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After a long period of urbanisation and globalisation, the demand for nature and nature-based recreation and tourism in large part comes from metropolitan areas and from abroad. The development of nature-based tourism is encouraged by regional policy and development schemes. However the positive potential of nature-based tourism for regional development and rural entrepreneurship is contested. Th is encourages the identification of factors that may explain the success or failure of destinations and businesses focusing on nature based tourism products and how the supply of nature-based tourism activities coincide with domestic demand in Sweden with the aim to discuss the potential of nature-based tourism for socio-economic development. The question addressed is: what supply is there in terms of nature-based activities in Sweden? The paper is based on a survey of nature-based tourism supply on regional web pages in Sweden. The material indicates that supply and demand have difficulties to meet. From a supply-side perspective variations in accessibility and a lack of suitable products limit the possibility to actually make a living out of nature-based tourism. Hence, it is concluded that nature-based tourism is a viable development option only for few destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous populations are frequently used in tourism promotion and marketing. This is also true for the Sami people in northern Europe. In the area, sometimes called Europe's last wilderness, the Sami and their culture are epitomised as a main asset for a growing tourism industry. Previously this has caused problems and irritation among the Sami. Nevertheless, tourism development is indeed also seen as a potential solution to problems affecting the Sami society, offering new sources of income and future employment in situ. Against this background, it is an interesting notion that only few Swedish Sami choose to make a living within tourism. Instead, tourism appears to be a complementary activity to reindeer herding only. Hence, the purpose of this article is to analyse constraints preventing Sami from getting more involved in tourism development. The article mainly draws on a study conducted in Jokkmokk, Sweden. Here, interviews were carried out with Sami tourism entrepreneurs who were also members of local cooperatives for reindeer husbandry. The results of the study indicate that cultural norms and legal obstacles form the main limitation for Sami tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, artistic places and places known from movies have induced an increase in tourism. However, rapid development also challenges the rural planning authorities who are not prepared to manage the high number of tourists. In this paper focus is put on two rural municipalities in southern Sweden. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize and compare tourism development and tourism planning in these municipalities. This was accomplished by mapping tourism facilities and by in‐depth interviews with the local tourism managers. It is argued that tourism planning should be an integrated part of the rural planning process for achieving sustainable development. However, the case studies show that tourism planning does not reach this requirement. Although tourism is important to the local labor market, the municipal authorities are barely engaged in tourism at all. Instead tourism planning was outsourced to public‐private companies representing mainly the interests of the involved tourism entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]