This paper examines the attitudes towards experience industries and tourism in the Gnosjö region of Sweden. The investigation is based on a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with politicians and chief executive officers (CEOs) within manufacturing industries. The results show that the politicians have more knowledge of experience industries and a more positive attitude towards these new types of industries than the CEOs. Both groups consider both these industries of significance for the region's future. While the politicians believe in experience industries as a whole, and particularly suggest more active work in favour of tourism and design, the second group just welcomes directly and indirectly a possible cooperation with design companies. A minor share of the CEOs is interested in either running businesses with features of experience industries or having a sense of it in their businesses. Despite differences, these attitudes facilitate cross-fertilisation between the manufacturing industry and experience industries in the future. The study suggests that the region needs to develop more knowledge and competence directed towards the experience industries, in particular tourism and design, and a cooperation between the manufacturing industry, local political parties, and enterprises within tourism, design and culture in this respect.

This study aims to investigate empirically what attitudes employees in tourism industry have towards participation in publicly funded competence development programmes. Such investigations are lacking in the research on Tourism industry. By competence development here means participation in personal competence development programmes that might have a positive impact on the staff’s learning and on their work places. This impact will be found out through the employees’ subjective perceptions. In this study the terms “competence development programmes” “training programmes” and “skills development programmes” are used as synonyms. Also in accordance with Statistics Sweden terms of “business” and “work place” are used as synonym. The methodological approach used in this study is email-interviews with 12 employees (four women, eight men) that have participated in these programmes during recent years. This includes CEOs, owners, employees and one instructor that also is a business owner himself. A majority of them have academic education and their average working years in the industry is 17. They represent various sub-industries. Their average age is 46 and they mostly come from small sized firms. They participated in different courses that were offered by public organizations for employees and employers, or by private organizations. The courses were paid either by public means, by the firm or by a combination of both. The courses were mostly organized by public organizations but in some cases also by private organizations or a mix of private and public. They expressed that their participation in general had a positive or very positive impact on their workplace, and among others resulted to better knowledge, to acquire a wider network, new ideas, new experiences and opportunities and gave more inspiration, motivation and self-confidence. Concerning effectiveness of courses offered by the public organization the opinions are different; some had no comments about it, some found them very effective, some believed that these courses are effective in some but not in all cases, and finally some believed that courses organized by private organizations are more effective. The largest problems for competence development in the industry are lack of time and money and lack of tailored courses.

Urban Ethnic festivals have positive impacts on the image of cities and countries (McClinchey, 2008) and create a sense of belonging among immigrant groups (Chacko, 2013). Every year, a Tuesday in the middle of March and after 17:00, Iranian Fire Festival is held outdoors in the center of Stockholm and Göteborg. It is financed and organized by Riksteatern (The Swedish National Theatre). In Stockholm it is held in the King’s Garden park, 500 meters from the parliament, and it is used to be opened either by some Swedish ministers or by the Prime minister. This is not a big event in international comparison; it can be classified as local event and it is held when it is still very cold in Sweden. The event lasts in 4-5 hours but draws thousands of audiences (mostly from the same city region) to these two simultaneous arrangements. The audiences as well as the artists are mostly of Middle Eastern background (mostly Iranians, Kurds, Afghans) and there has been no report on ethnic Swedes among them over the years. This event, however, gets a huge attention from the Swedish media but also from some international media (Like Voice of America, Persian section) and Iranian diaspora media worldwide. In accordance with Getz et al (2007), many stakeholders are involved in this event; the Swedish governments, the event organization, municipality offices, many ethnic associations in Sweden, media, invited artists from Sweden and other countries, participants, sellers and volunteers.

The aim of this research is to get insight into this event, incentives behind it and the expected outcome of it from different stakeholders. Especially it is important to find out what interest different Swedish governments have since they support the event financially regardless of ideological belonging while the event’s own preconditions are not the best one.

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.

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.

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 following study is the first Swedish study on Halal tourism in Sweden. The purpose of this exploratory research is to get insight into the perception of Halal tourism in Sweden among representatives of tourism stakeholders. The overall methodology approach in this research is qualitative, consisting of 25 qualitative questionnaires, 21 short letters, four follow-up interviews, and a web observation, and content analysis was employed. The results indicate that there is a low knowledge of Halal tourism in Sweden including Swedish tourism industry. The concept is very challenging, and profits are low. It might result in problem scenarios such as detrimental effects on non-Halal tourism, cultural difficulties and increased risk of xenophobia, anti-Islamism, and tension in the society. There is low interest for Sweden among Muslim tourists as the interest and priority for Halal tourism is rather low from Swedish tourism industry. Despite Halal tourism’s importance internationally, these representatives are rather cautious and doubtful about promotion of Sweden towards this niche. Still, a majority seems to be positive to a lighter version of Muslim-friendly tourism with secular/moderate Muslims as a target group.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to deal mainly with the participants’ perception of their attendance in publicly funded training programmes in the tourism industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The investigation is based on e-mail interviews with 12 employees in the Swedish tourism industry who have actively participated in such courses as well as some courses offered by private organisations.

Findings

The results show that the interviewees have a positive perception of their participation and they believe that their attendance has had an overall positive impact on them or on their businesses. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether their participation has had an extraordinarily positive impact on business outcomes in terms of subsequent increased turnover, greater productivity or sales, or an expanded customer base. Lack of time and money and the prevalence of unsuitable courses prevent business owners and their employees from attending such courses.

Originality/value

This research is the first Swedish qualitative investigation on the issue.

Political crises, which have a known impact on the choice of tourism destination, can also negatively affect the choice of second-home destination and purchase. The purpose of this study is to investigate why some Swedish-Iranian second-home buyers prefer Spain to Turkey for political reasons. More than 30 short dialogues were conducted with Swedish-Iranian buyers at the exhibition "Buying Properties Abroad" in Kista, September 2015, following the start of a series of political crises in Turkey. A simple question was asked: Why are you choosing Spain rather than Turkey? The most important category of reasons were political factors, followed by cultural reasons. Political anxiety, instability, and insecurity in Turkey, the risk of civil war, a police society, lack of democratic order, the fact that Turkey is not a member of the European Union, the government's negative attitudes towards Kurds, and the emergence of Islamic State were the political reasons most mentioned. One conclusion that can be drawn is that political crises affect second-home tourism/tourists in the same way that they do ordinary tourism/tourists. The research has some important implications for Turkish policymakers, tourism stakeholders at a macrolevel, their competitors, especially in Spain, and potential buyers. Based on this research, some suggestions for future studies are also given. 

Multicultural festivals contribute to strengthen multicultural societies through positive psychosocial, social and cultural benefits for individuals, groups and communities/societies (Lee et al., 2012).

Especially, these includes positive feelings and emotions that are created with attendees in the festival (Kim et al, 2016).

The purpose of this descriptive research is to get an understanding of the Persian Fire Festival’s visitors in Stockholm and their subjective reasoning around the feelings and emotions that are created through their celebration. 280 visitors/attendees answered to the question “What emotions does it evoke to celebrate the Fire Festival with you?” that was included in an online questionnaire. Excepting a few irrelevant answers, the predominant majority gave clear examples of positive feelings and emotions and some of them mentioned up to six feelings. Happy/happiness has been the most expressed feeling. The other frequent feelings have been: welcome the spring and the new year; pride/proud; community; belonging and togetherness; nostalgy; and home feeling. A very few people also mentioned sad feelings such as homesickness and missing family. The results show an overall positive impact of the festival celebration on the visitors’ psychosocial well-being. They also give rise to the question how such festival arrangements through increased positive feeling can contribute to stronger feelings of identity, belonging and community and thereby results in better socio-cultural integration of these people into the society.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into the phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations and attain more knowledge on the topic.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative items. In all, 21 individuals (12 women, 9 men) responded.

Findings

The most important reason for solo travel was their own free choice and in some cases, difficulty finding companions. Their activities at the destinations were mostly visiting attractions followed by visiting friends, shopping, walking, eating at restaurants, learning the language, working, etc. They mostly mentioned advantages but also some disadvantages with solo travelling. Their experiences, especially with the people in the host destinations, have been positive and they show overall satisfaction with their visit. A predominant share of the interviewees showed a kind of loyalty to one or more specific city destinations and wished to revisit them again and again.

Practical implications

The current study might have some implications for city tourism developers/destination developers, travel agencies, national or regional tourism boards and tour operators in major urban areas and cities. Especially, this study has a practical contribution to the city tourism practitioners and gives them more insight in what values, attitudes, perceptions, expectations and motivations the solo travellers might have before or while they visit their cities. The study also has implications for potential solo travellers seeking more knowledge and information on the issue.

Originality/value

The phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations is an unresearched topic in Sweden. This exploratory study is the first in Sweden to focus on solo travellers visiting city destinations.

In 1981 several enthusiastic Iranian students started the Caspian Sport Association in northern Stockholm and organized a common celebration of the Fire Festival for the members and their families.

Five years later, an even bigger organization called House of Iran was established and took over the celebration arrangement with better resources and support from Sundbyberg Municipality. In 1994 the Iranian National Federation in Sweden (INF) was established and they gradually became the organizer of the celebration in Stockholm. After 2009 the Swedish National Turing Theatre (Riksteatern) became an actor in organization and celebration of the festival in Stockholm’s downtown. While during the first 25 years the festival was strongly delimited to the northern suburbs and was locally known, the arrangement by Riksteatern since 2009 contributed to huge attention to the festival in the city, in the country and later in the whole world.

Sweden is a country with a strong civil society sector and rich tradition of associations and non-profit organizations (Voluntarius.com). One of the areas the civil society is strong in is the production of urban festivals (Andersson et al., 2009). The aim of this research is to describe the historical evolution of the Fire Festival in Stockholm from a perspective of Swedish Civil Society sector and thereby analyze the success factors over the years. Initially, a qualitative method consisting of primary and secondary sources has been employed.

People travel solo to a destination due to different push–pull pre-travel motivators (Yoon and Uysal, 2005). Travel to a city destination brings a series of positive or negative experiences (Walls et al., 2011) and creates a sense of overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the destination and the travel itself. Also, several functional and psychosocial characteristics of a destination such as hosts, locals, services, prices (Echtner and Brent Ritchie, 1991; Philip, 2005), contribute to satisfaction with a trip, but also create destination loyalty among visitors (Chi and Qu, 2008; Zhang et al., 2014) and this loyalty in its turn leads to a return to the same destination. The phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations is an un-researched topic in Sweden. This exploratory study is the first in Sweden to focus on solo travellers visiting city destinations. The study aims to gain more insight into the phenomenon and attain more knowledge on the topic. The study employed a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative items. In all, 21 individuals (12 women, 9 men) responded. They were mostly well-educated, the majority were younger than 35, more than half were single and more than half reported travelling alone once or twice a year. The majority had a travel budget of SEK 10–20,000 per trip and the rest had a budget below SEK 10,000. They normally took flights and the majority went away for more than one week up to several weeks. The most important reason for solo travel was own free choice and in some cases difficulty finding companions. This result is coherent with earlier studies (e.g. Heimtun and Morgan, 2012; Mehmetoglu, 2004). Their loneliness gave rise to forced but positive socialization (e.g. Chiang and Jogaratnam, 2006; Laesser et al., 2009). Their activities at the destinations were mostly visiting attractions and they mostly mentioned advantages with solo travelling. They showed overall satisfaction with their travels, destination loyalty to one or several city destinations and wished to revisit them again and again. This finding is also partly or fully coherent with many earlier studies (e.g. Walls et al., 2011; Echtner and Brent Ritchie, 1991; Philip, 2005; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Beerli and Martin, 2004).

Political crises which have negative impact on the choice of a tourism destination can also affect the choice of a second-home destination negatively. The purpose of this study is to investigate why a part of Swedish-Iranian second home buyers prefer Spain than Turkey due to the politics. The group has shown interest in second-home purchase in the two countries during recent decade. More than 30 short dialogues were made with Swedish-Iranian buyers at the exhibition of “Buying Properties Abroad” in Kista, September 2015, after the start of a series of political crises in Turkey. A simple question was asked: Why do you choose Spain before Turkey? Most of the respondents gave more than three reasons.82The most important category of reasons were political factors followed by cultural factors. Political anxiety, instability and insecurity in Turkey, risk for civil war, police society, lack of democratic order, the fact that Turkey is not EU member, the government’s negative attitude towards Kurds, and the origin of Islamic state were the most mentioned political reasons. Cheating among some shopkeepers, negative attitudes by authorities towards Iranians, general perception of foreign women/female tourists, lack of a modern culture in Turkey, and better mentality among Spanish people have been among the cultural reasons. Among the economic reasons they mentioned lack of good infrastructure in Turkey, insecurity for invested capital, lower living costs in Spain, it is safer to buy house in Spain as EU country. Other less mentioned reasons were natural preconditions and knowledge on Spanish language.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the open-air museum ofSkansen in Stockholm as venue for celebration of Persian Fire Festival is assessed by thefestival’s visitors. The study is based on a delimited part of a larger online survey with280 completed questionnaires including both close-ended and open-ended questions,and a qualitative thematic analysis method has been used in this paper. The resultsshow a high level of appreciation of the Skansen venue that gives the visitors positiveemotions, meanings, place attachment, place identity and a sense of place. Contributingfactors have been the high status of the venue that has given the visitors pride anddignity; security and safety of the venue; size of the venue; and the natural beauty of thevenue. The most important disadvantage factor has been the lack of accessibilitycombined with lack of sufficient public transport. The results have implications for theSwedish society, for the policy makers in Stockholm city and for both the host and theorganiser of the festival and gives rise to new debates on immigrants’ socio-culturalintegration into Swedish society. This paper gives a contribution to existing literature onfestival venue and its impact on the visitor’s overall assessment of the festival.

This exploratory research seeks to gain insight into the visitors of Persian Fire Festival in Stockholm, their motivation, level of satisfaction and loyalty to the festival. The overall methodology is mixed methods consisting of participant observation and 280 completed online surveys including close-ended and open-ended questions. A Grounded theory analysis has been employed. The most important reason behind the participation has been to strive for the recognition of ethnic cultural identity; to keep the ancient culture alive; to maintain their ancestors’ legacy and transfer it to the next generation. Most of the visitors experienced positive feelings, showed satisfaction and loyalty, believed that the festival fulfilled their expectations and it should be celebrated officially every year. A minority showed dissatisfaction mostly due to the lack of accessibility to the event venue and might are not loyal to the festival. The first conclusion here is that these motivators are totally different than those mentioned by earlier research (e.g., escape, socialization, novelty, rest, prestige, excitement). Even though the desire to preserve the ancient culture and tradition is very strong, a lack of accessibility to the venue would constitute disloyalty and a barrier to re-attend in such a festival.

Every year, a Tuesday in the middle of March and after 5:00 pm the Iranian Fire Festival (Eldfesten in Swedish, Chaharshanbe Suri in Persian) is celebrated outdoors in the center of Stockholm and ends before 10:00 pm. This event has its roots in ancient Persia, but now it is celebrated by several nations in the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The Stockholm festival is arranged and financed by The Swedish National Theatre and several times earlier it has been opened by Swedish ministers. The event visitors are mostly of Middle Eastern background coming from Stockholm area. Since 2016 it can also be watched live through Swedish and foreign TV stations and through Social media. During the earlier years the event was held in Kungsträdgården (The Royal Garden) but this year it was arranged in the amusement park of Skansen.  Ethnic cultural events in major urban areas create good images for cities and countries but also for immigrants and their neighborhoods in the city of issue (McClinchey, 2008; Loukaitou-Sideris and Soureli, 2012), and a sense of belonging among immigrants (Chacko, 2013). Many stakeholders are involved in such events (Getz et al 2007; Getz And Andersson, 2010) but perhaps the most important stakeholder is the visitors of the event. Therefore, it is of high relevance to study the visitors’ visit motivations, their perceived experience in terms of satisfaction level and their level of loyalty i.e. if they intend to visit the event next year (Savinovic et al, 2012). The aim of this research is to get insights on the visitors of the Fire Festival, their motives behind participation and how they perceive their participation afterwards. The main methods chosen in this research is participant observation and 257 completed surveys online until April 11th, 2019.  Preliminary results The respondents are 63% men and 37% women, and they are mostly older than 40 (44% are older than 50). More than half of them have been living in Sweden less than 21 years of which 17% less than 5 years. 83% of the respondents call themselves Swedish-Iranians. More than 80% of the respondents have academic education (of which 7% with PhD education) and most of them are employed either by public or private sector. A considerable number of them are also either self- employed, students or retirees. They have come from different districts of Greater Stockholm while a minor part has come from municipalities outside the county. A pre-dominant majority of them have come there with friends and family members, and most of them have been participating in the festival for third times or more. Also, more than half of them have visited the Skansen park three or more times earlier. The main reasons why they celebrate the festival is to keep the old tradition and culture alive. The celebration creates feelings like happiness, pride, community, belonging, nostalgia, childhood, the Spring. Concerning the question what the place or arena means to you they either like Skansen or prefer other places in Greater Stockholm or do not care about the place but the festival and other issues such as security and safety. To the question “what do you think about celebrating the festival at Skansen” they give positive answers and to the question “are your expectations on the festival fulfilled” the majority are totally or partly agreed. They also believe that this event must be celebrated every year and give many improvement suggestions and additional critical comments such as more food trucks, better and cheaper food, more professional artists and happy songs and music.

This explorative study aims to gain more insight into Swedish-Iranians' purchase of second homes in Turkey. The study is based on 22 questionnaires (19 of them from owners and buyers), field observation, and participant observation. Motives behind owners' and buyers' purchases are: other Swedish-Iranian friends/relatives bought there; cultural proximity; absence of visa restriction for Iranian citizens; geographical proximity to Iran and relatives living in Iran; economic factors, including the low prices and costs and investment for retirement; and the climate. The respondents are well-integrated into Swedish society and have access to different types of resources which facilitate the purchase, but they also show the potential to partially become integrated socioculturally into their Turkish communities. A meaningful proportion of them are seriously planning to live permanently in Turkey after retirement, but the majority stay there for longer periods or semi-permanently. Despite some limitations, this study makes an important contribution to the area of diaspora second-home tourism and to the field of diaspora studies.

Second home tourism is often discussed in the context of the western world. Other groups and their motivations, in this case people of Iranian background who are a large ethnic group in Sweden, are often neglected, although the group has shown interest in purchase of second home in Turkey.The aim of this study is to get more insight on Swedish Iranians’ purchase of second home in Turkey. 19 e-mail interviews (with Broker companies, owners, and potentially buyers) have been conducted. Also participant observation in Antalya region in June 2015 and at the exhibition of “Buying Properties Abroad” in Kista in September 2015 has been done.The interview results reveal that the Swedish Iranian second home buyers collect information through friends and relatives, various web sites, exhibitions, brokers, and real estate companies before buying apartment. Their motives have been: following other friends/relatives who bought apartments there, cultural proximity including the Turkish language and food, geographic proximity to Iran, relatives living in Iran do not need Turkish visa, economic factors including prices, the climate, and investment for the retirement. They stay in their apartments at least once a year up to 4 times a year and the duration of their stay each time is at least one week. A part of them might choose to live partly or permanently in Turkey after the retirement. Their motives are similar to many other second home owners elsewhere but there are also aspects related to the political context of this mobility.

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/

Over-tourism has become a frequently used term in Urban Tourism research, during last years. By it means over-saturation of tourists (e.g. Stanchev, 2017) i.e. when the number of tourists at a certain time and at a certain place exceeds powerfully the number of locals in the place (see e.g. Artal-Tur et al, 2018). Such situation creates a series of problems for the host destinations (Postma and Schmuecker, 2017) because of the limited service facilities available (Butler, 2018). The pressure on the host destination results in conflict and tension among hosts and tourists, and in long term antagonism, and tourism phobia among locals (Alexis, 2017). The overall aim of this research is to get a deeper understanding of Dubrovnik’s tourism employees’ perception of Over-tourism in their town. The chosen method has been field observation during peak season (July 2018) and 18 email- interviews with local tourism employees between 2018-2019.   Results  The employees who answered to 14 questions have positions such as manager, receptionist, owner, and represent different tourism and hospitality sectors like hotels and restaurants, tourist bureaus, etc. They have been working within tourism industry between 3 and 30 years. They show small difference in their views on low- respectively high season of tourism in the town. They define Over- tourism in general, believe it exists in Dubrovnik in some short periods, and describe in detail how and when it happens there. The reason behind Over-tourism in Dubrovnik is summarized by them in big demand that exceeds the supply side i.e. too many tourists by ships, aircrafts, cars and buses arriving at the same time in peak season. They claim that the Over-tourism creates a series of problems such as traffic, damage and pollution, and confirm that the local authorities are aware of the problems. A powerful reduction of number of cruisers, better management, organization and schedule of arrivals, better information to tourists, reduction of taxis from rest of the country, forbid foreigners come by car to the city, etc. are among their own suggestions to solutions for the problems. Some of them talk about attracting quality/luxury/elite tourists instead of mass tourists. Several of them also confirm that the local tourism industry firstly tries to reduce the number of cruisers and partly flights, and then find a better coordination of activities, and other regulations for people coming by cars. The interviewees prefer mostly tourists coming by charter flights, then cruise tourists specially luxury such, and they believe that Dubrovnik and its surrounding region is not at all suitable for car transport and cartourists.

This article implies a qualitative methodological approach and has a focus on the local tourism employees in Dubrovnik and their perception of overtourism. The empirical data are based on 12 days’ field observation in July 2018, and 18 e-mail interviews with local tourism employees. The data analysis method has been thematic analysis. The interviewees show a high level of awareness and concern about the problem. Overcrowding, traffic congestion, various physical damages, displacement of locals in Old Town, low quality of tourist experiences and lower quality of life for locals, increased prices are among problems caused by overtourism in Dubrovnik. Factors related to seasonality, physical geographic conditions, cruise ships are the most problem makers and the interviewees prefer tourists that stay overnight. Their most frequent solution suggestions are reduction of the number of cruise ships followed by stricter rules of the establishment and of quality for accommodations, caterings and shops.

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.

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.

Over-tourism has become a new subject for research, particularly on urban sustainable tourism, during recent years (Novy, 2018). The term refers to when the number of tourists at a certain time in an extreme way exceeds the number of locals in the destination (Goodwin, 2017). This phenomenon creates a series of problems for the host destinations and puts pressure on them and their attractions, on the local service facilities and the genuine urban culture (Postma and Schmuecker, 2017; Trancoso Gonzalez, 2018; Weber et al, 2017; Montanari & Staniscias, 2010). Earlier research has shown how this phenomenon results in tension/conflict between locals and tourists and creates phobia among host people towards tourists(Postma and Schmuecker,2017; Martins, 2018; Milano et al, 2018). Recent research (Koens et al, 2018) shows that tourism stakeholders in many European cities show great awareness on the issue in their cities. Earlier research has mostly focused on locals while a focus on the visitors has beenlacking.  The purpose of the research is to get more empirical insights in over-tourism in four European city centers, Dubrovnik, Visby, Stockholm, and Riga, from both perspectives of locals and visitors/tourists, and thereby get knowledge through the challenges to, and opportunities for, both constituencies that are created in this learning process. This is in consistence with earlier research with same purpose (Costa et al, 2018). The research is justified by the fact that the topic is still new, and there are not too many studies published as of now. The first common characteristic between these four cities is that they all are cruising ports. The two first cities are rather towns than cities, almost of same size and natural preconditions, while the latters are much larger, capital cities in the Baltic Sea region with almost similar preconditions i.e. Over-tourism in the downtown area during peakseason.  The overall methodological approach in this project will be qualitative consisting of triangulation (mixed methods) based on comparative case studies. The data collection methods will consist of: field observations during the peak season in July-August in the four cities, face to face interviews and email interviews

Today´s tourism sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world and that has greatly influenced destinations. The recent development in the use of events to build, reinforce, and increase destination branding has received huge recognition. This paper examines the engagement of public and private stakeholders in creating or buildingthe brand of Cape Coast as a destination. It is important to have all various stakeholders to understand the vision towards a common goal. This is because to build destination branding thebrand needs to replicate the authenticity of the identity of the destination which in turn willassist in differentiating its goods and services from other competitors. Destination branding is seen as an important strategic tool for tourist destination since it underlines the huge significantcontributor to the economic development and market opportunities. Cape Coast city is known for its attractions which is visited by both international and domestic tourists. The aim of this research is to explore how stakeholders can contribute in creating CapeCoast´s destination brand by using events. To achieve this aim, this research uses a qualitativemethod in the form of telephone interviews, which were conducted with representatives of thetourism sector in Cape Coast, Ghana. The collected data were analysed by using content analysis. The findings proved that there is a lack of continuity from the government, that thereis inadequate brand communication among various stakeholders. Furthermore, this researchbrought to light that there is a need for product diversification and inadequate infrastructure in Cape Coast.The overall research openly gives an insight concerning the importance of destination branding, roles of stakeholders, events contribution to brand identity, diversification of products, communication platforms, and challenges of branding a destination in Cape Coast.

Purpose: The authors have found a common interest to investigate how the use and impact of reviews online can be applied within the subject of tourism. The purpose of the study is to investigate how consumers use reviews in their information search process. The purpose is also to investigate how and if consumers are influenced by online reviews regarding hotel stays.

Method: The study is based on a qualitative method in the form of ten semi structured interviews as primary collection. The study has a support from secondary data consisting of a literature review in the chapter of previous research.

Theory: The theoretical background is based on three theories. The theories are The PrePurchase-Information process, The Major Influences On Individual Travel Behaviour and the theory From Word-Of-Mouth to Electronic Word-Of-Mouth.

Empiricism: The empiricism consists of a presentation of ten semi structured interviews with anonymous respondents regarding their own experiences and beliefs about the topic of the study. The chapter also includes an overview of the previous research about the topic to support and enhance the primary empirical interview material.

Findings: The digital society has led to an increased online presence, critical thinking and interest on how consumers travel and what hotels they choose. Impact is constantly present in their contact with reviews and surroundings. The individuals own interpretation and perception of reality is based primarily on how they use and are influenced by reviews. In combination with critical thinking there is an insight that anyone, can write anything.

Problem: In this study, tour operators' perceptions of market changes linked to the pandemic have been investigated. Based on their perceptions, the most effective competition strategies have been described both before and after the pandemic.

Aim: The study's intention was to gain an understanding of how Swedish tour operators experience changes in the tourism industry linked to Covid-19 and what competition strategies the companies use before and plan to use after the pandemic.

Method: The study uses a qualitative research strategy with an inductive approach and grounded theory as a method. The collected data material has been analyzed mainly by in-depth interviews which were then transcribed and coded from Glaser’s point of view, containing open, selective, and theoretical phase. This resulted in two core categories that expressed the study's main problems: competition strategies and the tourism industry and competition in Sweden.

Conclusion: The study results have shown that the most effective competition strategies according to Swedish tour operators are customer orientation, vertical integration, and digitalization. Regarding perceptions of market changes, respondents believe that there have been no major changes in the tour operator market, but the pandemic has affected the tourism industry and competition in general, where market demand and competition between other industries have changed. In addition, the competition strategies used by companies before the pandemic were effective and provide competitive advantages, which results in that these strategies will be largely unchanged after the pandemic. 

Over the past several years destination loyalty has begun to take up an increasing amount of focus within the tourism research field. While there are still a number of question marks of its different aspects and true value to the destination, the subject has been described as prioritized. On that account, the purpose of this study has been to seek understanding of how Stockholm relate to this, and how their expressed strategies towards the international market can be understood within a destination loyalty perspective. Furthermore, the DMO Visit Stockholm’s marketing and communication strategies towards foreign followers on digital platforms have been examined. To reach knowledge of this, a document study of Visit Stockholm and Svensk Turism was carried out, whereafter three interviews took place with representatives from these two organizations. Lastly, a netnographic examination was carried out of Visit Stockholm’s official webpage and their accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The results showed that strategies have yet to be expressed formally regarding destination loyalty, but that there is an awareness of the issue and that it most likely will play a bigger role in the future. In addition to that, there have been empirical findings which show that marketing and communication in fact is conducted, which can relate to destination loyalty. A challenge for Stockholm in the future will be to further take advantage of the possibilities that the digital channels offer. An active approach will be required in imposing new relations to followers and visitors, and in the retaining of existing relations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitude of potential customers towards marketing of tourism through virtual reality. Since it is considered a risk to purchase a service it was interesting to see if the implementation of VR could lower the uncertainty. The study was conducted through a qualitative methodology consisting of 15 user tests. The result shows that the market has a positive attitude towards the marketing method since it was considered an exciting way to get information and gave a more honest image of the destination. It was more appreciated to experience a hotel in VR than a destination. However, VR-marketing was not considered necessary but rather a pleasant complement. The result of the study led to a few recommendations to any touristic company aiming to produce a VR-video for marketing purposes.

Political instability and conflicts has had a huge impact on a country’s tourism development and can cause long-term effects on the tourism industry. Since the tourism industry contributes to a large part of the country's economy, after crisis management strategies are important to implement and tourism organizations' marketing of the destination. A country that has been affected by a conflict or war, mostly get negative affected in long-term. When it comes to the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which resulted in a division within the country where one third of the country is occupied in the north by Turks, the tourism industry on the south part restored quickly. The development of the tourism industry on the Greek Cypriot part has resulted in an imbalance in the country regarding tourism, where the north side is lagging.

This paper aims to find what motivates Swedish tourists to travel to Cyprus as a divided country and whether the division has an impact on places to stay, visit and the experience during the holiday and finally, future suggestions of the tourism industry in Cyprus. The empirical results were conducted by a qualitative methodological approach, including 25 interviews with Swedish people who has visited the destination once or more. The findings of the study showed that most of the participants preferred staying on the south side, especially in Ayia Napa, Paphos or Limassol and that the primary motivations for travelling was due to the 3S core product of Cyprus consisting of sea, sun and sand. Heritage tourism and crossing the border in Nicosia were also to interest of some of the participants to explore history and culture. Future suggestions for develop the tourism industry on Cyprus is to develop the north part by marketing and creating more activities to attract more tourists.

The purpose of this research is to investigate and develop an analysis model of a tourism department network using an explorative approach. Strategic stakeholders have been identified for the tourism department and organised into partner groups. An analysis model has been developed based on four network types: formal organisation, informal organisation, formal individual and informal individual. For every type, the following six network content dimensions were found relevant to analyse: stakeholders, reciprocal relations, relation exchange, network driving forces, network management and network purpose. The investigations have shown some focused network strengths such as network permanency, with corresponding weaknesses such as rigid relations. Some typical implications of the strengths and weaknesses for the department have been identified, and some network techniques to handle the implications have been proposed. An annual network development process for a tourism department is suggested. The resulting network is summarised as the Professional Tourism Academic Network (PTAN).

There is a debate about responsible and sustainable development in tourist destinations. One could argue that event companies have a responsibility for sustainability, but they lack the analyses tools. The purpose is to investigate and analyse how companies working with events could develop a certification process of sustainability, and how decisions about an event’s sustainability certification could be supported. The analysis is based on both the study of relevant literature and investigations carried out and by using multi-criteria decision-making systems. A sustainable certification process is developed which consists of external company sustainability criteria, such as social, cultural, economic and ecological dimension, and also internal criteria such as using a sustainability plan. However, in this study certification obstacles have been found, for example certification costs. When developing the sustainability certification process a need is recognised for a decision support tool. Therefore a triangulation multi-criteria decision-making model is proposed consisting of six steps: 1. Problem formulation, 2. Computer criteria definition, 3. Definition of measures and rules, 4. Data collection and registering, 5. Total evaluation of the alternatives' results and 6. Final analysis and choice. When using the model there is a need for an integrated manual assessment by the evaluator and the computerbased expert system support. Therefore, triangulation of mainly qualitative research methods is used starting with qualitative interviews with an inductive approach by the evaluator, continuing with computer-based expert system analysis (the DEXi-system) with a logical interpretation approach and ending with the evaluator's deep interpretation of both manual and computer-based results.

BackgroundIn Sweden there is a debate how urban areas can be planned compared with the societal context in the future. An important starting point is that city destinations are very attractive for visitors (Maitland & Ritchie, 2009). In addition, in Stockholm there has been a discussion for several years how to cooperate and organise the whole region more efficiently concerning tourism and the tourism and travel industry. In a development project “Besökskraft” in Stockholm a new sort of destination organisation and governance is investigated on a regional level. It is led by “Region Stockholm” and its regional development office. A formal project organisation is developed using a steering committee, a project group, a main working group and several reference groups. The project is financed by EU and internally by the regional development office.

Research purposeThe research purpose is to investigate and analyse how institutional governance and Destination Management Organisations (DMO) can support the development of city visitor destinations based on reasons for visitors´ travel. The following six analysis themes are used: City and sub city areas, Governance principles, Destination development areas, Actor networks, Destination Management Organisation (DMO) and Positioning based on travel motivation.

Research methodThe first project phase of the development project “Besökskraft” is November 2022 – October 2023. This will be studied, but the plan is to follow the project for three more years. The chosen destination case is the Stockholm county region. As a “companion researcher” I am conducting a case study based on action research using a regional planning perspective. As sub methods interviews, workshops, observation, action studies, webpage investigations and destination report studies are being used. This paper can be considered as a progress report.

City and sub city areasIn Stockholm centre there are eight regional cities and in addition a large peri-urban area (Stockholm county council, 2018). This is a foundation for empowered communities and place prosperity, which is discussed in the long-term regional plan RUFS 2050. It i  important to find typical functions for these regional cities in order to use the strengths of the place. The functions is closely related to visitors’ travel motivations. This is discussed in the project during 2023. Furthermore, the responsible tourist behaviour will be considered, such as overtourism in cities.

Governance principlesOverall governance principles have been discussed in the development project. For example, Hall (2011) has identified four types of governance: Hierarchies, markets, networks and communities, and Cizel, Ajanovic and Cakar (2015) propose that stakeholders´ ideas related to destination governance in Antalya were extracted under three main themes: shared vision, goal congruence and interaction. Bellini & Pasquinelli (2017) propose that cities are developed with their suburbs by specific actor groups, such as the tourist and travel industry through innovation, entrepreneurship etc. However, the overall governance principles, will be developed in the second phase of the project in 2024.

Destination development areasAs a starting point the question “What to DO within the region of Stockholm county?” has been used in the development project. The idea has been to find possible working areas and later on to discuss the planned destination organization. Therefore, during the first destination workshop twelve important development areas were identified for the region. After an analysis by the project group three starting development areas have been chosen: competence, infrastructure and positioning. In the next phase about ten more development areas will be chosen. In order to find potential development areas benchmarking with other destination has been conducted. Besides the Smart City Concept could give new ideas in the development project in later phases. For example, Smart City Sweden (2022) proposed that with economic rethinking the areas: climate, energy & environmental, mobility, digitalisation, urban planning and social sustainability could be used.

Actor networksThe destination project uses the quadruple-helix method. The general principle is about collaboration between four actor groups: government, industry, research institutes and society. In Stockholm these destination actor groups are related to each other in a complex network. Andersson (2016) has developed an analysis model of the tourism department’s network, where the following six network content dimensions were found during the literature review: stakeholders, reciprocal relations, relation exchange, network driving forces, network management and purpose. One can also ask who has potential how to take the lead position and if there should be a top-down or bottom-up planning approach in the region. Wray (2015) support that the state should take a lead position in managing and coordinating destination stakeholder activities related to tourism product and experience development, destination marketing and management, and sustainable tourism planning. So far the regional office has taken the lead position, but all actors are aware of that only guidance can be used.

Destination Management Organisation (DMO)The destination and its network is complex and dynamic. Therefore, DMOs are an important organisational unit. The DMOs need to embrace and engage all bodies (public and private) who are concernd with actions that engage the industry to develop and to improve supply (Spyriadis, Fletcher & Fyall, 2013). There are different levels within the region’s destination structure. On the one hand there is a local destination organisation which has a physical representation task and it works with concrete business products. On the other hand, there is a regional destination organisation which has a digital representation task and it works with supporting activities for tourism. During the development project about 20 more formal DMOs have participated in focus group interviews. It is obvious that local DMOs is really working with local products and individual tourist. However, the biggest DMO owned by the municipality of Stockholm has already taken marketing and planning initiatives which often cover the whole Stockholm region. Therefore, it has to be a coordination of working areas for Visit Stockholm and a planned overall regional DMO.

Positioning based on travel motivationThe character of the destination will give some ideas about visitors’ travel motivation. In addition, these travel motivations have to be prerequisites for destination trademarks in relation to the destination image. Within the development project this development are visitors. Furthermore, some cities’ conditions are associated with both positive and negative image, but they have still a great potential (Andersson & Abbasian, 2018). Attractive image of city and regional centres with positioned city tourism products is a prerequisite for new destination structure and actors.

Tentative conclusionsThis is the first preliminary research report and the project will continue until at least December 2024. However, some tentative conclusions can be proposed. Within the actor groups in Stockholm there is a positive attitude to a new formal regional destination organisation, even though there are several questions about it: such as financing and the organisations’ objectives. Connected to the development project in Stockholm several governance principles will be discussed in later reports, such as the use of the quadruple principles in the destination network. Furthermore, the role of different DMOs will be discussed and their relations to the whole city and sub-cities. There is also a consensus on what development areas are important to start to work with in Stockholm, such as transportation. A model of different development areas, city area structure and related destination organisation questions will be developed.

ReferencesAndersson, G. (2016). An analysis model of tourism academic networks: a Swedish case study triangulated with an EU research project. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 16(3), 195-212.Andersson, G., & Abbasian, S. (2018). Analysis Dimensions of City Destination Character and Image Positioning. Almatourism-Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development, 9(17), 33-54.Cizel, B., Ajanovic, E., & Cakar, K. (2016). Prerequisites for effective and sustainable destination governance. Anatolia, 27(2), 155-166.Hall, M. (2011). A typology of governance and its implications for tourism policy analysis, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19:4-5, 437-457.Maitland, R., & Ritchie, B. (Eds.). (2009). City tourism: National capital perspectives. Cabi.Mehraliyev, F., Cheng Chu Chan, I., Choi, Y., Ali Koseoglu, M., & Law, R. (2020). A stateof-the-art review of smart tourism research, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 37:1, 78- 91.Rivera, J. P. R., Gutierrez, E. L. M., & Roxas, F. M. Y. (2022). Re-thinking governance in tourism: Harnessing tourism’s post-COVID-19 economic potential. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 1-27.Stockholm county council. (2018). Regional Development Plan for Stockholm – RUFS 2050.Wray, M. (2015). Drivers of change in regional tourism governance: a case analysis of the influence of the New South Wales Government, Australia, 2007–2013, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(7), 990- 1010.

Destinations and their visitors are crucial to study in city tourism. Identifying destination characteristics related to visitor segments can help to facilitate city strategic planning in order to boost competitiveness (Valls et al., 2013). A discussion how to organise tourism has been conducted for several years in Stockholm. My reserach purpose is to develop a new type of destination governance based on important development areas, using both a human and technology perspective.The destination development project “Besökskraft” is led by Region Stockholm and its first project phase ended in 2023. I am a follow-up researcher using a case study method with a regional perspective. The plan for me is to follow “Besökskraft” until 2027.In the second project phase several development areas have been chosen to study. One area is to study future events and meetings. In addition, there is a discussion in the events and meetings industry after the Corona pandemic if the meetings should be based on digital, human or hybrid product solutions. Companies in the meetings industry seem to choose a main survival strategy.20In Stockholm centre there are eight regional cities. This is a foundation for empowered communities which is discussed in the long-term regional plan RUFS 2050. It is important to find typical functions for these regional cities and how to use digital marketing in some situations.Overall governance principles have been analysed in this development project.. Bellini & Pasquinelli (2017) propose that cities are developed by specific actor groups.. The destination project uses the quadruple-helix method with collaboration between four actor groups. The destination and its network is complex. Therefore, DMOs are an important organisational unit (Spyriadis, Fletcher & Fyall, 2013). Besides the Smart City Concept could give new ideas in the development project in later phases, such as mobility (Smart City Sweden, 2022).

Destinations and their visitors are crucial to study in city tourism. Valls et al. (2013) proposed that identifying destination characteristics related to visitor segments and their holiday can help in the interpretation of contemporary urban tourism flows in Europe, facilitating city strategic planning in order to boost competitiveness. It is a challenge to identify the destination attributes and their benefits that the individual market segments value the most (Reisinger, Mavondo, & Crotts, 2009).

Within destinations in Sweden there is a lack of knowledge about visitor streams. For example, there are no available official statistics for detailed tourism streams in Stockholm (The statistical analyst at Swedish Agency for Eco­nomic and Regional Growth, 2018). The problem, though, is how qualitative information and statistics can be collected and analysed with the limited resources available. In addition, the statistics are too static, because they are not connected to a tourist’s whole trip. New approaches will be demanded for tourism statistics and study techniques. Exploring tourist spatial behaviour based on social media big data is a new research field (Tang & Li, 2015).

There is a discussion how to use mobile data points in Sweden in order to understand pattern of travel to destinations and concentration of people at a destination during a specific time. In addition, there are difficulties such as the lack of knowledge of a person's background. However, the use of mobile data and other Internet sources is rapidly developing.

The purpose of this study is how visitor streams can based on the destination characteristics and visitor segments be analysed and discussed in order to improve the destination by destination organisations? This is an ongoing research project about visitor streams.

This research included analysis of about 100 destination plans, a pilot study of statistics and qualitative destination information about Stockholm, tourist segments studies, in-depth interviews and a literature review. Statistical data and qualitative information in this research are used as “knowledge indicators” rather than as “unambiguous facts”.

The case study of the visitor segment “cruise passengers” to Stockholm has been chosen as an empirical example. During the high season, there could be between 2,000 and 16,000 cruise passengers in the centre of Stockholm on any given day. These sightseeing tours mostly use just three or five activity points, which are based on visitor attractions, restaurants, shopping, guided tours, outlooks and exploring independently. This means that a very small city area is used by cruise passengers.

 In order to develop the tourist products and marketing there is a need for the destination organisations to understand the most important tourist segments and their segment streams within the regional and local destinations, using statistics and qualitative indicators. For example, the DMOs and local incoming companies need to coordinate the marketing, attraction development and logistics regarding their cruise products in the central of Stockholm. The stream content could be: defined visitor segment, visitor data, spatial destination data such as points and routes, time information and tourism product. However, there is also a need for understanding overall city people streams in order to plan the city's infrastructure, where big data could be used. As a result this will hopefully improve the destination logistics and reduce overcrowding.

The streams can be of different types, which demand different investigation and presentation techniques. The cruise passenger’s visitor stream routes are of regular character. But the segment “private car travellers” are of irregular character, where the tourists can be analysed in visitor sectors connected to an investigation technique, when moving around individually.

Finally, this research propose the visitor stream concept and future research of various visitor segment streams and the city's people movement pattern. A basic method for analysing visitor streams is suggested: defining “regional and local destination” and its characteristics, investigating quantitative and qualitative destination information, identifying important visitor segments, analysing segment streams and overall movement patterns of people with new destination tools.

I denna rapport slutredovisas uppdraget ”Kundundersökning av hundsporten i Stockholm”. Undersökningen är utförd på uppdrag av Huddinge kommun. En sammanfattande slutsats för denna studie är att ett stort intresse finns för hundägande och hundsport idag. I Stockholms län finns 80 tusen hundägare och 102 tusen hundar. I Huddinge kommun finns fyra tusen hundägare och 5 tusen hundar1. Utifrån rapportens resultatredovisning per frågeområde kan både idéer och konkreta förslag utläsas om hur hundsporten kan utvecklas både i Stockholms län och i Huddinge kommun. En generell slutsats är att det finns en en stark efterfrågan på professionella hundanläggningar (hundcenter), egna familjens hundaktiviteter på allmänna platser, lokala hunddagis, kurser, hundomvårdnadsprodukter, mat- och hundutrustningsprodukter och hundägararnas egna trivselprodukter.

Most tourists to Sweden come to urban areas, but a dilemma is that there is a lack of visitor attractions to offer experiences in the cities. Therefore, the shift from heritage being only preserved to also being experienced by different tourist segments is welcome.

Different tourist segments have their own unique heritage experiences. The “classical” experience aspects proposed by Pine & Gilmore (1999) can be used to explain the experience. However, special aspects of experience at heritage sites have been pointed out, such as Must See, Must Learn, Must feel and Must evolve (Poria, 2012).

Visit Sweden (2018) focuses on three tourist segments, such as Active family. Our empirical studies show that the experience-related motives of visit are somewhat different for these three segments. The study also shows that human senses are strongly connected to the experience, but the importance of the senses differ. Another empirical implication is that smart cities give prerequisites for what Mossberg (2007) call experiencescape.

The purpose of the present study is to clarify how tourists' experiences of heritage attraction can be analysed into aspects of experience for different segments of tourists, and how this may be further applied in the market segmentation. An overall case study method will be used to study three maritime tourist attractions.

The research contribution is to show how meaningful aspects of experience can represent the experience of heritage attractions for different target groups. This is based on that aspects of tourist experience can emerge from the sensory impressions (Agapito et. al, 2014). Ano­ther contribution is how these aspects of experience can be used in marketing segmen­tation using the smart city tourism concept. Finally, this research will hopefully give attraction developers new tools to market well-attended and efficiently marketed heritage attractions.

In society today there is a heated debate about sustainable development. It is argued that event organisations must take responsibility for sustainability, although they may lack appropriate development tools. The purpose of this article is to study how event companies and organisations can develop a sustainability process in a societal system context and the need for certification in their events. The analysis was based on the study of relevant literature, an investigation in Sweden and a systems analysis. A triangulation technique was used to combine the different methods. It is argued that there is a sustainability event system in a societal context, within which event organisations have a central role. A model of sustainability and certification process for an event organisation and its events is developed, which consists of criteria, activities, certification, effects and obstacles. This recognised certificate could be a motivator and guideline for sustainable event development. The certification's focus has to be on the event organiser's management. However, event organisers need to certify their own organisations, either including all future events or only some specific events. This would give the organisations and the event industry a positive image and recognised role in a sustainable world.

The Professional Societal Academic Network (PSAN) of

Tourism Department Partners

– A Swedish Case Study Triangulated with the EU-Project TARSI

GÖRAN ANDERSSON

 (Södertörn University, Department of Tourism Studies, Stockholm, Sweden[1])

Universities are not isolated from society. Throughout the world and at the highest political level, there are pressures on the higher education sector to network with its surrounding society. This whole idea of networking is supported by the European Bologna process in connecting academia more closely with business and society and in new and innovative ways. Nevertheless, at universities there is a lack of knowledge on how to structure societal networks and a lack of experiences in network building. This causes problems with regard to effective co-operation between the university and its societal partners. The fact that universities are not isolated from society can also be recognised by the public debates on education, research and community engagement. Nevertheless, there are almost no research articles written about universities' societal networks.

       The purpose of this research is to investigate university networks critically and to develop an analysis model for strategic partner relations and the underlying network structure within a Tourism Department's network.

       A case study methodology has been used with the Tourism Department at the author's university being the object studied, in order to study the network building process since it was established in 1999. Experiences from the EU-project TARSI (Tailored Applied Research and Implementation) have been triangulated with the results from the case study.

       Furthermore, a literature review has been conducted in order to identify which stakeholders appear in the literature of higher education-society interrelations and to find underlying dimensions to the university network structure. The theoretical framework is based on network theories, where network strategy, network partners, relation purpose, networks' formality, individual and organisational networks, network principles and obstacles are important themes.   

       For the Tourism Department, the following strategic partner types with associated relation purposes have been identified: the academic staff, current students, alumni, the tourism industry, public tourist organisations, non-profit tourist organi­sa­tions, macro-environment partners and the higher education sector. Every main stakeholder group has been organised into partner groups at the Tourism Department. The benefit of this approach is that special university objectives can be reached more easily if the Tourism Department has known part­ners in formal sub-groups already in place. In every sub-group there are typically questions depending on the Department's relation purpose.

       A relation structure network model has been developed, where the dimensions of formal-informal and organisational-individual have been found relevant in order to structure the network. The model is based on the four main opportunity building principles of permanency, openness, motivation and trustfulness. However, there are also corresponding main obstacles of cost-benefit misunderstanding, relation burden, strategic unconformity and non-network opportunities.

       There is a challenge in increasing the community engagement activities when using more resources. However, the benefits for the university and the surrounding world will be positive in total. It is of great importance for European university academies to use network strategies in their overall planning in order to be a natural part of society, which is summarised as the Professional Societal Academic Network (PSAN). Finally, the interaction of universities with society is regarded as a never-ending journey in a global world.

KEYWORDS: Strategic network, Tourism Department, Community engagement, Network partners, Networks' formality, Individual-organisational stakeholders

[1] For correspondence: Södertörn University, Department of Tourism Studies, 141 89  HUDDINGE, Sweden; e-mail: goran.andersson@sh.se

There has been a paradigm shift from heritage being only preserved, to also being shown as a tourist attraction. One of two diverse approaches amongst scholars to define heritage tourism is to use a visitor-experience perspective (Apostolakis, 2003). Different segments of tourists have their own unique experiences of the heritage. Specific aspects can be used to explain the experience, such as the “classical” aspects by Pine & Gilmore (1999). In addition, in the last few years other experience aspects have been identified, such as kick, comfort, competence and contact (Kairos Future, 2011). The concept of “the experience room” (Mossberg, 2003) is used to present an experience context. The assumption of this study is that the experience landscape is made up of perceptive signals that cover the human senses. Although one can ask how this approach supports the development of attractions. Cognitive and affective experiences were discussed at conferences on memory tourism in Estonia 2013-14, used in the pilot study to this research. The purpose of the present study is to enhance the knowledge about how tourist's experiences of heritage attraction can be analysed into aspects of experience for different segments of tourists, and secondly, how the human senses influence the tourist's cognitive and affective experiences. An overall case study method will be used to study four maritime tourist attractions. The study consists of unstructured ethnographical interviews, experimental observation of tourists, and tourist's own evaluations during the experience. The research contribution is to shed light to how meaningful aspects of experience can represent the experience of heritage attractions for different target groups. This is based on an analysis on whether tourist experience aspects can emerge from the sensory impressions of tourists' experi­ences (Agapito et. al, 2014). Another contribution is to figure out how the sense perception can be connected to affective and cognitive aspects that result in a joint experience of an attraction. The pilot study showed that enhanced customer investigations of tourist's experiences are needed, which will be further more analysed. In the end this research will hopefully give attraction developers new tools to generate innovative and well-attended heritage attractions.

Today there is a discussion how urban areas can be developed in the future compared with the numberof residents, public sector and industry in Sweden.

The city regions are also very attractive for visitors(Maitland & Ritchie, 2009). However, will the Corona pandemic demand more local sustainable productswith reduced transports?In Stockholm destination there are eight regional city centres and also a large peri-urban area(Stockholm county council, 2018).

The tourism industry influence strongly on the development of cities with their suburbs throughinnovation, entrepreneurship etc. (Bellini & Pasquinelli, 2017). The companies have to consider todevelop new attractiveness concept which is even more important after the pandemic, such as newhybrid products and local product packages based on visitor streams.

The destination character is a base for the supply and its matching image. Some suburb environmentare associated with negative image, but still they have a great potential (Andersson & Abbasian, 2018).

The research purpose is to investigate the visitor attractive functional supply in a regional city and itsimage, and how it can be related to visitors experience demand.

The visit functional supply is investigated by in-depth interviews of tourist experts, and the visitorexperiences by semi-structured interviews and a quantitative investigation using the AnalyticalHierarchical Process.

Typical visit functional supply based on visitor streams in regional city centre, and typical experiencedemand for various visitor categories are identified and developed into a model of smart city centres. Inaddition, attractive image aspects of city and regional centres, and transformed city tourism productswith new destination actors.

Stockholm hosts nearly eleven million commercial guest nights annually, and is ranked as one of Europe’s top ten destinations.The county population is 2.1 million (Stockholm Visitors Board,

2014). In order to pursue economic, effective, and sustainable tourist destination development, it is important to understand its characteristics. In this study “city destinations” are focused on using sub-characteristics such as “visitor attraction clusters”. For understanding these characteristics, a clear definition of destination has to be used (Framke, 2002). The following components can be used to conduct an analysis of a destination: geographical place, visitor, image, complete tourist product, and interacting business and public sector (Andersson, 2013). Tourist destinations can be studied at the following different geographical place levels: the regional (e.g. the Stockholm region), the local (e.g. the old town) and the attraction-based destination point (e.g. Friends arena). The Stockholm Tourism Strategy 2020 project group has proposed a number of criteria that must be fulfilled before a destination can be considered mature. In order to gain an understanding of the demand (and revenue) side of destinations, unique criteria can be used for visitor segmentation in the city, such as visitor purpose. There are changing patterns of visitor streams in Stockholm, however, such as the dramatic increase in the number of cruise passengers (Stockholm harbour, 2015). Therefore the visitor stream planning has to be up-dated. By using criteria for visitor segmentation and characterization of the destination, economically strong and reachable visitor segments such as city-breakers can be identified. Visit Sweden has identified a number of segments, such as “double income no kids” (DINKs), that can serve as an overall category for citybreakers. Research purpose: To obtain deeper understanding of how regional, local, and point destinations can be developed using knowledge of the destination character and visitor streams within the destination. The theoretical framework is based on the concept of destination, the characteristics of city tourism, visitor segments, and streams. Methodology: As a starting point, approximately 150 destination plans have been written by my undergraduate students, and a pilot study and a literature review have been conducted. The next step will be a main case study on regional, local, and point destination levels in Stockholm and the associated visitor streams. The final step will be to draw conclusions about the model of visitor streams in city destinations.

City destinations are central in the study of tourism. But how can visitor streams related to the destination characteristics and visitor segments be analysed and discussed as a basis for improvement of the destination? This research used statistical data and qualitative information as “knowledge indicators” rather than as “unambiguous facts”. The research included analysis of about 100 destination plans, a pilot study of statistics and qualitative destination information about Stockholm, and a literature review. It resulted in the development of the visitor stream concept, which can be used in future research on the integration of various visitor segment streams. A method for analysing visitor streams is suggested: (1) defining “focused destination” and its characteristics, (2) investigating quantitative and qualitative destination information, (3) identifying visitor segments, and (4) analysing streams with new destination tools. The knowledge gained will introduce and address new issues concerning statistics for measuring, monitoring and assessing the actual value of tourism, particularly urban tourism.

City tourism, with its unique character and image, has increased considerably over the last decades. At the same time, the complexity of destination development and image marketing has increased, and there is a lack of analysis tools for image positioning. The purpose is to investigate city destination image and character as prerequisites for destination mar­keting and development and how the image and character position can be analysed. City destination character, visitor destination image and visitor segments are used as the main theoretical framework.  An exploratory qualitative study approach has been chosen with an image case study of destination Stockholm. Qualitative interviews were conducted with the visitor segment international students and destination specialists. The study shows that desti­nation specialists have assessed a combination of city destination characteristic areas, which can be developed. Furthermore, visitors have a mind­set of several image aspects and holistic expressions for city destinations that can be used in destination marketing to change the current image position into the desired one. In order to determine a desired position, six analysis dimensions have been found useful: Desired positioning, Demand and supply, Visitor segmentation, Destination generalisation, Visit process and Expression type. The analysis dimensions are based on relevant dichotomous aspects. The effects of the used dimensions are called “positioning leverage effects”, and their main aim is to obtain a competitive advantage and to differentiate to other destinations.

Abstract from the presentation of:

City destination image

- How destination characteristics can be interconnected with visitors' destination image

Göran Andersson & Saeid Abbasian

Tourism Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden

Email: goran.andersson@sh.se

Destination Management Organisations (DMO) package the city image into a clear brand in order to attract foreign visitors (Eringa & Zhou, 2015). Still it is a complex task to analyse visitor segments' image experiences (Stepchenkova & Mills, 2010). Unique characteristics of tourism destinations are exploited by DMO:s and tourism companies, such as their identity (Valls et al., 2012), in planning and marketing products for different visitor segments. Besides, big cities are typically more well-known and organised destinations which opens for new forms of image marketing (Lucarelli & Berg, 2011).

The purpose of the research project is to investigate the characteristics and interconnected images of a city destinations; and visitor segments' experiences of city images based on image attributes. A multidisciplinary approach with an explorative purpose is used. The theoretical framework consists of city destination characteristics and images, image experiences, and visit motivators.

Typical characteristics and visitor segments were identified in the case of destination Stockholm in our pilot study. The results have been used in a qualitative investigation about the city image and its attributes, and also visitor's image expectations and experiences. Furthermore, an overall case study of Stockholm city will be conducted.

The knowledge contribution relates to new city destination characteristics connectivity to images. Furthermore, the image impact on visitor travel motivators before and after visiting the destination. A model will be developed about “visitors' image positions”, based on the visitors' assessment of destination image attributes. This knowledge will support tourism companies and DMO:s to develop image marketing tools.

All tourism destinations have unique characteristics that constitute their identity (Valls et al., 2012). Tourism companies, in turn, exploit these when planning and marketing product concepts for different market segments. In recent decades, the cities in the Baltic Sea region (BSR) have undergone a change considering their profiles as more well-known tourism destinations. Meanwhile, even the degree of professionalism in the tourism industry has increased. This opens opportunities for new forms of image marketing (Lucarelli & Berg, 2011). In order to understand city tourism better a comparison between urban and rural tourism will be made. Each destination and the associated companies have to develop their products and marketing campaigns in order to effectively promote themselves to various tourist segments. The purpose of this research project is to investigate the characteristics of city destinations, and how tourist segments translate them into destination images, and further how the image influences motivations for travel choice. Our theoretical framework consists of city destination concepts, destination characteristics and images, tourist segments' motivations and destination branding. In our pilot study, typical characteristics and tourist segments were found in the case of destination Stockholm. This result will be used when investigating how different tourist segments translate characteristics to an image perception. The planned research will take a multidisciplinary approach with an explorative purpose. A case study of two typical BSR-cities will be conducted, using interviews, statistical data, web site analysis and destination document studies. The knowledge contribution relates primarily to new forms of city destination characteristics and their impact on visitor travel motivators. Furthermore, a model for investigating segments' “image positions” will be developed based on a new kind of demand of city tourism and a more professional tourism industry, even though it is a complex task to determine image positions (Stepchenkova & Mills, 2010). Our hypothesis is that tourist segments are more interested in what city destination can offer today, but the supply side needs more knowledge how to influence the segments' travel motivators. We hope that the acquired knowledge will support destination organisations (DMO) and tourism companies to develop their tools for image marketing.