Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

This article analyzes the development of the Swedish tourism destination of Åre and its transformation from one of many mountain villages into Scandinavia’s leading alpine ski resort. In reference to Butler’s life cycle model, this evolution is analyzed and some historical turning points in Åre’s development identified. The role of social capital is added to the historical analysis, based on the assumption that there is a link between a destination’s development and its ability to reproduce its social capital. The analysis shows that the social capital at the early stage was, to a large extent, built by and around local actors which predominated the village. The transformation to an international ski resort was possible only by the entrance of new actors, increasingly from the national and international arenas. These new actors have largely come to play leading roles in Åre’s development. At the same time, the new actors’ different values and networks have impacted Åre’s social capital.

This article explores the impact of governance on destination development, focusing on public-private relations, formal and informal networks as well as resource dependencies. The empirical contribution is based on a single case study of the Swedish ski resort of Åre. In the concluding section, some of the results are developed into suggestions about if and how the governance structure matters in terms of performance. The results indicate that trustful public-private relations, joint risk-taking, informal structures and strategic consensus can have a positive impact on the level of growth in a destination.

Innovation is a critical factor for long-term economic development, also in tourism. Based on two commonly referred to modes of innovation (Jensen et al., 2007), that is, two types of innovation processes: Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI), this chapter examines the processes that lead to new products and services in a tourism context. Based on this, DUI seems to capture the essence of innovation in tourism enterprises better than STI, as it acknowledges the intrinsic nature of services and the typical size and working modes of touristic actors. The case study of Icehotel furthermore, illustrates how working in partnerships and in close cooperation with customers enhances the advantages of the DUI model. The handling of externally induced events and difficulties and the critical partnerships are better understood through the DUI than the STI lens. The DUI-framework leads to a more correct picture of tourism innovation, and could also provide a better guidance for policy processes in the field.