Abstract Tourism has developed into an important field of economy in the northern sparsely populated areas of Finland. State bodies of different spatial scales continuously put efforts to foster tourism growth and tourism is viewed as a prosperous economic path for the future. The prevailing tourism development is resort-oriented, which has transformed rural geographies in the North. Critical tourism geography research highlights that such market-driven tourism development has negative social and environmental consequences. Thus, tourism change needs to be examined from a broader perspective than economic benefits alone. It is required that tourism economy serves people and not vice versa. To increase sustainability in destination localities, collective economic agency in destinations is encouraged in tourism research and development. To date, tourism research has tended to draw on multiple, often contradicting, theoretical perspectives in an attempt to clarify how collective agency in tourism destinations should be best organized in order to foster social justice and ecological sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to understand how sustainability can be facilitated through local economic relations in resort-oriented destination development contexts. Sustainability discussions in tourism research are advanced by drawing on economic geography and its critical takes. The thesis consists of three studies that each examine sustainability in tourism destinations from a different viewpoint. The thesis first examines how (un)sustainability currently manifests in local economic relations and then discusses what changes are required to move towards more sustainable tourism futures. Ethnographically oriented case studies and a contemporary variant of the grounded theory method enables approaching tourism economies from the perspective of everyday tourism realities. The empirical part of the research is conducted in the Ruka and Ylläs destinations in the Finnish North. Insights were gathered by semi-structured in-depth interviews with local tourism actors in 2012 and 2015. The study introduces a poststructural political economy approach to sustainability transformations in tourism destinations. The less growth-focused economic thinking that exists in destinations is brought to light. Tourism actors’ motives and aims can differ drastically from the rationales of growth-focused tourism destination development that dominate in networked tourism governance. Many of the tourism actors desire conservation of natural and cultural environment in destinations. This creates conflict between the coexisting tourism paths. In the thesis, it is argued that economic difference in tourism should not be conceptualized merely as a source of diversification of tourism supply and thus as beneficial for destination growth; it should be recognized as political agency in tourism economy. Tourism networking is already now often value-driven, and this needs to be encouraged. That is, transformative agency for tourism change can be gained and new tourism paths created also through incremental changes ‘from below’, not only via policy actions. To contribute to the critical (economic) geography research on social and economic change, this thesis highlights that it is central to understand not only what new economic futures look like but also how to work towards them in everyday politics. Although the alternative and critical voices are valuable as they accurately state a socially just view of how things ought to be, these voices may not be the best way to bring about a change. This is because power hierarchies are not easily recognized in everyday tourism work. Each actor interprets the social from their subjective point of view. Even actors with the most power can have personal experiences of powerlessness. Thus, to foster change, it is necessary to facilitate the transformation of the existing conflictual inter-group relations. Dialogical everyday politics could work as a means to foster understanding of different groups’ tourism realities and their mutual influence. Conflict could be regarded not solely as an innate feature of capitalist economic relations but also as moments where mutual understanding can be facilitated. This is a way to establish local economic relations that enable community building. Destination sustainability touches not only firm-level practices but the mode of economic organization in tourism destinations. The thesis highlights that to advance social justice and environmental sustainability in destinations, destination development and planning should account for the possibility for a less growth-focused destination development path. As alternative tourism paths do not, as a rule, depend on new, large-scale tourism construction, they would likewise not foster growth in international tourist numbers and air travel. This unconventional view on economic path creation is to be encouraged as it is better in line with climate change mitigation needs and critical sustainability theorizing. / Original papers The original publications are not included in the electronic version of the dissertation. Kulusjärvi, O. (2016). Resort-oriented tourism development and local tourism networks – a case study from Northern Finland. Fennia 194: 1, 3–17. https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/41450 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019103136035 Kulusjärvi, O. (2017). Sustainable Destination Development in Northern Peripheries: A Focus on Alternative Tourism Paths. Journal of Rural and Community Development 12:2/3, 41–58. https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/1466 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2018051524148 Kulusjärvi, O. (accepted). Towards just production of tourism space via dialogical everyday politics in destination communities. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.

Thesis (MA (Geography and Environmental Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Tourism routes or networks have been identified as a tool for local economic development and could also contribute towards social development of communities, and conservation of the natural environment. In order to determine whether the development of routes have the desired effects on the economy, society and the environment, a set of sustainability indicators (SIs) needs to be developed to measure the possible effects. The aim of this study is to identify appropriate SIs that could be applied to tourism route development in Africa; to identify a suitable method of identifying route-specific indicators; and to test the suitability of these indicators in two case studies, namely the Caprivi Wetlands Paradise route and the Barotse Trails Route. The study area comprises part of the proposed Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area and includes the south-western part of Zambia and the Caprivi region in north-eastern Namibia. The objectives of the study are to determine the elements of a sustainable tourism route from existing literature; to identify a framework for selecting both generic and route-specific SIs; to select appropriate indicators for tourism route development in the African context; and to do a baseline assessment for the two case study routes to determine the suitability of the selected methods and indicators. Data were collected by making use of structured interviews and focus groups. Collected data on individual businesses are combined and presented collectively for each route by making use of sustainability assessment maps (SAMs). In addition, a method of identifying route-specific indicators was selected which makes use of the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework previously used for identifying environmental indicators. The results of the study show that the identified indicators provide a means of determining overall sustainability of routes or networks based on the principle of the triple bottom line. SAMs are a good way of presenting data to stakeholders in a simplified way. The results also indicate that the PSR framework can be adequately adapted to identify indicators in conjunction with communities in a participative manner. Recommendations are made for improving the overall sustainability of routes or networks and for increasing their network functionality. Recommendations include the possibility of investigating the use of geographic information systems in mapping SIs. KEYWORDS: Sustainability indicators; tourism routes; monitoring; pressure-state-response; sustainability assessment maps; tourism networks; route development.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur företag inom besöksnäringen i Stockholms skärgård samarbetar och om samarbete kan leda till längre säsonger. Samt huruvida de statligt finansierade utvecklingsprojekten i skärgården bidragit till längre säsonger enligt de undersökta företagen. Metod: I denna studie har en kvalitativ metod i form av semi-strukturerade intervjuer används för insamling av empiri. Sex företag på två skärgårdsöar har intervjuats och används som empiriskt huvudmaterial men även en intervju som gjorts med Värmdö kommun har fått ligga till grund för en del av det empiriska materialet. Slutsatser: Det har under studien framkommit att samarbete mellan lokala aktörer är en viktig del i utvecklingen av destinationen. Samarbetet är inte bara en del i utvecklingen utan kan också vara en hjälp till att förlänga säsongerna. Utvecklingsprojekten har enligt företagarna som intervjuats ej gynnat dem. Det framgår att företagarna anser att det är de själva som måste jobba hårt om de ska se någon förändring. / Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies in the tourism industry in the Stockholm archipelago cooperate and whether cooperation can lead to longer seasons. As well as if the state-funded development projects in the archipelago have contributed to longer seasons according to the investigated companies. Methodology: In this study, a qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews has been used for the gathering of empirical data. Six companies on two archipelago islands have been interviewed and used as main empirical material, but an interview with Värmdö municipality has also formed the basis for some of the empirical material. Conclusions: During this study, it has been found that cooperation between local actors is an important part of the development of the destination. Not only is the cooperation a part of the destination development, it can also help extend the season. According to the interviewees, the development projects have not benefited them. It is apparent that the entrepreneurs believe that they themselves that must work hard for any change to happen.