ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the importance of tourism employment for in-migration to Malung/Sälen and Älvdalen, two rural municipalities hosting two major tourist destinations in the southern Swedish mountains. It uses micro-data from a database that includes, among many other variables, residence and employment information. This work is explorative and uses longitudinal data that permit examining individuals and go beyond simple net employment figures to show that many in-migrants to these municipalities are employed in tourism and constitute part of what is defined as the “creative workforce” in the local labour market. In this sense, tourism employment is found to be a pull factor for in-migration of highly skilled and well-paid people.