There is a growing trend in the world, where cities compete with each other by building similar attraction to enhance the tourism at the destination. This competition often results in the opposite where the cities lose their authenticity. Stockholm on the other hand does have the possibility to offer its visitors Stockholm’s archipelago, which is a unique natural phenomenon that cannot be replicated. Stockholm is the most popular tourist destination in Sweden. Currently Stockholm is missing a distinctive landmark, such as the Eiffel tower in Paris. In this paper the authors are answering the main question if Stockholm’s archipelago has the potential to function as such an icon or primary attraction for Stockholm.

To answer the question the authors chose to collect information from both primary and secondary sources. The paper contains literary studies, a qualitative interview and quantitative field research. The main focus is to find out whether Stockholm’s archipelago can be a primary attraction for Stockholm without destroying the environment or risk the locals’ future at the destination. Furthermore the paper contains information about the EU- project Scandinavian Islands and its potential to increase the tourism in Stockholm’s archipelago. Sweden’s international image is also being studied.

The results of the study reveal that Stockholm’s archipelago does have the potential to function as a primary attraction for Stockholm in the future while guaranteeing sustainable development at the destination. At this point the marketing concerning the archipelago is not fully developed. Furthermore, the accessibility to the islands is not developed as much as necessary to guarantee a successful tourism development. The EU – project Scandinavian Islands’ marketing regarding Stockholm’s archipelago can also be useful for Stockholm because of the geographical closeness of these two destinations. Sweden is relatively unknown in some parts of the world and the authors believe that a primary attraction in Stockholm could benefit Sweden’s international image.

Because of time limitations the authors did not have the possibility to expand the research any further. Some suggestions for additional research could be to involve the tourists’ perspective in the marketing of Stockholm’s archipelago. It would also be interesting to study whether the archipelago has the potential to function as a primary attraction not only for Stockholm but for Sweden as a whole.