012).…”

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Rural Tourism: Insights from the North Atlantic

“…Tourist understandings of changing Norwegian rural landscapes (Vinge & Flø, 2015). This discusses the process of spontaneous reforestation and how interviewed tourists understand and value this change.…”