Papers by Susanna Heldt Cassel
In this study we analyse the importance of job opportunities within the tourism sector for the in... more In this study we analyse the importance of job opportunities within the tourism sector for the in-migration to two rural municipalities in the southern part of the Swedish mountains where two major tourism destinations are located, Malung-Sälen and Älvdalen. We use micro data from the database of BeDa (Bergslagsdata) which is an extract from data on individuals in Sweden by Statistics Sweden (SCB). This database includes, among many other variables, information about residence and employment as well as individual characteristics for all the citizens and the employed people of the studied region. We find that a large share of the in-migrants is employed within tourism industry. In this sense, the tourism industry appears to be a pull factor for in-migration not least in terms of employment opportunities. In this study we also analyse the significance of the creative class among in-migrants and tourism workers.. In-migration is very important for the development of rural municipalities in Sweden and if the in-migrants are also well educated and creative they are an asset for the local communities and the regional development. In this study we show that quite a large share of the in-migrants moving to the municipalities of Sälen and Älvdalen can be classified as being part of a creative class and that there is a connection between in-migration of skilled people and jobs within the tourism industry. This is especially evident in Malung/Sälen, where an expanding tourism industry has brought about changes in the local economy and further increased possibilities for leisure activities and services in the area. In absolute numbers a large share of the tourism labour force (as well as the total LLM) is however non-creative and low skilled. This is explained by the structure of the tourism labour market with a large share of low paid service jobs
Current Issues in Tourism, 2019
In literature on tourism in northern or 'Arctic' areas and on regions and places in northern area... more In literature on tourism in northern or 'Arctic' areas and on regions and places in northern areas, terms such as 'indigenous' and 'nonindigenous' are often used to distinguish people and places from each other. The aim of this paper is to deconstruct the 'indigenous'/'nonindigenous' categories as well as the geographical categories to which they are linked, using examples from tourism in northern Fennoscandia and northwest Russia, selected as areas with circumstances that vary greatly both locally and regionally. Specific focus is on the construction of labels and restrictions of use, particularly regarding handicrafts/ souvenirs as a specific object of indigeneity to separate it from other objects. The study reviews the processes in tourism for constructing, labelling, and valuingand thereby also exerting power uponspecific conceptions, and thereby also on the contesting of such processes amongst broader, but often unacknowledged, local groups.
Tourism Culture & Communication, 2018
The image of the Arctic can be understood as a part of a larger discourse of the north as an unci... more The image of the Arctic can be understood as a part of a larger discourse of the north as an uncivilized, untamed frontier, not suitable or accessible for modern, urban people, but a place for strong adventurers, hunters, and explorers. In this study, we seek to understand how hegemonic masculinities of the north both inform and are challenged by tourism and its representations and practices in the Russian Arctic, in particular the Nenets Autonomous District (NAD). The study is based on the analysis of data collected during several field trips to the region during the period of 2012–2013 and 2014, including semistructured interviews with key stakeholders and observations of tourism practices, as well as content analysis of promotional images of selected tourism companies. Tourism in the NAD is typically adventure based: snowmobile safaris, fishing, hunting, and white-water rafting. There are also different types of indigenous tourism, such as living with reindeer herders for a perio...
In this study we analyse the importance of job opportunities within the tourism sector for the in... more In this study we analyse the importance of job opportunities within the tourism sector for the in-migration to two rural municipalities in the southern part of the Swedish mountains where two major tourism destinations are located, Malung-Sälen and Älvdalen. We use micro data from the database of BeDa (Bergslagsdata) which is an extract from data on individuals in Sweden by Statistics Sweden (SCB). This database includes, among many other variables, information about residence and employment as well as individual characteristics for all the citizens and the employed people of the studied region. We find that a large share of the in-migrants is employed within tourism industry. In this sense, the tourism industry appears to be a pull factor for in-migration not least in terms of employment opportunities. In this study we also analyse the significance of the creative class among in-migrants and tourism workers.. In-migration is very important for the development of rural municipalities in Sweden and if the in-migrants are also well educated and creative they are an asset for the local communities and the regional development. In this study we show that quite a large share of the in-migrants moving to the municipalities of Sälen and Älvdalen can be classified as being part of a creative class and that there is a connection between in-migration of skilled people and jobs within the tourism industry. This is especially evident in Malung/Sälen, where an expanding tourism industry has brought about changes in the local economy and further increased possibilities for leisure activities and services in the area. In absolute numbers a large share of the tourism labour force (as well as the total LLM) is however non-creative and low skilled. This is explained by the structure of the tourism labour market with a large share of low paid service jobs
Remote territories of the Russian Arctic have historically been subject to conquest and explorati... more Remote territories of the Russian Arctic have historically been subject to conquest and exploration and depicted as a periphery for resource extraction and male adventures. Tourism has recently bee ...
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2011
This study focuses on the local resource that a mine represents and analyses the role of stakehol... more This study focuses on the local resource that a mine represents and analyses the role of stakeholders and institutions during the development of heritage tourism. The paper aims to examine the role of stakeholders and their interpretation of heritage in the management process in the ...
European Planning Studies, 2013
ABSTRACT The interest in heritage as a tool for destination development has recently been substan... more ABSTRACT The interest in heritage as a tool for destination development has recently been substantial in Sweden, especially when it comes to receiving World Heritage (WH) status. The possibility of using the WH brand in developing tourism products and marketing destinations has great potential for many heritage destinations. The aim of this paper is to discuss innovation processes within heritage tourism. The focus is on the role of WH status as a factor influencing innovative practices at different Swedish WH sites. This study uses qualitative methods, such as interviews and analysis of written material from five selected Swedish WH sites, with in-depth analysis of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun. To what extent does WH status change the preconditions for tourism development at WH destinations? What is the role of institutional frameworks in this process? This paper will show how WH may facilitate tourism innovation mainly through developing new products and marketing strategies, but also by institutional innovations concerning new forms of collaboration and networks.
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2015
Gender in Management: An International Journal, 2014
Purpose – This paper aims to explore how gender is “done” on farms in Sweden in the context of in... more Purpose – This paper aims to explore how gender is “done” on farms in Sweden in the context of increased tourism and hospitality activities. The authors seek to investigate how gender is done vis-à-vis women’s farm tourism entrepreneurship. They seek to answer the questions: What has motivated the farm women to become tourism entrepreneurs? How are the gendered divisions of labor changed through women starting businesses? How does the gendered associated symbolism, as well as the identities, change? Design/methodology/approach – Research has indicated that introducing tourism entrepreneurship at farms may challenge established gender relations, as many of these entrepreneurs are women. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 15 women farm tourism entrepreneurs in central Sweden. Findings – The analysis suggests that the gendered divisions of labor are not changed through the interviewed women starting tourism businesses. The authors conclude that the women build ...
30 Marknadsföringen av platser och regioner är en allt mer vanligt förekommande verksamhet idag. ... more 30 Marknadsföringen av platser och regioner är en allt mer vanligt förekommande verksamhet idag. Konkurrensen mellan regioner som vill profilera sig som turistområden hårdnar och allt mer kraft läggs ned på att skapa attrak-tiva varumärken. I stort sett varje kommun arbetar ...
Efforts of creating and communicating positive images constitute a considerable part of contempor... more Efforts of creating and communicating positive images constitute a considerable part of contemporary regional development strategies. The use of place marketing has become a popular way to promote attractiveness for tourists, business and in-migrants in growth regions as well as in ...
European Planning Studies, 2019
The aim of this paper is to offer an empirically grounded conceptualization of the dialogical rel... more The aim of this paper is to offer an empirically grounded conceptualization of the dialogical relationship between spatial planning and place branding in the context of regionalization. The analysis displays the discursive nature of such relationship by highlighting the intertwining of spatial planning with place branding as strategic actions devoted to, and included in, regional development processes. The analysis is based on two cases in Sweden. The first is linked to the emergence of the brand ‘Stockholm, the Capital of Scandinavia’, and the other is linked to the emergence of the brand ‘Swedish Lapland’. By combining data collected longitudinally, these cases represent two contrasting examples of dialogical relationships that materialize through two distinct yet somehow similar strategic processes of regionalization. Based on the two cases, the paper presents and discusses an empirically driven, albeit conceptual, model that highlights the dialogical relationship of regionalization as regional strategic policy and points out its spatial and political evolutionary features.
Current Issues in Tourism, 2019
In literature on tourism in northern or 'Arctic' areas and on regions and places in northern area... more In literature on tourism in northern or 'Arctic' areas and on regions and places in northern areas, terms such as 'indigenous' and 'nonindigenous' are often used to distinguish people and places from each other. The aim of this paper is to deconstruct the 'indigenous'/'nonindigenous' categories as well as the geographical categories to which they are linked, using examples from tourism in northern Fennoscandia and northwest Russia, selected as areas with circumstances that vary greatly both locally and regionally. Specific focus is on the construction of labels and restrictions of use, particularly regarding handicrafts/ souvenirs as a specific object of indigeneity to separate it from other objects. The study reviews the processes in tourism for constructing, labelling, and valuing - and thereby also exerting power upon - specific conceptions, and thereby also on the contesting of such processes amongst broader, but often unacknowledged, local groups.
Tourism Planning and Development, 2019
This paper investigates the potential of immigrant tourism entrepreneurs to contribute to tourism... more This paper investigates the potential of immigrant tourism entrepreneurs to contribute to tourism development and to the goals of regional tourism policy through the creation of new paths of development. Based on qualitative interviews in the county of Gavleborg in Sweden, the paper contributes to understanding the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in the context of public tourism development efforts in a rural region characterized by primary resource based and manufacturing industries. The findings suggest that the strategies and agencies of several immigrant entrepreneurs are in line with the public regional development efforts to achieve new touristic products, growth of foreign visitor numbers and increased co-operation among tourism stakeholders. The paper also highlights the barriers faced by the immigrant entrepreneurs and regional tourism development actors in their efforts to increase professionalization and co-operation among local stakeholders. Finally, we argue that if the potential for immigrant tourism entrepreneurs to contribute with external networks and new knowledge for tourism development should be realised, public efforts to stimulate networking between tourism firms and with other business sectors need to be stable and long term.
Denna rapport behandlar förutsättningar för regionala utvecklingseffekter av en väginvestering. P... more Denna rapport behandlar förutsättningar för regionala utvecklingseffekter av en väginvestering. Projektet är en inledande studie kring effekterna av vägen mellan Falun och Borlänge som öppnades för trafik 2005. Projektet är finansierat av Vägverket. Projektet avser att besvara två huvudsakliga frågeställningar: Vilka samhälleliga effekter får en ny väg mellan två städer som ligger inom samma lokala arbetsmarknad? Kan betydelsen för en region av en väginvestering påverkas genom medvetet arbete från regionens aktörer för att utnyttja dess potential? I vår studie går vi bortom själva tidsvinsten och fördjupar oss i hur utbytet mellan de två kommunerna ser ut och förändras. Vi vill också komma åt orsakerna till dessa förändringar. Det är intressant för oss hur aktörernas perspektiv och förväntningar omvandlas till beslut kring resande, byggande, kollektivtrafiksatsningar osv. Betydelsen av den nya vägen avgörs till stor del av hur regionens aktörer ser på den och agerar för att ta vara på dess potential. Studien kan ses som en förstudie. Avsikten har varit att studera utbytet mellan orterna innan vägens färdigställande och att kartlägga synen på regionens potential, vägens betydelse hos företrädare för näringslivsorganisationer, större arbetsgivare, politiker, m fl. Frågorna måste besvaras genom flera olika delstudier med skilda perspektiv. Vi har arbetat med intervjuer med beslutsfattare i den berörda regionen, vi har studerat pendlingsrörelser, analyserat kollektivtrafikens utveckling och vi har försökt att sätta in vägen i ett regionalpolitiskt utvecklingsperspektiv. Fokus i studien ligger på institutionella förhållanden och begrepp och processer i regional utveckling.
How career paths are interpreted and conceptualised by hospitality workers and industry represent... more How career paths are interpreted and conceptualised by hospitality workers and industry representatives remains underexplored in current literature. In this paper, we highlight and discuss sectorspecific and contextual factors that influence the possibility of establishing a career within the Swedish hospitality sector. The paper uses interviews with hotel managers, who describe and discuss motivations and choices made throughout their own careers and interviews with young (former) seasonal hospitality workers who describe and reflect on their future plans and work-life experience. Additional data are derived through observations at national seminars and meetings for representatives from the Swedish tourism and hospitality industry, where issues of competence and careers were discussed. The findings indicate that the shaping of career paths within the hospitality sector is influenced by two normative and discursively produced 'truths' about career paths in the hospitality sector: the importance of internal knowledge transfer and the importance of high mobility. These narratives impose expectations on individuals to be mobile, to change jobs frequently and to work their way from the bottomup within the industry, and are based on a presumption of a diversified and dense local hospitality labour market. However, since the conditions are different due to contextual, geographical features of labour market size and structure, attractiveness of places, etc., these expectations are difficult to fulfil in places other than in larger urban areas. These normative assumptions of what a successful hospitality career is also have consequences for the development of the hospitality sector as external influences of competence from other sectors and higher education are not seen as valuable, which makes the sector self-contained and not open to external, potentially innovative knowledge. 摘要 酒店员工及业界代表如何解释与构思职业路径在现有文献中鲜有 讨论。我们从业界角度讨论了影响瑞典酒店业部门职业发展的背 景因素。本文通过访谈酒店管理人员描述并且讨论了贯穿其自身 职业发展中的就业动机及职业选择, 通过访谈年轻酒店业季节性 员工 (包括曾经做过酒店季节性员工的人员) 描述并反思了他们在 酒店业工作生活的经验以及未来的规划。另外, 通过参与观察瑞 典旅游酒店业业界会议及研讨会获得信息, 讨论了酒店业职业发 展与竞争的议题。结果表明, 酒店部门职业路径的形成受两个关 于酒店业职业路径的规范性与推导性"事实"的影响:内部知识转移
Tourism Geographies, 2019
The intersection between social media, liminality and naturebased
tourism experiences hasn’t been... more The intersection between social media, liminality and naturebased
tourism experiences hasn’t been the focus of previous tourism
research. Such intersection, on the other hand, is illustrative
of how social media relate to the constitution and performance
of tourism spatialities, tourist identities, storytelling and placemaking,
and can lead to relevant theoretical contributes. We aim
to investigate how liminality is expressed in relation to naturebased
experiences by tourists on social media, and what role
social media plays in mediating liminality during nature-based
tourism experiences. The analysis is based on a participatory netnography
of images and text posts, as well as online interviews
with users of the popular social media Instagram. Findings show
that the expression of tourism experiences in nature is closely
related to specific notions of liminal otherness as opposed to the
urban life and the everyday, where nature and wilderness are
expressed as related to the genuine, the authentic and a true
inner self. Creative combinations of pictures, captions and hashtags
make it easier for tourists to express the contrast between
the natural landscape and the everyday landscape once they
returned home. These combinations also relate closely to performances
of resistant and alternative selves and communities. At
the same time, such performances are mediated and contested
between freedom of self-expression, surveillance and social
norms, an aspect that makes their liminal nature ambiguous.
Power, construction and meaning in festivals, 2018
This chapter analyses the performances of nation, gender and rurality in the sporting and heritag... more This chapter analyses the performances of nation, gender and rurality in the sporting and heritage festival of Landsmót in Iceland. Events and festivals celebrating national identity or the uniqueness of the culture and traditions of a specific region of place may be interpreted as arenas where identities of both people and places are staged and performed. Sports and cultural events may enhance and play with identities, such as the co-construction of gender identities and national identities as part of the event itself. These co-constructions and expressions of identity discourses as part of events and festivals are not least reinforced with the impact of social media and the posting of images by many other actors than the organisers or managers of the event.
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Papers by Susanna Heldt Cassel
tourism experiences hasn’t been the focus of previous tourism
research. Such intersection, on the other hand, is illustrative
of how social media relate to the constitution and performance
of tourism spatialities, tourist identities, storytelling and placemaking,
and can lead to relevant theoretical contributes. We aim
to investigate how liminality is expressed in relation to naturebased
experiences by tourists on social media, and what role
social media plays in mediating liminality during nature-based
tourism experiences. The analysis is based on a participatory netnography
of images and text posts, as well as online interviews
with users of the popular social media Instagram. Findings show
that the expression of tourism experiences in nature is closely
related to specific notions of liminal otherness as opposed to the
urban life and the everyday, where nature and wilderness are
expressed as related to the genuine, the authentic and a true
inner self. Creative combinations of pictures, captions and hashtags
make it easier for tourists to express the contrast between
the natural landscape and the everyday landscape once they
returned home. These combinations also relate closely to performances
of resistant and alternative selves and communities. At
the same time, such performances are mediated and contested
between freedom of self-expression, surveillance and social
norms, an aspect that makes their liminal nature ambiguous.
tourism experiences hasn’t been the focus of previous tourism
research. Such intersection, on the other hand, is illustrative
of how social media relate to the constitution and performance
of tourism spatialities, tourist identities, storytelling and placemaking,
and can lead to relevant theoretical contributes. We aim
to investigate how liminality is expressed in relation to naturebased
experiences by tourists on social media, and what role
social media plays in mediating liminality during nature-based
tourism experiences. The analysis is based on a participatory netnography
of images and text posts, as well as online interviews
with users of the popular social media Instagram. Findings show
that the expression of tourism experiences in nature is closely
related to specific notions of liminal otherness as opposed to the
urban life and the everyday, where nature and wilderness are
expressed as related to the genuine, the authentic and a true
inner self. Creative combinations of pictures, captions and hashtags
make it easier for tourists to express the contrast between
the natural landscape and the everyday landscape once they
returned home. These combinations also relate closely to performances
of resistant and alternative selves and communities. At
the same time, such performances are mediated and contested
between freedom of self-expression, surveillance and social
norms, an aspect that makes their liminal nature ambiguous.