Dieter K. Müller, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University

Background

Tourism is generally considered of increasing importance for economy and labor market (e.g. Hall & Page 2002; Riley et al. 2002). The recent restructuring of the economy caused by internationalization processes eroded employment opportunities in rural and peripheral areas particularly and entailed an urge for alternative development options (Sharpley & Sharpley 1997; Townsend 1997; Hall & Jenkins 1998; Ilbery & Bowler 1998; Jenkins et al. 1998; Hoggart & Paniagua 2001; Telfer 2002).

This development puts additional pressure on the rural labor markets already suffering from decline owing to an increasing mechanization within agriculture and forestry (Ilbery & Bowler 1998). The growing international competition caused further cuts in rural manufacturing industries. Consecutively, out-migration to attain education not available in the countryside or to gain better employment opportunities in the urban areas contributes to put rural areas at disadvantage. The results of this restructuring embraced also a declining service supply (Ilbery & Bowler 1998).

Besides ICT-development tourism has been pointed out as an area where new employment opportunities can be created (Hall & Jenkins 1998; Roberts & Hall 2001; Saarinen 2003; Telfer 2002). And indeed, there is evidence that tourism in fact creates employment (e.g. Cavaco 1995; Saarinen 2003). The seasonal characteristics of tourism demand imply however that employment in tourism also tends to be seasonal (Shaw & Williams 2002). Moreover, particularly rural destinations do not offer good opportunities to make a living out of tourism owing to a lack of demand. Instead, employment also tends to be part-time. It is however often combined with other sources of income not at least from agriculture and forestry. Moreover, tourism employment is mainly geared towards the female labor market, nevertheless leaving managerial positions to men (Riley et al. 2002).

Therefore, it can be argued that introduction and development of tourism employment implies a considerable change for last, but not least rural areas. An important but unanswered question is however what kinds of occupations are created by tourism. Does tourism development imply a shift from full-year full-time employment to seasonal and part-time employment? Moreover, does it mean the introduction of low-paid service labor instead of industrial and administrative occupations? These changes are sometimes labeled "Americanization" of the labor market (Townsend, 1998) implying the following processes;

o Tertiarisation, i.e. a change towards employment in the service industries,
o Flexibilization, i.e. an increasing share of part-time and seasonal employment
o Feminization, i.e. an increasing share of female labor with low wages and insecure employment conditions.

In this context it is important to ask whether tourism development often favored within regional policies also contributes to introducing a new regime in the Swedish labor market previously favoring full-time and secure employment conditions.

Aims of the project

The purpose of this project is to assess to what extent tourism development is contributing to an "Americanization" of the rural labor market. Tourism development is expected to contribute to this transformation by introducing jobs that are mirroring these three characteristics. This change is expected to occur in remote areas that can be called "pleasure peripheries".

Important objectives are thus to analyze (i) to what extent an "Americanization" of the rural tourism labor market has taken place, (ii) whether this can be explained by the local geographical context, and (iii) what the consequences of this development have been.

Methods

The methodologies used in the project comprise mainly database analysis and GIS-applications. These are presented more thoroughly in the context of the different studies contacted within the framework of the project.

The study is based on a comprehensive database produced by Statistics Sweden and located at the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University. The purpose of the database is to facilitate micro-simulation experiments based on longitudinal and spatial data representing the entire population of Sweden. This project contributes with knowledge regarding the tourism labor market.

The data contained in the database are micro-data collected for the 1960, 1970 and 1980 censuses. Since then, data have been collected annually. Each individual in the database is characterized with a large number of indicators representing factors such as demography, labour, income, housing and property ownership. For this study, only a set of indicators were chosen. Various employees are either identified by the type of industry and branch they work in or by their profession. In the data, these branches were already aggregated to the traditional sectors, and a special sector containing the tourism branches was created. For each year, every individual is also characterized with a pair of coordinates representing place of residence, allowing for spatial analysis.

The long-term perspective and the small spatial units entail a number of complications. The first concerns the identification of the employment sectors. For 1990 the SE-SIC69 was used and adopted to the codes used for 1999, the SE-SIC 92. For the years 1960 to 1980 the employees are identified by their profession, not by the branch they work in. The comparability between the two time periods can therefore be questioned. The second problem occurs through the many changes the parishes had undergone. In all years considered, new units appear and others disappear. It was hence necessary to adapt the data to the one administrative order (1990).

Dissemination efforts

Besides the listed publications the project was presented at the following conferences:

o 12th Nordic Symposium in tourism, 2-5 Oktober 2003, Stavanger, Norway.
o IGU-konferensen 'Recent Trends in Tourism: The Baltic and the World', 20-24 June 2004, Greifswald, Germany.
o Pre-IGU-conference, 12-14 August 2004, Loch Lomond, UK.
o 13th Nordic Symposium in tourism, 4-7 November 2004, Aalborg, Denmark.
o The Inaugural Nordic Geographers Meeting, 10-14 May 2005, Lund. Sweden.
o 14th Nordic Symposium in tourism, 22-25 September 2005, Akureyri, Iceland.

Moreover, the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University hosted an IGU conference on the issue of peripheral tourism to provide a greater context for the study. This conference has also resulted in a major publication published with CABI in 2007 (Jansson & Müller, 2007)

In a non-scientific context, results from this project have regularly been communicated to the Swedish Tourism Authorities (Olle Melander). Tourism minister Ulrika Messing presented results from this project at the TUR-fair in Göteborg (2003).

Moreover, the following popular articles related to the project have been published in various newspapers:

o Müller D.K. & R. Marjavaara (2003) Absurt förbud mot flygtrafik i fjällen. Debattartikel, Västerbottens Kuriren, 27 december 2003, p. 2.
o Müller D.K. & R. Marjavaara (2004) Kolonialt synsätt på fjällflyget. Debattartikel, NSD, 29 januari 2004, p. 3.
o Strand S., Y. Bergquist, A. Blomquist, D.K. Müller & A. Grönlund-Krantz (2004): Flygförbud hotar näringslivet i fjällen. Svenska Dagbladet, 12 maj 2004.
o Strand S., Y. Bergquist, A. Blomquist, P. Töörn. D.K. Müller, R. Marjavaara, Y. Ångström & A. Grönlund-Krantz (2004): Rädda näringslivet i fjällvärlden. Debattartikel, Västerbottens Kuriren, 13 maj 2004.

Tourism in Peripheries
Already in the 1960s Christaller (1964) identified peripheries as areas where people from the European centers spend their vacations. In the initially accounted regions the Mediterranean areas were mentioned beside the northern peripheries. However, fourty years later the development distinguishes these realms dramatically. Many southern destinations with assets like favorable climate and nice bathing conditions have developed successfully and experienced sometimes even stagnation, consolidation and rejuvenation stages as outlined by Butler (1980). In fact some areas are hardly considered peripheries anymore.

Meanwhile tourism development in the northern peripheries differs considerably from the development in southern areas. Often they do not dispose of assets allowing them to compete with typical 3S-destinations. Less favorable climatic conditions, limited population numbers, restricted accessibility and many other factors hinder them from becoming true mass tourism destinations. Nevertheless, tourism is increasingly considered a tool to provide economic growth, employment and welfare in peripheries (Hall & Jenkins, 1998). Also only few positive accounts of tourism development are provided the rhetoric of tourism development is preached like a mantra expected to change the bad cycles of development that characterize many peripheral areas, despite tourism has failed to deliver the desired development.

Considering previous negative experiences with tourism development, one can wonder why tourism once again has been put high on the agenda of regional policy. Partly, focusing on tourism development appears to be clutching the last straw. The failure of other policy schemes and the recent deindustrialization of the peripheries in developed countries owing to an increasingly internationalized competition forced governments to find "new" solutions for sustaining peripheral communities (Townsend, 1997). Tourism is a welcomed response to this pressure, particularly because the industry is promising service employment with relatively low entrance barriers superficially open to a wide range of the labor force. Moreover, tourism employment is considered to be attractive to young people, which also appears to be favorable considering the often problematic demographic structures with a dominance of older people. Finally, it could be argued that tourism appears to be a good solution for peripheral labor markets, simply because central governments do not dispose of the expertise required to assess the potential for tourism development in the periphery. Tourism merely appears to be an easy and cheap solution to regional problems. Tourism development schemes also offer fast action put timely in place and promising quick changes.

However, peripheral locations are also sometimes seized as opportunities promising exclusiveness and combining high yields with a minimum of impacts. Particularly the development of eco-tourism has entailed expectations to finally develop high-yield products suitable for peripheral locations.

Tourism in the Pleasure Periphery
Many peripheries are today populated to an extent that has not been seen previously. This is a result partly of political action in history aiming to secure state territory and leading to the foundation of settlements and military bases, partly due to economic interests in natural resources. Finally, indigenous people such as Sami in the Nordic countries and Inuit in northern America have traditionally settled in the areas, but also adapted to Western live-styles. Particularly the extraction of natural resources such as minerals, forests and fish have historically caused a need to relocate labor into the periphery. However, recent economic restructuring has entailed de-industrialization or at least, a more effective and less labor-intensive extraction of resources. Hence today many peripheries are characterized by high unemployment and out-migration.

It is in this context governments struggle with defining new visions for peripheries. Obviously, it is difficult to rewind the wheel of development and withdraw from peripheries. Instead, usually it is decided to retain population in the peripheries. The reasons for these decisions can probably be found both in nostalgia and political realities as the struggle for votes. The resulting strategies are paradoxical with respect to governments' intervention in current mobility. Governments do not choose to actively depopulate peripheral regions, because such a governmental intervention would be controversial in many countries. Instead governments intervene to sustain peripheral communities by supporting peripheral job creation, which obviously is less controversial. Anyway, even this remains a governmental intervention aiming to influence internal migration patterns and these have seldom been successful in a long term perspective (Boyle et al. 1998).

A viable and popular vision for peripheral areas is that these, with their supply of pristine nature, can cater for the recreational demand of visitors from all over the world and hence, considerable support is put on developing infrastructure for tourism. By increasing accessibility it is assumed that tourism in the areas can enter a more mature stage and finally develop into a successful "pleasure periphery".

The term pleasure periphery was molded by Turner and Ash (1975) in their book The Golden Hordes: International Tourism and the Pleasure Periphery. The title reveals a perspective, too. The term Golden Hordes refers to the Huns who once threatened Europe by invading from the East. There are thus a number of connotations that many share regarding these hordes; uncivilized, wild, brutal, ruthless. Hence, tourism to the periphery is here not mirrored as a possibility but as a threat. The periphery on the other hand is the playground for these hordes allowing them to have pleasure outside the restraining obligations of home. Turner and Ash (1975) delimited their pleasure periphery as a zone a few hours flight away from the industrial centers and usually towards the south. In Europe, the Mediterranean fits into this zone as does Florida in the US.

However, the idea of a pleasure periphery was already outlined by Christaller (1964). In an attempt to locate the places for tourism in Europe, Christaller argued that peripheries disposed of qualities allowing people from central places and areas to relax and recreate. The argument followed thoughts already pinpointed in his central place theory acknowledging for the concentration of service and labor to central places. Tourism was thus considered a development alternative for peripheral areas.

The idea of tourism as a tool for regional development is rooted in and inspired by the academic writings of, for example, Friedmann (1966), Hirschman (1958) and Myrdal (1963), and has been recently reviewed by Sharpley (2002) and Telfer (2002a, b). Particularly, the idea of a center - periphery dichotomy appears to be crucial for the idea that tourism can be used as tool for creating economic growth and employment in the periphery by breaking existing economic structures. However, Britton (1982, 1991) claims that peripheral destinations lack control over tourism and are thus dependent on external agents supplying infrastructure and capital. Tourism is thus only just another expression of a capitalist system of accumulation. Similarly, Mowforth and Munt (1998) challenge the idea in the context of tourism in the Third World. Accordingly, even new alternative forms of tourism are just another way of sustaining colonial dependency patterns, for example, dictating how to manage destinations and still claiming large shares of the economic revenue.

The question how to destroy these patterns of peripheral dependency remained largely unanswered. Nevertheless, ideas to develop tourism in peripheries are mainly related to increasing problems of marginality caused by economic restructuring comprising a decline in agriculture, forestry and fishing, a deindustrialization owing to increasing international competition, and a decline in the public sector employment in many industrialized countries. This results in a need for new employment opportunities (e.g. Wanhill, 1997; Jenkins et al., 1998; Hall & Boyd, 2005; Lundmark, 2005; Saarinen, 2003, 2005).

However, peripherality implies numerous restrictions for tourism development. Hall & Boyd (2005) have recently provided a useful review of problems present in peripheries. They identify among other factors lack of access to transportation, information, political power and capital as strong obstacles to a successful development. Particularly in high-latitudes strong seasonal climatic variations have delimited the tourist season. Winter conditions and polar nights have put natural limits to tourism development although they are also increasingly seen as attractions in it self. Still they usually restrict access particularly for car-based tourists and remain largely an expensive tourism product.

Access to Peripheries
Access to peripheries is a main threshold for developing tourism. Time-space restrictions entail that reaching peripheries require additional time and hence, location becomes a major disadvantage (Jansson, 1994; Hall, 2005). Lundgren (1982) illustrates this in a model depicting a spatial hierarchy of tourist flows. Accordingly, tourist flows between metropolitan destinations are most intensive meanwhile peripheral rural destinations and remote wilderness areas generate the least intensive flows often requiring air transportation. This is particularly true for extreme peripheries as Antarctica where all visits require rather long flights or boat trips (Hall & Johnston, 1995). Besides time constraints traveling to peripheral destinations tend to be expensive although some governments provide subsidies and guarantee access within regional policy frameworks.

The availability of connections to the peripheries is varying in different part of the world. Lundgren (1995) demonstrated that the penetration of northern space by transport infrastructure did take different forms in Europe and North America entailing the availability of more comprehensive tourism services all over Scandinavia, meanwhile the situation in America is characterized be a declining supply in the northernmost areas. However, access to major service and tourism centers by car and train is possible in many cases.

The existing airport infrastructure provides the impression of great demand usually not mirrored in factual passenger figures (Lundgren, 2001). Attempts to establish charter connections to peripheral destinations often failed as for instance is shown for Sweden, where an EU-sponsored project "Short Breaks in the North" aimed at developing a charter tourism concept channeling central European tourist to Northern Sweden (Johansson & Bergdahl, 1999). Although popular during the project period, the project failed to survive after public economic support had been withdrawn. Problems with service quality, organization and leadership set an end to the attempt to turn the north into a charter destination.

However, there are exceptions; Santa Claus' official airport in Rovaniemi northern Finland and close to the Santa center on the Arctic Circle received in 2004 altogether 105,000 international passengers of which 103,000 charter tourists (Civil Aviation Administration, 2004). Similarly, Kittilä airport close to several winter sport centers in Finnish Lapland attracted 66,000 international charter passengers. Hence, these peripheral airports nationally rank number two and three in terms of arriving charter passengers. In Kiruna, Northern Sweden, the popularity of the Ice-hotel entailed the entrance of a competing airline on the market and increased the number of available seats on scheduled flights dramatically. Obviously, uniqueness helps to overcome distance (Prideaux, 2002).

Moving in Peripheries
The penetration of the periphery by transport infrastructure regards not only the access to the periphery, but also the opportunities to move within the periphery (Lundgren 1995). In Europe's peripheral areas, road networks are usually well maintained and allow for reaching all permanent settlements and thus, most of the touristic supplies. In contrast, peripheries in northern America or Asia are more remote in terms of access. The existing transport infrastructure is geared towards connections to the centers, but not within the periphery.

In Europe various INTERREG-projects target this problem by trying to overcome the focus on south-north transport corridors and instead develop alternative corridors between west and east. For example, within the Trans Barents Highway project community art work was used to foster a shared identity by creating pieces of Arts along the Barents Highway leading from Bodø in northern Norway via Luleå on the Swedish coast of the Baltic Sea to Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula (The Trans Barents Highway Symposium of Art, 2004). Similarly, the maintenance of ferry connections between the cities of both sides of the Botnian Sea are always contested because of small passenger volumes, and hence they are heavily financially supported by EU-development schemes.

Road standards are also at issue. As Lundgren (1995) reported the penetration of the North by road infrastructure is far more advanced in Europe, meanwhile access to Canada's north is less developed. In Europe, major road projects were finished during the 1980s making even rather remote nature areas accessible to tourists (Bäck & Bäck, 1986). In Norway tunnel constructions make even islands comfortably accessible by car. Hence, the North Cape located on the island of Mageröy can nowadays be reached without using a ferry boat. Thus all major traffic arteries are paved and gravel roads are often private but also made accessible for the public. Nevertheless, winter conditions make car use less attractive to drivers not used to snow- and ice covered roads. Moreover, frost damages in the road surface make roads even during the summer season bumpy.

New road development also creates new tourists flows. The opening of the road between Narvik and Kiruna opened up the Northern Scandinavian Mountain Range for car tourists. Similarly, paving the road into Lagmannalaugir, a national park in southern Iceland, also created an increased tourism traffic into the area causing negative impacts on the environment and degrading the experience of pristine nature (Sæþórsdóttir, 2004). Hence, upgrading of existing and creation of new road infrastructure is not undisputed with regards to tourism development. The famous Icelandic K1-gravel road crossing the interior of the country is still unpaved and thus allows use only during a short summer season and with four-wheel drive vehicles. An upgrading of the road quality would certainly open the area to a larger number of tourists. However, a potentially negative impact on the environment and a lack of touristic infrastructure can be listed as arguments against such a development.

Besides car-tourism busses are viable means of transport allowing getting around in the periphery. On the northern hemisphere public scheduled bus connections are widely available, meanwhile tourists, for example, in New Zealand can choose bus tours catering more specifically for tourists' demands. On the northern hemisphere railway connections are mainly available between major settlements, but often require other transportation to reach tourist facilities.

Peripheral Places
Many peripheral settlements are characterized by small size of the community. Often these communities have been originally established owing to forestry, mining, hunting or as trading posts. Economic restructuring has however caused unemployment and a selective out-migration not least of younger households. This development often entails negative feedback and deters in-migration, but also new investments. In this context governments try to break these bad cycles of development by creating employment within new industries such as tourism. However, it is previously shown that tourism development not always entails a win-situation for the destination communities (Singh et al., 2003). Instead, appropriate planning including participation of the local community is assumed to be central for achieving a successful development (Timothy & Tosun, 2003). Although many share the vision that tourism is a tool to sustain rural and peripheral communities there is considerable struggle regarding the means to achieve this. Particularly in cases where outsiders and other marginal community members are involved, visions can collide and cause setbacks. Sandell (1995) reports, for example, on a failed national park establishment in northern Sweden. Here, the local community perceived the park plans as a threat to upholding traditional outdoor activities. The local opinion finally stopped all plans forwarded without any comprehensive community involvement by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

This is however only one example. In many cases local communities do not dispose of power resources to decide on their own. Instead they are dependent on central decision making and funding (Hall & Boyd 2005). Hence tourism becomes a field of complex negotiations between different levels of governance and agencies (Hall 2000).

Besides these issues related to negotiating tourism development between local community and regional and national institutions there are plenty other factors hindering a successful tourism development. A crucial factor is often the lack of skilled labor. The existing labor force is seldom educated in service and the conversion from often physically demanding jobs in industrial production, agriculture, forestry or mining is difficult (Jussila & Järviluoma, 1998). Moreover, employment in tourism is not even attractive since it does not provide significant incomes. Instead, tourism offers part-time or seasonal employment. Additionally, old-fashioned perceptions of gender roles imply that many men are reluctant to accept employment in the service industries despite low entrance barriers (Jussila & Järviluoma, 1998). Hence, despite a positive tourism development high unemployment may remain since labor demand is satisfied by a seasonal workforce (Lundmark, 2005). Exceptions can be found in areas also attractive to amenity migrants (Müller, 2006). Here tourism offers jobs and opportunities to make a living. After some years many amenity migrants move on to other occupations outside tourism.

One way of getting involved in tourism is by entrepreneurship which is not always possible particularly in communities that previously have been dominated by industrial production. Smith (19xx) claimed that many tourism entrepreneurs are marginal in relation to their host community; they are recruited from in-migrants or set aside in various other ways within the local community, which can imply difficulties in starting a business particularly in cases where the local community forms an important ingredient of the tourism product (Keen, 2004). For example, Pettersson (2004) argued that many entrepreneurs among the indigenous Sami were young men who could not make a living in reindeer herding or women who had lost their traditional roles in the industry because of modernization and automatization. Thus, these groups had increasingly become marginalized within their traditional livelihood.

Another field of tension arises because of diverging visions regarding tourism development. Governmental institutions usually consider tourism as a tool for creating new employment and thus assume axiomatically that entrepreneurs are interested in expanding their businesses. However, it has been shown that many entrepreneurs have chosen tourism because of life-style motives and thus they are reluctant to employ workforce aside their family and friends (Getz et al., 2004; Hall & Rusher, 2004; Komppula, 2004; Shaw & Williams, 2004). Instead they try to fulfill visions related to self-fulfillment, independence and living environment. Thus, many entrepreneurs are not committed to growth and are reluctant to invest more comprehensively into their businesses.

Also the multiple social relationships within the local community are of importance for creating networks and cooperation between different stakeholders (Clarke 2005). Tourism entrepreneurs can consider their competitors primarily as threats to their own business and thus, not participate in common activities as marketing and so on. Also varying business practices can cause irritation and disagreement. Particularly in cases where municipalities act themselves as tourism businesses by owning and running tourism facilities like campgrounds and hotels, there is an obvious risk of disloyal competition, where the public stakeholders have superior access to information and resources. Moreover, common activities within the local business community can be utilized, too, by stakeholders favored but not economically involved. This free rider problem can lead to a split appearance on the market, but also to a more passive strategy towards the demand market. To overcome these conflicts, which are more often the norm than the exception (Hall 2003), is sometimes seen as important step towards a successful development. Hall (2000) also points at the role of local champions who can take the lead in tourism development. Hence, planning and decision-making are complex processes that involve both social and power relations. The smallness of peripheral communities does not necessarily contribute to make these relationships more easily managed and planned (Hall 2003). Instead peripheral places seem to concentrate power in the hands of a few, which provides continuity even regarding the maintenance of conflicts.

Peripheral Economies
Access to capital is another issue that is forwarded as an obstacle for tourism development (Botteril et al., 2000; Hall & Boyd, 2005). The absence of risk and investment capital needed for tourism infrastructure and promotion often requires the involvement of other stakeholders. Sometimes local governments support tourism ventures economically by financial aid or ownership. In the context of winter sports destinations Flagestad and Hope (2001) argue however that public ownership of alpine facilities often hinders a successful development owing to a lack of market orientation. The opposite case, i.e. a strong involvement by powerful corporations willing to invest into tourism, is put forward, but has shown to have other negative impacts. This has been illustrated for the mountain resort Hemavan in northern Sweden (Arell, 2000); here a powerful tourism corporation purchased the local tourism infrastructure including hotels and alpine facilities. The corporation invested significantly, but without listening to the local community. Moreover, in a destination development project aiming at gathering stakeholders around a common vision, the corporation finally left the round table unwilling to accept diverging ideas of local stakeholders. So instead of increased development, the major outcome was a split community.

Lack of competence and networks are other issues influencing tourism development negatively. Particularly connections to major demand markets are often weak and peripheral enterprises lack access to major marketing channels. This is partly owing to a lack of resources, partly owing to the scope of the peripheral products that do not allow competing for major markets. Internet access has been seen as a solution to this isolation and also the internet has been used as a marketing tool, many entrepreneurs' competence is limited and counteracts an efficient use of the tool (Eichhorn, 2002; Evans & Parravicini, 2005).

Besides these issues related directly to tourism entrepreneurs and tourism development the general development of many peripheral communities constrains tourism development. Many peripheral communities increasingly suffer from a weak supply of services and goods. Hence, multiplier effects remain small and leakage increases particularly when outside ownership is involved. Hence, even ideas related to ecotourism requiring local engagement and involvement risk to be obsolete since local products can not be purchased.

Results

Americanization

There are some considerable differences between the tourism labor market and the total labor market in Sweden. It was assumed that a labor market change towards Americanization would be significant within the tourism sector. However during the studied period 1985-2001 all the factors discussed by Townsend (1998) were already on a high level in the 1980s and showed no clear increase thereafter. Also the economic crisis during the early 1990s did not have a significant impact on the tourism labor market which increased during the study period. During the mid 1990s the number of women on the tourism labor market decreased however to a greater degree than the number of male workers.

Changes in the tourism labor market indicate that a tertiarization process is on its way. Hence, the number of employees within the sector increases steadily. A shift of labor market regime as forwarded by Gonäs (1998) can be seized by scrutinizing the number of income sources for each individual. Here tourism workers have on average a greater number of income sources than the national average. The economic crisis can be addressed by studying the number of month were gainful income is registered. Here, tourism workers experienced on average a decline during the economic crisis in the mid 1990s. Obviously, mainly part-time and seasonal employment disappeared. Simultaneously the share of workers benefiting from labor market support etc increased.

In summary it can be concluded that there has not been a significant flexibilization or feminization during the study period. There is however indication that this process already took place before. The changes recorded in the study mirror instead rather changes in the overall economy.

There is however reason to address the quality of jobs provided on the tourism labor market. Townsend (1997) thinks that junk-jobs are a typical feature of an Americanization process. In the Swedish context junk-jobs are obviously the exception. Labor market and social benefits are clearly a substitute and hinder an Americanization as it is known from the US. However, this should not cover the fact that tourism employment does not always provide a full income. Instead it can be seen as complementary to other sources of income. This is particularly true for peripheral regions in Sweden. Moreover, it has to be noted that inequalities between men and women also are valid within the tourism sector. In fact income differences between men and women have increased during the study period.

Hence, tourism as savior for rural areas is reasonable as a temporary strategy. To achieve a more comprehensive role, tourism employment has to be developed last, but not least qualitatively.

Tourism Labor Market Development, 1960-2000

Tourism development is embedded in a complex set of constraints that influence the amount of tourism as well as the resulting patterns. A first important factor is size of population. Even increasing car ownership has had a strong impact on tourism and consequently on the tourism labour market. Moreover, even the public transportation network has been expanded significantly. Another constraint for the development of tourism is the amount of available leisure.

Tourism labour can be measured in absolute numbers representing the number of people employed in tourism, and in relative numbers representing the share of tourism labour in the local labour market. Here, focus is placed on both.

Absolute Changes

The total number of persons working within the tourism sector has increased from 93,300 in 1960 to about 21,700 in 1999. In 1960, tourism was mainly concentrated to the three metropolitan areas and the areas between them. Although these general patterns were maintained until 1999, it is obvious that there has been diffusion to the hinterlands and more remote parts of the country as well.

Most areas experienced an increase in tourism labour during the entire research period. However, it can be noted that tourism employment in fact decreases in parts of northern Sweden the entire time. Patterns of tourism labour changed particularly during the 1980s. Since then, tourism employment has increased not at least in the northern parts of the country, while it has decreased in areas adjacent to the metropolitan areas. During the 1980s, tourism employment in the southern mountain regions grew significantly, while the 1990s saw an increase in the coastal areas of northern Sweden.

Still, absolute and significant growth in tourism employment can be charted, mainly for the metropolitan areas. This is expected, considering the small scope of the total labour market in peripheral areas in Sweden. Outside the metropolitan areas and their hinterlands, tourism increased first in the south of the country between the metropolitan areas.

Relative change

Naturally, the above patterns mainly mirror the population distribution within the country and do not say anything about the importance of the tourism sector for the local labour market. Hence, it is imperative to review this development as well.

In 1960, tourism represented a share of more than 2.5% of the total labor market in only a few parishes. Besides the Åre and Kiruna areas, the nodes of the railway networks were other parishes in which tourism increased beyond the 2.5% level. These patterns were maintained until 1970. During the 1970s, however, tourism-related employment increased almost everywhere in the country. Besides the metropolitan areas, the Jämtland mountains in particular became more dependent on tourism, which represented more than 5% of all employment. Even in the railway nodes, tourism employment reached a level of more than 10% of all labour. During the 1980s, the patterns became more polarized with a further increase of tourism in the mountain areas and city regions. A further diffusion took place during the 1990s. In 1999 in many areas of the mountain range, the tourism sector represented more than 15% of all employment, in some spots surpassing 30%.

Changes in the importance of tourism occurred mainly in the mountain areas, where tourism increased in importance rather dramatically and consistently. During the 1980s, the method of recording employment changed and hence the patterns are difficult to interpret. However, the 1990s showed a more varied picture, with areas losing employment in tourism and others gaining. It can be said that positive changes occurred mainly in areas known as typical tourist destinations such as the mountain resorts in Dalarna, Jämtland and Västerbotten. However, the island of Öland and the border region near Finland also showed an increasing importance of tourism for the labour market.

Winning Regions

Depending on whether absolute or relative changes are assessed, various winning regions can be identified. The greatest absolute change occurred in the densely populated areas in the south of Sweden, showing significant increases (250 persons per decade) during virtually the entire research period. A positive change can also be spotted during the 1970s in the adjacent regions in the south. During the 1980s and 1990s, increases took place in the north of the country and even in more remote regions. This is remarkable, not least with thought to the small scope of labour markets. Thus, it indicates that tourism in fact has become an important sector of the labour market.

Additionally, in terms of relative importance of tourism for the labour market, the largest changes can be spotted in the north of the country. Here, tourism represented an essential share of employment particularly in the southern mountain range and the Tärnaby/Hemavan area. Moreover, tourism employment grew over several decades. The tourism sector expanded even in southern Sweden; however in most parishes this development took place before 1980. Exceptions to this are some West Coast parishes and the islands of Gotland and Öland.

Hence, although the most significant changes in numbers took place in the densely populated areas, tourism gained importance for the local labour markets in more remote areas and particularly in the mountain range.

Conclusions

Obviously, tourism plays an important role on the Swedish labour market. Even though the majority of tourism employment occurs mainly in the metropolitan areas, it is the rural labour markets that are mainly dependent on tourism employment and development. However, seen from a 40-year perspective, tourism has gained importance in the entire country and since 1980 has surpassed the primary sector of the labour market, at least regarding the creation of employment.

Here tourism development was approached from a time-geographical perspective. It was argued that tourism should occur mainly in the metropolitan regions, which was also demonstrated empirically. However, it was also demonstrated that tourism employment initially occurred in areas in the metropolitan hinterlands as well, before it spread to the northern parts of the country. This becomes particularly clear considering the increasing car ownership that boosted tourism further away from the metropolitan areas. Hence, it can be argued that tourism development indeed follows in the footsteps of technological achievements, pushing the belts of overnight stays further away from the metropolitan areas. Moreover, the figures indicate that tourism has become increasingly commodified. In the periphery, growth can be observed in areas commonly known as alpine ski resorts.

Looking at data from the 1980s and 1990s, it becomes clear that tourism comprises the entire country. Even north of the Arctic Circle, far from major population centres, considerable increases in tourism employment can be seen. Since then, it can be argued, tourism development and employment mirrors the geography of amenity-rich areas comprising areas in the mountains as well as islands like Öland and Gotland.

Considering absolute figures, the periphery is not a place for tourism or tourism employment. Tourism occurs where people interact, and urban areas are hence mostly favoured by tourism development. However, a perspective from the periphery throws a different light on the situation. Here, society is considerably involved in tourism. In some cases, more than 30% of the total labour force works in tourism. The extent to which this is a deliberate engagement can be contested, however. Rural restructuring has undermined the peripheral labour markets and tourism has hence remained one of few options for making a living in the periphery.

Thus, tourism development and tourism employment must be taken seriously. The amount of people engaged in tourism in these peripheral areas should make it a core point of rural planning and development strategy. Technological advances and political changes imply that tourism is becoming an international phenomenon to a greater extent. Thus, peripheral destinations are contested on an international market and must acquire new meaning for international customers.

The Local Level: Tourism, Migration, and the Labor Market
Besides the creation of employment, the maintenance of population is a key task for rural planners. Hence, tourism development can be seen as a way to sustain population figures, too. Also, it appears to be obvious that in-migrants realize tourism as an opportunity to make a living, it is not said whether tourism in general entails in-migration that reinforces tourism development trends. Instead, it can be argued that areas attractive to this kind of in-migrants have to contain amenities not only attractive to tourists. Here focus has been on two areas, i.e.
the Kingdom of Glass ("Glasriket") and Tärna parish in Sweden. In summary the following conclusions can be drawn.

Kingdom of Glass
Tourism development is often considered a mean to balance economic decline and depopulation in last, but not least rural areas. This argument usually justifies enormous investments into various tourism projects, for example, in the context of EU-development programs. The question addressed here was whether tourism development really entails the expected impacts. The obvious answer drawn from the presented case is no.

The Kingdom of Glass is considered a major tourist destination with considerable amenities. Its mixture of industrial heritage and pleasant landscape entails at least superficially an attractive product. However, no more than 2% of the employment on the local labor market can be explained by tourism. Only in the immediate neighborhood of the glass factories the tourism induced employment passed this level. Moreover, during the research period this share remained on a stable level despite rather large changes on the labor market caused by the economic restructuring in the beginning of the 1990s.

The notion that tourism development can induce in-migration and also employment in the tourism industry appears at least for the case of the Kingdom of Glass as obsolete. During a 10-years period only 76 in-migrants became involved into tourism-related work. This equals however only 9 full jobs within tourism, which corresponds to less than 1% of the total in-migration. Moreover, a considerable number of the in-migrants in tourism-related segments of the local labor market continued there for one or two years only. Hence, employment on tourism-related labor market appears to be a first and temporary solution, but no permanent way of making a living. In fact there is no evidence whatsoever that in-migrants do play a considerable role for tourism development in the area. Instead, the recovering of the economy and also of the tourism labor market is solely based on people already residing in the area. Hence the increase of tourism-induced labor from 675 in 1993 to 737 in 2000 is almost entirely accomplished with local labor.

This leads to the question why tourism obviously has not been a successful mean to sustain labor market and population in the Kingdom of Glass? A reason for the failure could be the lack of saleable products in rural tourism. Instead of addressing the problem of limited supply there is an obvious focus on increasing visitation through marketing and promotion. Hence tourism development in rural areas cannot simply be accomplished by increasing visitation. Instead managerial efforts should be refocused and address more complex issues like how to increase the length of stays. Addressing these issues requires however other perspectives and know-how than provided by business administration only. Trying to understand the basics of tourism could be a good step forward.

Tärna parish
The purpose of this study was to analyze the involvement of in-migrants with the local tourism labour market in a peripheral mountain area. This study showed that tourism development indeed contributes to create or maintain jobs. However, the results of the study indicate that tourism-related employment is, to a considerable extent, chosen by in-migrants. Hence, tourism forms an important precondition for in-migration in that it provides service jobs with relatively low entrance barriers. In the study, more than 100 in-migrants changed employment into tourism.

Many in-migrants do not necessarily take up employment in tourism directly after their arrival. After a year or so in the destination area, tourism offers a first job that is sometimes left already in the following year. Hence, tourism does not lure the majority of in-migrants to the area. In fact, a quarter of all in-migrants were return migrants born in the parish. About the same share, but not in all cases the same individuals, did own a second home in the area previous to arrival. It was not predominantly the members of these groups who accepted employment in tourism-related businesses. Instead, the figures indicate that members of younger households, often from the neighbouring municipalities or from urban centres within the county and the south of Sweden, respectively, took these jobs.

Hence, in-migration to Tärna cannot be characterized as gentrification either. Successful middle-aged men and women changing a professional career in the urban centres for an alternate lifestyle in the mountains do not constitute the group of in-migrants, at least not formally. Young age, low incomes, limited education, and frequent employment changes instead point at another group with different motives. The uncertain situation on the local labour market indicates that production-led motives are not the main reason for migrating to the mountain area. This is particularly true for those in-migrants involved in tourism-related work. Instead, the rather young group of in-migrants hints at the presence of more consumption-led motives. Hence, the amenities of the mountain region inviting a variety of outdoor-activities seem to be an important reason for relocating the place of residence into the periphery, at least temporarily. Environmental and social reasons may also play an important role; the mountains are simply a good place for raising children.

The extent to which the young in-migrants will also remain in the parish was not covered by this study. However, as long as they are flexible toward taking up various occupations, they should have an appropriate prerequisite for making a living in Tärna, even in the future. And a strong tourism sector is likely to contribute to creating the necessary circumstances.

Conclusions

The project clearly indicates that Americanization as a concept fails to capture the complexity of rural labor market change in Sweden, at least for the period studied here. Instead social benefit systems redirect development and offer unemployment as a viable option. Tourism certainly features some of the properties associated with Americanization. Low salaries, flexible employment and so on indicate that the tourism sector is a difficult sphere to make a living in. However, it is probably not tourism employment that causes Americanization. Tourism development is simply one of few opportunities left for rural areas clearly indicated by the high rates of tourism induced employment in peripheral communities. However, it is doubtful to what extent tourism employment always can contribute to create sustainable livelihoods for the rural population.

It is in urban areas and rural destinations within the reach of larger population centers and with considerable amenities where tourism development is a viable option. Here tourism development enables at least sometimes to maintain full time jobs and to sustain community services.

So should tourism development be ruled out? Expectations regarding the ability of tourism to create jobs have certainly been too high in many cases. Geographical location in particular has been a hinder for creating viable products and markets. Smallness in it self is maybe attractive to some tourists but turns too often out to be a burden. Nevertheless, in areas with high amenity values tourism employment has been an important platform for in-migrants. Jobs with low entrance requirement enabled newcomers to establish themselves in the rural community. Hence, tourism should not simply be seen as a share of the labor market. It can also be an integrated concept to achieve a wider rural development.

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