Tourism Employment in Nordic Countries Trends, Practices, and Opportunities

Viewed through a politico-economic lens, Nordic countries share what is often referred to as the ‘Nordic model’, characterised by a comprehensive welfare state; higher spending on childcare; more equitable income distribution; and lifelong-learning policies. This edited collection considers these contexts to explore the complex nature of tourism employment, thereby providing insights into the dynamic nature, characteristics, and meaning of work in tourism. Contributors combine explorations of the impact of policy on tourism employment with a more traditional human resources management approach focusing on employment issues from an organizational perspective, such as job satisfaction, training, and retention. The text points to opportunities as well as challenges relating to issues such as the notion of ‘decent work’, the role and contribution of migrant workers, and more broadly, the varying policy objectives embedded within the Nordic welfare model. Offering a detailed, multi-faceted analysis of tourism employment, this book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners interested in tourism employment in the region.

Linda Lundmark, Department of Geography, Umeå University, Sweden

O. Cenk Demiroglu, Department of Geography, Umeå University, Sweden

Corresponding author details (address including email):

Cenk Demiroglu, Department of Geography, Umeå University, Sweden, 901 87

cenk.demiroglu@umu.se

? Empirical paper

? Case study

During the last two decades of the past century, the Swedish mountain range has been a central area to the issue of rural decline with ageing and decreasing populations and reduced number of jobs in the primary and the public sectors. Concurrently, however, tourism has become an essential sector for the region through its soft, post-productivist, yet labour-intensive, character that needs and attracts especially the younger populations. Evidence for these findings were made available by Lundmark (2005), when she analysed the whole region using longitudinal and georeferenced micro data on labour force variables. In this study, follow-up analyses are intended by mapping the inter- and intra-regional and sectoral mobility of labour force along the same area throughout the 21st century and compare the results in terms of tourism’s overall, yet regionally uneven and uncertain, significance to employment. Further attention is given to how positive welfare state benefits and high employment rates are related, based on the evidence that any job is attractive to the individuals, regardless of the wage levels, as overall employment will yield tax revenues that will be earmarked as non-wage benefits to the labour market in a typical Nordic welfare state (Kolm & Tonin, 2015). Moreover, case-specific state-of-the art research is further integrated into the design of the study in order to include certain significant groups such as the migrants (Hedlund et al., 2017; Eimermann & Karlsson, 2018) and the indigenous peoples (Leu, 2018) as well as the professional backgrounds of those employed by the tourism sector (Åberg & Müller, 2018) and any direct contribution of the labour force to the eventual population size (Lundmark, 2006).

Keywords (3-6): Labour market, mountain tourism, welfare state, Sweden, Nordic Countries

A brief statement on how you see your study connected to Nordic countries – maximum 50 words:

The study reveals tourism labour market trends and matters specific to rural and peripheral areas of Sweden and attempts to demystify the relevant, up-to-date outcomes of the Nordic welfare state.

Dorothee Bohn, Master Degree Student, Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI), University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

Cecilia De Bernardi, Doctoral Candidate, Centre for Tourism and Leisure Research (CeTLeR), School of Technology and Business Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden

Corresponding author details (address including email):

Joulutontunpolku 9

96900 Rovaniemi/ Finland

dorothee.bohn@gmail.com

Cecilia De Bernardi

Dalarna University

791 88 Falun/ Sweden

cdb@du.se

?             Empirical paper

Abstract

Work is central in enabling functioning tourism systems. At present, one out of ten jobs worldwide, equalling the occupation of 292 million people, is linked to employment in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector (World Bank Group, 2017). The labour intensity of tourism is the dominating argument for national governments and transnational organisations, such as the UNWTO (2014), in promoting tourism development all over the globe. Employment is usually the most direct and most beneficial effect of expanding tourism industries for host populations when personnel is recruited from local job markets (Liu & Wall, 2005). Yet, tourism research has adopted predominantly micro level perspectives in the investigation of T&H work focused in themes such as employee behaviour and management while macro level examinations that uncover structural issues shaping tourism labour relations are fairly scarce (Baum et al., 2016). The chapter addresses this gap by exploring which kind of tourism workforces are sought after and produced in Nordic countries. Empirical materials for this qualitative and comparative discourse analysis consist of Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish national tourism strategies plus policy and planning documents.  Theorisations from labour studies, highlighting the socially constructed nature of workforce underpin the analysis. These research findings are then discussed in relation to the wider socio-cultural and economic contexts of Nordic welfare states. Such study is not only relevant in gaining insights into workforce issues which are largely underrepresented in tourism policy and sustainability debates (Baum, 2018), but also with respect to the growing tourism sector in many regions of the Nordic counties. Tourism development is often publicly supported, for instance through funding, the provision of education and various labour market policies. Therefore, it is vital to look at what kind of labour is generated, what kind of tourism workers are sought and how personnel are trained in individual countries because these issues hold important implications for the socio-economic structure of societies and communities.  Official tourism policy documents offer in this regard an expedient source of information of how sector specific workforces are reproduced, mobilized, motivated and utilized.

Keywords (3-6):

Tourism workforces, tourism policy, Nordic welfare state

A brief statement on how you see your study connected to Nordic countries – maximum 50 words:

We examine specifically Nordic tourism strategy and policy documents according to the kind of tourism workforces sought by public organizations. Such workforce issues are societally significant also with respect to conceptualizations of the Nordic welfare state.

Ellen Ahlness, University of Washington

Corresponding author details (address including email):

            1522 NE 175^th St, Unit 102
            Shoreline, WA 98155
            USA

            eahlness@uw.edu
            651.468.7807

X   Theoretical paper

Arctic explorers have traditionally viewed the North as unexplored frontier, minimizing the role of indigenous inhabitants. Today, despite exponential growth in Northern tourism, indigenous peoples are minimally and under-employed, continuing a troubling pattern of marginalization.

Three questions emerge from these marginalization trends: How has Nordic perceptions of the North affected indigenous employment within the tourism industry? What challenges do indigenous communities face because of these perceptions? Finally, how do communities address the legacy of social, political, and economical marginalization?

In response, I first address Nordic perceptions, d

Andreas Walmsley is Associate Professor  with the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University, UK. He is also Affiliate Researcher at the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre, where he helped establish and currently co-leads Tourism Workforce, a research group that focuses on tourism employment in Nordic countries.

Kajsa Åberg is a tourism strategist for the regional development organization in Vasterbotten County, northern Sweden. She has a background as tourism entrepreneur and human geographer with a doctoral thesis entailing studies on the tourism workforce in the Nordic context.

Petra Blinnikka is a senior lecturer in tourism and services management at JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland. She has worked within tourism development and education for 17 years. She is a founder and coordinator of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, ICRT, Finland.

Gunnar Thór Jóhannesson is Professor at the Department of Geography and Tourism, University of Iceland. He is a founding member of AIRTH – Alliance for Innovators and Researchers in Tourism and Hospitality and vice-lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern Tourism.