Tourism Collaborative Governance and Rural Community Development in Finland: The Case of Vuonislahti

Abstract

Tourism is recognized as a potential development mechanism for peripheral rural communities encountering various changes and challenges. However, a relatively unexplored theme in previous studies is that tourism’s potential benefits to rural communities are affected by rural development policies and practices: specifically, a collaborative governance approach. Based on a case study from Vuonislahti, a peripheral locale in the municipality of Lieksa, Finland, this article frames a community tourism collaborative governance approach. The study suggests that the village community receives limited tourism benefits because of various constraints rooted in the specific socioeconomic and institutional settings of the village and beyond. However, the struggle to formulate a fair and effective community tourism collaborative governance approach may bring positive socioeconomic benefits to the village and to other similarly declining rural communities in Finland and beyond. The approach is conceptually tentative in nature and its theoretical development needs to be complemented with additional research findings from empirical case studies conducted in diverse rural socioeconomic and institutional contexts of countries under different regimes.

The Influence of Islamic Religiosity on the Perceived Socio-Cultural Impact of Sustainable Tourism Development in Pakistan: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Moreover, various studies debated the relationships between community residents' and the socio-cultural impacts of sustainable tourism [40]. Earlier studies documented the ongoing phenomena in the countryside, showing declining employment opportunities and local populations, as well as a deterioration of infrastructure and amenities [33,[41][42][43][44]. In this context, scholars recognized sustainable tourism as an advantageous mechanism contributing to local communities [45][46][47].…”

“…Therefore, sustainable tourism may have a positive social impact as a human activity, as its effects are evident in the destination areas, and tourists often come into contact with the local environment, culture, and society [29]. This paradigm is reflected on an international and domestic level in the study area-a beautiful, little-explored valley in Pakistan-where sustainable tourism development policies and implementation need the attention of the government to consider such factors [30][31][32], particularly in the context of the rural areas of northern Pakistan [33][34][35]. The study area includes important mountain ranges that have received attention from domestic and international travelers, who often choose to revisit the destination.…”

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

“…Previous studies have reported that tourism governance needs to adopt a holistic understanding of social factors such as citizen participation and collaboration among stakeholders [9,10]. At the organization level, it was shown that networks significantly contribute to tourism governance [11][12][13] and that collaboration and cooperation represent an essential aspect of tourism destinations [14]. In particular, recently increased interest has occurred for collaborative, community-oriented tourism governance models [14][15][16].…”

“…At the organization level, it was shown that networks significantly contribute to tourism governance [11][12][13] and that collaboration and cooperation represent an essential aspect of tourism destinations [14]. In particular, recently increased interest has occurred for collaborative, community-oriented tourism governance models [14][15][16]. Nevertheless, a large body of governance literature has concentrated on economic indicators highlighting the need for more research on the social factors that shape tourism governance.…”

Tourism Governance in Komodo National Park, Indonesia: Blessing or Curse?

“…Tourim sector is an alternative sector owned by each country to help increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Eugenio-Martin et al, 2008), reduce poverty (Vanegas et al, 2015;Ramukumba, 2019) and have the potential to develop peripheral communities (Keyim, 2017). However, at the same time, tourism also impacts on environmental damage (Daby, 2003;Kurniawan et al, 2016), land grabbing (Zoomers, 2010), land acquisition (Kodir, 2018), water crisis (Cole, 2012) and often causes social conflict (Lee et al, 2010).…”