New Role of Tourism in National Park Planning in Finland

Abstract

Following the growth of nature-based tourism, national parks have become important tourist attractions and tools for regional development. This article examines how the role of tourism changed in national park planning in Finland in the 2000s by analyzing official planning documents of parks. The planning documents and the policies guiding them are seen to reflect the governance aspects of parks. The study indicates that the role and management value of tourism have clearly increased in Finnish national park planning. In the planning documents, tourism is increasingly justified not only with recreational and educational arguments but also by the aspects of regional development. The aim has been to combine the ecological goals of nature conservation and the socioeconomic goals of nature-based tourism by implementing the principles of sustainable development. This discursive policy shift reflects the rise of neoliberalist politics in which nature conservation has become more instrumental and market oriented than before.