Islands, especially small islands, due to their geographic position, are vulnerable for tourism development and are extra sensitive for unsustainable tourism i.e., overtourism (Butler and Dodds, 2022). Sweden has the largest number of islands in the world (Statista, 2024) which makes it relevant for research on overtourism on islands. This study aims to investigate how the risk of overtourism is perceived by people in two major Swedish archipelago regions, Stockholm and Gothenburg. The theoretical point of departure is the Social Carrying Capacity (Brandolini et al., 2004) that put the number of tourists in relationship with the host destination’s tolerance limits and impact perception. The study has a mixed-methods approach based on 477 surveys online with permanent and semi-permanent residents (second-home owners), and six in-depth interviews. The results confirm that although a majority believe that tourism would not create problem for their islands in the future, still a majority believe that number of tourists can become so large during the peak season that it creates a series of problem for them and for the tourists themselves. This skepticism is much higher among residents in Gothenburg islands. The survey respondents and the six interviewees also give suggestions to how make the tourism more sustainable on their islands. A conclusion here is that residents in Gothenburg islands may resist a future tourism development on their islands. 

References

Brandolini, S. M. D. A., & Mosetti, R. (2004), Sustainable tourism development and social carrying capacity: a case-study on the North-Western Adriatic Sea. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 76.  

Butler, R.W. & Dodds, R. (2022), Island Tourism: Vulnerable or Resistant to Overtourism?

Highlights of Sustainability 1, 54–64. https://doi.org/10.54175/hsustain1020005 

Statista (2024), The countries with the most islands. Retrived 2024-01-31 from:

https://www.statista.com/chart/15364/the-estimated-number-of-islands-by-country/

Purpose: This study aims to empirically investigate solo travel behavior, comparing decision-making, destination choice, motivations, perceived experiences and constraints between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic eras. Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative and qualitative data to enhance reliability and flexibility. An online survey attracted 250 respondents, providing demographic data and pandemic-related insights, complemented by eight in-depth interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to extract key findings on motivations, constraints and destination choices. Findings: The findings reveal that, pre-pandemic, independence and flexibility were key motivators for solo travel, with safety and budget as significant constraints. During the pandemic, half of the respondents continued solo travel, mainly within Europe, facing constraints related to destination choice and health concerns. Post-pandemic, solo travel interest resurged, emphasizing unchanged motivations but reduced concerns over companionship and planning. The study identifies a “traveling for revenge” trend post-pandemic, showcasing a desire to overcome constraints imposed during the pandemic. Originality/value: The study contributes original insights into the nuanced changes in solo travel behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a deeper understanding of solo travelers' evolving mindsets. It is one of the few studies to examine the pandemic's impact on solo traveling, providing short-term shifts in motivations and constraints with implications for the travel industry.

This paper aims at from the perspective of the social exchange theory (SET) gaining an understanding of how promotion of halal concept in Sweden is perceived by Swedish hoteliers. A mixed-methods approach has been used consisting of 62 completed surveys with closed-ended and open-ended questions, follow-up comments and five in-depth interviews with hoteliers in the mid-Sweden region. Content analysis has been employed. Three categories of meanings are the main findings: general perception, safeguarding Swedish secular values and financially unjustifiable have been discovered. Most of the respondents have been sceptical towards halal and Muslim-friendly hotel concepts due to financial and cultural challenges these two concepts have for the Swedish tourism and hotel industries. Based on the SET, this entails more costs than benefits and is especially at odds with Swedish-rooted secular values. This study provides practical implications and increased knowledge for tourism stakeholders including hotels in Sweden. This is one of the very few studies on halal tourism in Scandinavia and the first Scandinavian study on hoteliers' attitudes towards halal tourism.

The purpose of this research is to get a better understanding of the impact of the Stockholm Fire Festival on the cultural integration of immigrant communities, and particularly its impact on the sociocultural integration of individual participants into Swedish society. The methodological approach is mixed-methods, consisting of participant observation, and a selected part of the data from 280 completed surveys based on answers to open-ended and closed-ended questions. The results indicate that participation in the festival and its celebration have a positive impact at the macro and ethnic community levels in terms of recognition of the festival by the host society, and thereby cultural integration, identity and inclusion of the ethnic community in the entire society. However, the results do not support the idea that participation in this festival has a positive impact on the sociocultural integration of the individual participants into society. Sociocultural integration presupposes intercultural encounters between immigrant individuals, between them and other ethnic groups (including the natives). It is evident that this festival cannot create such a platform for individual participants. This research contributes to the existing body of research on immigrant-oriented festivals in Western societies and strengthens the debates on migration, inclusion, integration, multiculturalism and interculturalism.

The fact that traditional information sources are neglected by tour operators and the statement arguing that digital information sources, contrarily to traditional paper ones, allow the projection of modern and innovative destination images, served as a starting point for this study. The aim of this research is to determine what destination images of Italy are projected by traditional and digital information sources from 15 Scandinavian tour operators. A qualitative method based on secondary data (1306 photographs) and a thematic analysis has been employed. Images from catalogs mainly illustrate Italy with hidden mass tourism, famous Italy, and culture, while images from social media accounts mainly represent Italy with mass tourism, unfamiliar Italy, and culture. Further, each Scandinavian country focuses on specific features of Italy. This research has implications for Scandinavian tour operators, DMOs (Destination Management Organizations) in Italian cities and for Scandinavian tourists to Italy, suggesting how displaying images more consistent with reality would better match the customers’ need for information through photographs and more accurately form and shape their pre-travel expectations.

Introduction and literature review

Overtourism as a sustainability sissue for different tourism stakeholers (Milano et al, 2022;Santos-Rojo et al., 2023) inside and outside destinations has been very explored duringrecent decade. Most earlier studies on the topic have either touched upon localstakeholders on the destination and locals‘ tourismphobia has been frequently mentionedby authors (see e.g. Verissimo et al., 2020; Yrigoy et al., 2023). In the literature, oertourismhas been associated with seasonality, i.e. it happens almost entirely in a peak season(mostly during the summer) and not year round (see e.g. Yrigoy et al., 2023; Ghaderi et al.,2022). From initially having had a focus on some specific coastal European urbandestinations such as Barcelona, Venice and Dubrovnik in many studies (see e.g. Verissimoet al., 2020) the recent years‘ research also has included rural remote places worldwide forinvestigations (see e.g. Eckert et al., 2019; Ghaderi et al., 2022; Lundmark et al, 2020) as wellas new urban destinations that earlier have been unknown as places for overtourism (seee.g. Fedyk et al., 2023).Most earlier attitude investigations on overtourism have had a focus on the destinationsand their local residents and stakeholders (see.e.g. Kim and Kang, 2020; Kuscer and Mihalic,2019). Despites few studies during recent years (e.g. Kainthola et al., 2021)tourists‘ perspective and attitudes on the issue has been less visible in the research.Especially, a lack of knowledge on travellers comming from tourist generating nations orregions and their attitudes towards overtourism in city destinations has been obviouslyinvisible. Thus, the purpose of this research is to fill this gap for Sweden and Swedishtravellers to city destionations. This will be our contribution to existing body of researchon the issue. Following research questions will be answered in this paper:–How Swedish travellers define, perceive and reason around the phenomenon ofoertourism in city destinations?132–What kind of solutions to the problem is suggested by them?

MethodologyThis study is explorative in its nature and is based an online survey. The authors initiallyadopted a predominantly quantitative approach to reach a large number of respondents tocater to representativeness (Bryman 2016). Thus, several questions and comment optionswere also purposely given to the respondents to get deeper insigts of their attitudes andperceptions of the topic. The survey that contained 15 questions was firstly screened forethical issues by the host university. The authors guaranteed total anonymity to therespondents through considering the European GDPR (General Data ProtectionRegulation) that concerns protect of personal issues in research. Then the survey waspublished at tens of Swedish social forums (public and private pages on Linkedin andFacebook). After two months (February- March 2023) and several reminders we got 370completed surveys.

Preliminary Findings

A look at the sample shows that 55% of the respondens (202 individuals) are women andthe rest are men. A predominat majority of them (74%) are older than 40 year and they areeither employed (56%), retired (31%), students (9%) or others (4%) and a predominantmajority (83%) of them has postseconday/academic education. Over 70% of them state thatthey travel abroad twice or more each year, and 54% has travelled to abroad more than 16times during last ten years. A majority answers that they have good knowledge onovertourism and almost all of them define the term with their own words. Also theydescribe typical examples of situations of ourtourism that they have been witnessses to.Based on their experiences they mention many urban destinations in the world that theyperceived as places with ourtourism. This includes already known places as well as notexpected places, major metropolitain areas as well as small less known towns and specificareas or districts in urban regions. 75% of the respondents beleive that overtourism is aproblem and they point to many enviromental issues, tentions, crimiality, increased prices,negative tourism experiences, etcetera that are linked to overtourism. 25% of therespondents that would not consider it as a problem reason among other things thatovertourism is a temporary phenomenon during short time of peak season, that this is goodfor the destinations economy and standard of living, it facilitates cultural encounters,etcetera. Those that beleive overtourism is a problem suggest as solution more research,knowledge to the general public, quota system, regulations, restrictions, seasonprolongation, etcetera.133

Preliminary Conclusions

The respondents in this research point to a very complex phenomenon with multifacettedproblems as the consequence and that also needs to be solved in a multifacetted way withdifferent actors/stakeholder both in tourist generating regions and in tourist receivingregions i.e. destinations exposed by overtourism. As a part of the respondents mean, onecannot prevent people to travel but people can get important and necessary help beforedeparture but also at the destinations to enjoy the travel without being harmful tothemselves, to other tourists, residents and to the sensitive historical sites and naturalenvironments.

References

Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford, England: Oxford university press.Eckert, C., Zacher, D., Pechlaner, H., Namberger, P., & Schmude, J. (2019). Strategies andmeasures directed towards overtourism: a perspective of European DMOs. InternationalJournal of Tourism Cities, 5(4), 639–655.Fedyk, W., Sltysik, M., Rolczynski, T., Taheri, B., Borzyszkowski, J., and Okumus, F.(2023), Overtourism in a City Destination from the Perspective of Entrepreneurs:Evidence from Wroclaw, Poland, Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism 14 (2),pp. 442- 457.Ghaderi, Z, Hall, M.C., and Ryan, C. (2022), Overtourism, residents and Iranian ruralvillages: Voices from a developing country, Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Vol.37, 100487.Kainthola, S., Tiwari, P., & Chowdhary, N. R. (2021). Overtourism to zero tourism:Changing tourists’ perception of crowding post COVID-19. Journal of Spatial andOrganizational Dynamics, 9(2), 115-137.Kim, S., and Kang, Y. (2020), Why do residents in an overtourism destination developanti-tourist attitudes? An exploration of residents’ experience through the lens of thecommunity-based tourism, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research Vol. 25, Issue 8, pp. 858-876.Kuscer, K., and and Mihalic, T. (2019), Residents’ Attitudes towards Overtourism fromthe Perspective of Tourism Impacts and Cooperation—The Case of Ljubljana,Sustainability 11, 1823.Lundmark, L., Müller, D. K., & Bohn, D. (2020). Arctification and the paradox ofovertourism in sparsely populated areas. Dipping in to the north: Living, working andtraveling in sparsely populated areas, 349-371.134Milano, C., Novelli, M., and Cheer, J.M. (2022), Overtourism. In Buhalis, D (Ed),Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing, pp. 413-416. Elgar onlineSantos-Rojo, C., Llopis-Amorós, M., and García-García, J.M. (2023), Overtourism andsustainability: A bibliometric study (2018–2021), Technological Forecasting & Social Change188, 122285.Veríssimo, M., Moraes, M., Breda, Z., Guizi, A., & Costa, C. (2020). Overtourism andtourismphobia: A systematic literature review. Tourism: An International InterdisciplinaryJournal, 68(2), 156-169.Yrigoy, I., Horrach, P., Escudero, L., & Mulet, C. (2023). Co-opting overtourism: tourismstakeholders’ use of the perceptions of overtourism in their power struggles. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-17.

Existing literature on solo traveling covers constraints of traveling as well as motivation byfocusing on specific geographical areas (Chung at al., 2017; Yang & Tung, 2018; Yang, 2020).Further, the current literature is focusing predominantly on female solo travel as well ason general information on solo travelers' constraints and motivations (Alonso-Vazquez,2023). Nevertheless, the gap of in depth understanding of driving forces and constraintsgenerally and between the different genders can be found (Yang, 2020). Another researchgap, addressing the influence the COVID-19 pandemic had on solo traveling was identified.To re-address this gap in knowledge, this research paper has the following aims:

• To investigate the Covid-19 pandemics influence on motivation to go on solo trips.
• To explore the changes in destination choices by solo travelers during the pandemic aswell as in the post-pandemic era.
• To find out the impact of the pandemic on the perception of solo travel by solo travelers.
• Identify a possible trend in solo travelling which was caused due to the pandemic.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding on if and how hotel senior managers (HSMs) in four-star chain hotels in London and Stockholm implemented crisis management techniques (CMTs) as a response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative questionnaires were sent to 30 HSMs in London and Stockholm. From the feedback, this paper assesses, using thematic analysis, differences in CMTs used, past and present, alluding to COVID-19's economic impacts on hotels. Findings Results determined that crises broadly economically impacted destinations similarly through loss of travellers and thus revenue. However, with a more intricate and specific assessment, destinations are impacted differently; thus, CMTs must alter. Findings show many CMTs can be implemented to reduce crises' economic impacts. The literature review and empirical results allude to many previous and current CMTs, although these must be relevant and specific to the crisis, hotel and/or destination. Practical implications This paper has theoretical implications for academics on, among other things, theory building. Practically, it supports hotels in developing and determining CMTs to reduce the economic impacts of crises, to be better prepared when another pandemic emerges and contributes to the tourism and hospitality industry's knowledge of management strategy within crises. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first Swedish study focusing on post-COVID-19 crisis management in hotels in London and Stockholm.

The purpose of this research is that through festival participants’ subjective views get a better understanding of how their participation results in positive feelings and well-being. The paper has a qualitative approach based on a delimited part of a larger survey and the content analysis method has been employed. A total of 280 participants, mainly of immigrant origin, answered one of the open-ended questions in the survey: What emotions does celebrating the Fire Festival evoke in you? Please justify your answer. The most common meaning in the answers has been good feelings followed by feelings of integration and community, the return of spring, and nostalgia. The results show that the festival has significance for these peoples’ good feelings and well-being, even though it lasts five hours. This study contributes to increased knowledge of festivals’ positive impacts on individuals, especially on immigrants living in Western countries.

Places as social constructions create meaning, identity, emotions and attachment for individuals (Knox and Marston, 2016; Massey, 1995). This can also be applied for festival arenas as well (e.g. Davis and Martin, 2014; Kim, 2017). Authors (e.g. Lee et ala., 2008) emphasize that the choice of festival arena has a significance for the visitors/attendees’ overall satisfaction with the festival in issue.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Skansen arena in Stockholm, that has a high symbolic value for all Swedes, is assessed by the attendees of Persian Fire Festival in March 2019. An online questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative questions was used during April 2019 and resulted in 280 completed questionnaires by attendees from several ethnic groups. The results indicate high level of satisfaction with the arena that gives the attendees positive emotions, meanings, place attachment, place identity and a sense of place. The high status of the arena that gives pride and dignity; security and safety of the arena; its size; and its natural beauty have been the most contributing factors. Lack of accessibility and sufficient public transport have been the most negative factors. This paper gives a contribution to existing literature on festival arena and its importance for the attendees. Such symbolic arenas create stronger identity for immigrant groups and may become platforms for mutual cultural interaction with the host society.