Support of local communities is key to sustainable development of tourism. Yet, tourism and sustainability are highly contextual, and it is important to gain a better understanding of the local context and how it shapes the sustainability needs from the point of view of local communities. This shall help to avoid residents’ reactions to (over)tourism moving from tolerance to complaints to confrontations. By applying a Place-based Strategy Evaluation Framework (PlaSE) initially developed for the Orkney Islands across four case study regions the project shall ensure the strategies and plans for tourism development in destinations align with values and needs of local communities.
By doing so, the project focuses on the concept of “Regenerative Tourism”, defined in Nordic Atlantic Cooperation’s (NORA) strategic priorities for 2025-2028, by providing support for local destination managers to strategically plan for socially sustainable tourism that supports local communities, emphasising local identity, culture and traditions as key elements that tourism development should be based on. The project also aims to develop the concept of “Nice Places to Live” further, by supporting place-based development that is rooted in place identity and contributes to the overall wellbeing of the communities, relying on tourism, by aligning its strategic development to the sense of place.
The sense of place is influenced by how residents perceive the benefits, impacts and value of the tourism development. It is rooted in the relationship between people and place, place and cultural identity, traditions and heritage. This contextual understanding should guide tourism strategy evaluation and development, to ensure it is aligned with these attributes. Strategies developed that way will then demonstrate higher value to the local communities, increasing participation, ownership and support for the tourism development in their place.
The research project is a pilot project that shall support the vision, stipulated in the Nordic Council of Ministers Vision 2030, for the Nordic region to become the most sustainable and integrated region in the world. It puts sustainability of tourism development at the heart of its aim, delivering on the objective of social sustainability of the Nordic region
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