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Tourism development has often been identified as a tool for balancing negative effects of economic restructuring, especially in peripheral regions. Tourism-based activities often utilize the availability of abundant nature, but although most English language studies of destination development are presented from western contexts, examples from post-Soviet Russia are rare. Western Siberia is a periphery with access to natural resources and heavy industrialization but remotely located from domestic (Russian) and international markets, where tourism is often considered a saviour, especially for the regional economies. Stakeholders in this Russian resource periphery face challenges in managing governance and cooperation in destinations development due to frequent institutional, economic and social changes. Using evolutionary economic geography and based on primary sources and interview data, tourism development and stakeholder relations are assessed in three Western Siberia regions: Tomsk, Kemerovo and Altai Krai. Findings show that for tourism to make a significant contribution, it must be more central to the economic development agenda in all three regions. However, it is currently only achieving a permanent high-profile in one of them, being crowded out by other (mostly primary) industries in the other two. Although the specific tourism governance set-up varies between the three regions, it is clear that public tourism governance still sits somewhat uneasily between state control and the market economy. Tourism receives substantial public subsidies, especially in large-scale investment projects, which depend on federal support within a governance system where decentralization seems to be somewhat limited and unstable. As a result, the tourism path development in the Siberian periphery is highly dependent on state intervention and success in other sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second home tourism has emerged as a significant area of research because of the intersection between tourism and migration that has been encouraged by new forms of mobility. The social and economic aspects of second homes have been studied extensively, yet research on the environmental impacts of second home tourism remains limited. The paper aims to review second home research in general, identify environmental policies and the relevance to second home tourism, and discuss the applicable environmental research themes undertaken to date and those that should still be researched. The paper concludes by advocating for greater academic scrutiny of the environmental aspects of second home tourism to enable a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon as part of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nexus of workforce and destination development is a largely uncharted area within tourism research. The local human capital has above all been in focus when underlining tourism's potential to create employment even for the inexperienced and less educated. However, a discordant strand of theory holds the low levels of qualified knowledge within the industry responsible for absent destination development in areas struggling to develop competitive advantages. Additionally, the in-migration of a skilled workforce may be hampered by a lack of amenities attracting permanent residents. In order to explore whether the tourism sector is characterized by a less educated share of the workforce, a study was performed using micro-level data on the full working population of Sweden during the years 2000–2010. The workforce in tourism was compared to the total and two other low-skill sectors, and the results show that the educational aspects within tourism are more related to geography than economic sectors. Contrary to general presumptions, the workforce within the tourism sector has a higher level of formal education than the other selected sectors in regions with generally low educational levels. The implication is thus that strategies aimed at creating employment for the least educated in rural areas need to be reconsidered, and not unconditionally target the tourism sector. Above all, tourism development needs to be based on assessments of local preconditions rather than a generalized image. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author reflects on the studies of tourism geographies. He mentions his observations during conferences of the International Geographical Union wherein tourism geographies are at the core of these events. He mentions some accounts on the status of tourism geographies and tourism geographers from European countries. The important role of tourism geographers in the practice of tourism research is also discussed.

In northern Sweden, the positive effects of tourism involvement by Sámi Indigenous people are mostly shown in terms of employment, yet at times have been shown to go beyond economic ones and include other equally important benefits. Only when all components are seen at the same time can we get a true understanding of tourism as a livelihood strategy. This paper uses a sustainable rural livelihoods approach to investigate the different roles and meanings of tourism among Sámi tourist entrepreneurs in northern Sweden. It does so using data from 13 semi-structured interviews with Sámi Indigenous tourist entrepreneurs. The results indicate that there are many goals and objectives tourism jobs serve among Sámi Indigenous people in the Swedish north. For example, the tourism business is at times seen as a more sustainable way of using reindeer. Tourism was also a way for Sámi to express themselves and keep certain traditions alive. Another leading conclusion relates to tourist entrepreneurs as cultural ambassadors for Sámi issues. By presenting factual information about Sámi people, challenging stereotypes and by making others aware of the many hardships reindeer herders face, Sámi tourist entrepreneurs attribute to their work meanings that are social, cultural and even political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]