ABSTRACT
Nature has been a key attraction factor for tourism in the Nordic countries for decades. The demand for nature-based tourism has steadily grown and is the most rapidly expanding sector within tourism across Europe and elsewhere (Bell et al., 2008; UNWTO, 2009). This demand has created opportunities for nature-based tourism to develop as an economic diversification tool within regions rich in natural amenities such as northern Europe. In Finnish Lapland, for example, tourism is already the most important economic sector providing more job opportunities than the forest industry (Council of Lapland, 2008). Nature-based tourism is also a growing land-use activity and economic sector involving different types of entrepreneurs, many of which are relatively small, located in rural regions and may only work parttime in tourism combined with agriculture, forestry or other rural means of livelihood. Many of these businesses are also challenged by seasonality in tourism demand and conflicts with other natural resource uses.
