Tourism and Communities

This timely book critically explores and analyses the prospects and challenges that exist in tourism and community relations in different contexts, with a focus on island, rural and urban environments within Nordic tourism.

The book explores core topics from both positive and negative tourism development practices, including employment and income creation, diversification of local economy, well-being and quality of life, infrastructure and services support, revitalization of culture, cultural learning, and natural and cultural resource conservation. The volume utilises case studies and real-world examples from the Nordic context, which are good practices in community building, investments in social programmes and infrastructure and economies, discussing potential implications and take-aways that can be transferred to other regions. The book delves into community perspectives beyond those of DMOs and the local community as service providers or objects of visitor experiences. It provides new insights into how the community-tourism relationships may change, and how community actors can be drivers of change as well as the complexities and ambiguities involved, with both positive and negative impacts of tourism, conflicting goals, etc.

This volume will be valuable reading for researchers, academics and students interested in sustainable tourism.