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ABSTRACT
This article assesses the construction of cultural geographies of the European far North through an exploration of how Arctic motifs and imaginaries are used in the Christmas tourism industry in Finnish Lapland, and particularly in the city of Rovaniemi, which advertises itself as the ‘Official Hometown of Santa Claus’. Specifically, we draw parallels between Christmas tourism and Arctic mining by examining the similarities and interconnections between them. This highlights how these industries are related to the Arctic landscape they operate in and how both are ultimately embedded in similar cultural perceptions of and engagements with Lapland dating back centuries. A long-term perspective on Arctic geographical imaginaries enables a critical assessment of how the tourism and mining industries are both steeped in the exoticization and mythologising of the Arctic on the one hand and in a tradition of material and symbolic exploitation of northern resources on the other. This approach helps researchers to highlight a problematic character of the current development of Christmas tourism in Lapland.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank our colleagues affiliated with the Nordic Centre of Excellence “Resource Extraction and Sustainable Arctic Communities” (REXSAC), particularly Prof Jarkko Saarinen, and the two anonymous referees for their comments on the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Pirttikoski, ”Coca-Colan joulurekka”.
2. https://www.coca-cola.fi/stories/coca-cola-joulurekka-pysaehtyi-napapiirillae-ensimmaeisen-kerran (25 June 2019).
3. E.g. Visit Finland (Citation2019).
4. Varnajot, ‘Walk the line’.
5. See Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North; Andersson Burnett, ‘Abode of Satan’
6. Davidson, The Idea of North; Naum, ‘Between Utopia and Dystopia’.
7. Naum, ‘Between Utopia and Dystopia’.
8. Hall, Müller and Saarinen, Nordic Tourism: Issues and Cases. See also Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeology and Cosmology for a long-term perspective.
9. E.g. Hall and Saarinen, ‘Polar Tourism’; Palma et al. ‘Cruising the Marginal Ice Zone’
10. Hovelsrud et al., ‘Arctic Societies, Cultures and Peoples’.
11. See Grenier, ‘The Diversity of Polar Tourism’; Hall, ‘Santa Claus, place branding and competition’; Hall, ‘Changement climatique’; Hall, ‘Will Climate Change Kill Santa Claus’; Saarinen and Tervo, ‘Sustainability and Emerging Awareness’; Rusko et al., ‘Coopetition, Resource-Based View and Legend’; Tervo-Kankare et al., ‘Christmas Tourists’ Perceptions’; Castéran and Roederer, ‘Does authenticity really affect Behaviour’; Falk and Vieru, ‘International Tourism Demand to Finnish Lapland’.
12. Cf. Komu, ‘Dreams of Treasures’.
13. Cf. Komu, Pursuing the Good Life in the North.
14. Hall, ‘Santa Claus, Place branding and Competition’, 61.
15. Visit Finland (Citation2019).
16. M. Pretes, ‘Postmodern Tourism’.
17. Tervo-Kankare et al., ‘Christmas Tourists’ Perceptions’, 296.
18. Hall, ‘Santa Claus, Place Branding and Competition’, 59–67; Pretes, ‘Postmodern Tourism’.
19. Grenier, ‘The diversity of polar tourism’, pp. 55–72; Pretes, ‘Postmodern tourism’, pp. 1–15.
20. Visit Finland (Citation2019).
21. Pretes, ‘Postmodern Tourism’; Rusko et al., “Coopetition, Resource-Based View and Legend’; Tervo-Kankare, ‘Christmas Tourists’ Perceptions’; Varnajot, ‘Walk the Line’.
22. Löytynoja, ‘The Development of Specific Locations’; Timothy, Tourism and Political Boundaries; Zelinsky, ‘Where Every Town is Above Average’.
23. See Viken, ‘What is Arctic Tourism’.
24. Varnajot, ‘Walk the Line’.
25. Visit Finland (Citation2019).
26. Pretes, ‘Postmodern Tourism’.
27. Visit Finland (Citation2019).
28. Saarinen, ”Tourism in Northern Wilderness”.
29. Naum, ‘Enchantment of the Underground’.
30. E.g., Pretes, ”Touring Mines and Mining Tourists”.
31. Komu, ‘Dreams of Treasures’.
32. Davidson, The Idea of North; Nordin, ‘Metals of Metabolism’; Komu, ‘Dreams of Treasures’.
33. Nordin, ‘Metals of Metabolism’.
34. Evans and Rydén, Baltic Iron in the Atlantic World.
35. Heckscher, An Economic History of Sweden.
36. Naum, ‘Enchantment of the Underground’.
37. Nordin, ‘Metals of Metabolism’; Naum, ‘Between Utopia and Dystopia’.
38. Tilley, ”The Neolithic Sensory Revolutions”; Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeologies and Cosmologies.
39. Fors, The Limits of Matter; Kroonenberg, Why Hell Stinks of Sulphur; Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeologies and Cosmologies.
40. Partanen, Sankareita, veijareita ja huijareita.
41. Launonen and Partanen, Guide to the Goldfields.
42. Ibid.
43. Rusko et al., ‘Coopetition, Resource-Based View and Legend’.
44. Hall, ‘Santa Claus, Place Branding and Competition’.
45. Hall, ‘Santa Claus, Place Branding and Competition’; Hall, ‘Changement climatique’.
46. Leu and Müller, ‘Maintaining Inherited Occupations’.
48. SantaPark (Citation2019).
49. See e.g. Núñez, ‘Changing Visions of the Mythical Reindeer’.
50. Mathisen, ‘Northern Lights Experiences’; Jóhannesson and Lund, ‘Aurora Borealis: Choreographies of darkness and light’.
51. See Falck-Ytter et al., Aurora.
52. Amoamo and Boyd, ‘Shifting Images’; Bertella, ‘Photography and Northern Lights Tourism’; Saarinen and Varnajot, ‘The Arctic in Tourism’; Tervo, ‘The Operational and Regional Vulnerability’.
53. Mathisen, ‘Northern Lights Experiences’.
54. See Saarinen and Varnajot, ‘The Arctic in Tourism’.
55. Ísleifsson, ‘Introduction: Imaginations of National Ihyperbdentity and the North’.
56. Davidson, The Idea of North; Andersson Burnett, ‘Abode of Satan’.
57. See e.g. Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North; Naum, ‘Between Utopia and Dystopia’; Herva et al. ‘Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements’.
58. Ahl, ‘Amber, Avallon’; Hughes-Brock, ‘Amber and the Mycenaeans’; Ragazzi, ‘Amber, a Stone of Sun’.
59. Naum, ‘Between Utopia and Dystopia’; Nordin, ‘Metals of Metabolism’.
60. Komu, ‘Dreams of Treasures’; Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeology and Cosmology.
61. Bridge, ‘Material Worlds’; Avango et al., ‘Assessing Arctic Futures’.
62. See further Schoenberger, ‘Why Is Gold Valuable’.
63. Herva et al., ‘Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements’.
64. Saarinen and Varnajot, ‘The Arctic in tourism.’
65. Schefferus, Lappland.
66. Byrne, Geographies of the Romantic North.
67. Nordin, and Ojala, ‘Collecting Sápmi’.
68. See further Naum and Nordin, ‘Introduction’.
69. E.g. Hand, ‘California Miners’ Folklore’; Fors, The Limits of Matter; Naum, ‘Enchantment of the Underground’; Komu, ‘Dreams of Treasures’; Fløgstad, Pyramiden.
70. Hand, ‘California Miners’ Folklore’.
71. Davidson, The Idea of North, 60.
72. Davidson, The Idea of North.
73. Hall, ‘Changement climatique’; Tervo-Kankare et al., ‘Christmas Tourists’ Perceptions’.
74. Hall, ‘Will Climate Change kill Santa Claus’; Jylhä et al. ‘Climate Change Projections’.
75. Visit Rovaniemi Citation2019a).
76. Hall, ‘Santa Claus, Place Branding and Competition’, 62.
77. Pretes, ‘Postmodern Tourism’, 14.
78. See Magic of Lapland (Citation2019); Levi Tourist Office (Citation2019); Pohjolan Pirtti (Citation2019); Visit SeaLapland (Citation2019).
79. Nuttall, Encyclopaedia of the Arctic.
80. Grenier, ‘The Diversity of Polar Tourism’; Timothy, ‘Collecting Places’; Varnajot, ‘Walk the Line’.
81. See e.g. Davidson, The Idea of North; Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeology and Cosmology.
82. All About Lapland, p. 30.
83. See Saarinen and Varnajot, ‘The Arctic in Tourism’.
84. See e.g. Knapp and Ashmore, ‘Archaeological Landscapes’.
85. E.g. Herva and Lahelma, Northern Archaeology and Cosmology.
86. SantaPark (Citation2019).
87. SantaPark (Citation2019).
88. See Bridge, ‘Material worlds’; Avango, ‘Assessing Arctic Futures’.
89. McKay, ‘Consumption, Coca-Colonization, Cultural Resistance’.