Sociocultural impacts of tourism in Scandinavia

Abstract

In one of the first comparative studies of its kind into the socioeconomic impacts of tourism in Scandinavia, three host communities, Hemsedal in Norway, Sälen in Sweden and Blokhus in Denmark, were studied. All the communities, once dominated by farming and small scale industry and now the recipients of mass tourism on varying scales, were questioned on the economic, social and cultural impacts of tourism. Negative attitudes towards tourism were found to be strongest from those engaged in more traditional occupations and to be directly related to the level of tourism development.