This week, the Arctic Congress kicked off in Bodø, Northern Norway.
At two sessions targeting Arctic tourism, several researchers discussed how social media shapes tourists’ expectations of Arctic destinations.
Researcher Ria-Maria Adams presented her research on Finnish Lapland and Rovaniemi, in particular. She argued that some Arctic tourism destinations develop to match the imagined idea of their visitors and that this can lead to a ‘Disneyfication’ of Arctic destinations, often at the cost of local people and places’ needs.
Home of Santa Claus
Adams uses Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland as an example of such development:
“Finnish Lapland has been featured as an exotic and mystical fantasy land.”
“It has transformed in the past 40 years to match the imaginary of the Christmas destination.”
Rovaniemi has emerged as Santa’s homeland after a photo from 1984, showing the first Concorde flight landing in Rovaniemi on December 25th.
“The Finnish tourism Board…
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