A Grid Cell Viewpoint to Resorts: Case Studies in Northern Finland

Abstract

Resorts are key elements in the tourism phenomenon, because they are considered places for tourism demand and supply. Basically, resorts are geographical units and, statistically, they are traditionally treated as administrative regions, that is as municipalities. However, resorts are often a part of a municipality, not independent administrative regions. When statistically examining the socio‐economic characteristics and changes of resorts smaller than municipalities, GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and georeferenced data seem to be a respectable option. The purpose of this investigation is to present a model, how to define resorts from their surrounding environment by utilizing so‐called grid cell data. The cases deal with the four large resorts – Levi, Ruka, Saariselkä and Ylläs – and their location municipalities (Kittilä, Kuusamo, Inari and Kolari) in Northern Finland. Population is used as an example variable to indicate the changes which occur on different geographical scales, that is municipality and resort levels. The study results show that at the municipality level, excluding Inari, the population development was negative in 1970–2003, but at the resort level the trend was vice versa. In addition, the population of the resorts seems to be concentrated in a smaller geographical area. Finally, the strengths, challenges and opportunities offered by GIS and georeferenced data are discussed in the context of resorts.

Keywords:

• Resorts
• municipalities
• grid cell
• population
• Northern Finland

Notes

Other sources:

Georeferenced data by Statistics Finland (grid cell data)

FinlandCD (1993, 2006)