Sámi Tourism Collaboration and Marketing Network
The project aims at creating responsible and ethically sustainable collaboration and marketing network for Sámi tourism together with Sámi community.
In general, visitors have limited knowledge on Sámi culture. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to recognise authentic Sámi tourism products. The new project aims at highlighting responsible and ethically sustainable Sámi tourism products, so the visitor has an opportunity to choose one that supports the Sámi community.
– Sámi tourism and what is understood as an authentic and ethically sustainable Sámi tourism product or service have given rise to much discussion both within Sámi community as well as the majority population. The project aims at finding answers to this question in order to make it easier for Sámi entrepreneurs and other actors to consider tourism as livelihood and source of side-income also in the future. In the field of Sámi tourism, I hope there will be extensive collaboration, which is based on multilateral mutual understanding and respect, says Tuomas Aslak Juuso, the President of Sámi Parliament in Finland.
Ethical guidelines for Sámi tourism
In 2018, Sámi Parliament in Finland adopted ethical guidelines for Sámi tourism. In the new project, a certificate will be determined in order to ensure supportive environment for competitiveness of responsible and ethically sustainable Sámi products. In addition, the project improves the knowledge base for Sámi tourism through pooling of responsible Sámi entrepreneurs and other actors in tourism field.
– There are Sámi actors in tourism sector who have expertise for productisation of Sámi tourism. The aim is to sit down together and think about good practices and criteria for responsible and ethically sustainable utilisation of Sámi culture. In addition, Sámi community and interest groups are consulted on commercial utilisation of the culture, says project Sámi tourism project coordinator Kirsi Suomi.
Sámi Parliament in Finland has received 200 000 € fund from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland to implement the new Sámi tourism -project in the years of 2022-2024. The aim is to have a complete collaboration network in 2025, when the first European Indigenous Tourism Conference is held in Inari. The conference is organised by WINTA (World Indigenous Tourism Alliance), Sámi Parliament in Finland and University of Lapland.
