20 years of the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism: looking to the past and forward

ABSTRACT

This paper is an introductory paper to the Special Issue marking the 20th Anniversary of the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. The aim of this paper is threefold: First, it briefly presents and give thanks to the persons involved in establishing and developing the journal to what it is today. Second is a presentation of the journal’s current standing. Third, it presents an overview of the ten main areas of research featured in the journal since its start. For each of the 10 areas, expert researchers within each field have been invited to review the SJHT publications related to their topic and propose a future research agenda. They are included as separate short papers in this issue (SJHT, Vol. 21, No. 1). Thus, this anniversary issue looks to the past and forward, aiming to inspire future event, hospitality, and tourism research relevant to the Nordic, as well as the North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Event
• hospitality
• tourism
• Scandinavian
• Nordic

Introduction

It is a true privilege and honour for us to introduce this 20th anniversary issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. We, the current Chief Editors, are proud to follow a long line of exceptional Chief Editors and Editorial Board Members of the journal. The journal was launched by the Norwegian School of Hotel Management, University of Stavanger in 2001. Professor Emeritus Reidar J. Mykletun and Professor Jan Vidar Haukeland were the founding editors of the journal, supported by an Associate Editor Board representing five tourism education and research institutions.¹

The journal aimed to serve as a meeting point for authors and readers particularly interested in event, hospitality, and tourism in the Nordic context. The Nordic context was defined as “including the Scandinavian peninsula, Finland, the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, Denmark, the North Sea region and also Iceland and the arctic areas around Svalbard” (Mykletun & Haukeland, 2001, p. 1). The scope of the journal has continually been a subject of discussion at the annual board meetings. To date, the decision has been to remain true to its geographical scope, based on the belief that the Nordic context presents unique characteristics that deserve investigation and contributes to new and interesting perspectives attracting a wider audience. In fact, the 2019 report from the publisher shows that 43% of article downloads in 2019–2020 are by readers located outside Europe. Figure 1 illustrates the stable increase in downloads from 2012 to 2020. A total increase of 285%, with an annual growth from 12% to 33%. The journal started out with two issues per volume in 2001, then increased to three issues in 2004, four issues in 2006, and five issues from 2019 onwards. This was due to an increasing number of submitted quality papers. In total, more than 480 papers have been published in this journal.

Figure 1. SJHT downloads 2012–2020.

Along with the volume growth, there has also been a need for additional editorial resources. Professor Anette Therkelsen, University of Aalborg, Denmark, and Professor Erika Andersson Cederholm, University of Lund, Sweden, joined the team of co-editors during 2008–2014. The Editorial Board has since then been stable but also dynamic, with members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, UK, and New Zealand. In 2015, when Professor Trude Furunes and Professor Gro Ellen Mathisen took over the role as Chief Editors from Mykletun and Haukeland, they also appointed a team of supporting resource editors. In the period 2016–2019, Professor Jens Kristian Steen Jacobsen and Professor Trude Furunes co-edited the journal. From 2020, Professor Christine Lundberg and Professor Trude Furunes are the Chief Editors of the journal. We extend our deepest gratitude to the journal’s previous editors and previous and existing editorial board members for their longstanding effort and hard work in building the journal and Nordic community of event, hospitality, and tourism researchers to what it is today. Central in this Nordic community is the Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research and the research network NORTHORS. In a true Nordic spirit, the work behind the journal, by its community, is a collective effort that we are proud and thankful to be a part of and we wish to express our sincere thanks to the journal’s Nordic and international reviewers and authors.

A journal’s relevance can be measured by different means. Indicators used for impact measurement show that the interest in the journal has grown over the years. The journal was already included in Scopus in 2001. One of the milestones of the journal was to be indexed in Thomson Reuter’s science citation index “getting an Impact Factor” (IF).² In the early years of SJHT, this was not considered relevant, but as the importance for universities and researchers to publish in indexed journals increased, it became increasingly important for SJHT to be among the indexed tourism and hospitality journals. Figure 2 displays the development of IFs.

Figure 2. SJHT impact factor development.

Impact factor is only one of many measures used and focuses purely on the number of citations a journal has. Over the recent years, tourism and hospitality journals has in general had a positive IF development. At the same time, SJHT has climbed in journal rankings. In addition to this, new metrics have come into play, displaying a wider range of measurements of how a paper can make an impact, including a paper’s Altmetric Attention Score.³ Given its relatively narrow geographical scope, the journal has a high impact factor and global readership.

Looking to the past

Journal impact

There are several ways to evaluate an article’s impact, including counting downloads and citations. The most downloaded paper in the 20 year history of the journal is written by Ana María Munar and Jens Kr. Steen Jacobsen (2013), titled “Trust and Involvement in Tourism Social Media and Web-Based Travel Information Sources” with its impressive 22,297 downloads and 96 citations.⁴ This is followed by Tommy D. Andersson, Lena Mossberg and Anette Therkelsen’s (2017) editorial paper “Food and Tourism Synergies: Perspectives on Consumption, Production and Destination Development” with 12,885 downloads and 40 citations. In third place is Lena Mossberg’s (2007) article “A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience” with 9928 downloads and 234 citations.

In terms of citations, Lena Mossberg’s, 2007 publication is the most referenced publication in the history of the journal, followed by Svein Larsen’s article “Aspects of a Psychology of the Tourist Experience” published in 2007 with 175 citations. And finally, the third most cited paper is Tommy D. Andersson’s “The Tourist in the Experience Economy” 2007 publication with 125 citations. These numbers should however be viewed in the light of the fact that most these publications were published around 2007 and have therefore had more time to receive more downloads and citations than more recent publications of the journal.⁵

Prominent research areas

In the following section, an overview of the 10 most prominent areas of research in the history of the journal are presented (Table 1). These areas have been identified using a thematic analysis based on numbers of articles published within each field. This analysis has then been reviewed, revised, and validated by the journal’s editorial board members. It aims at identifying the main research areas of the journal’s 20-year history and to propose future research agendas for each field. The categorisation of papers is not always exclusive, as a few papers have been categorised into several categories. For example, if an article focuses on natural resources and experiences equally, it has been grouped in both the nature-based tourism as well as the experience categories.⁶ Figure 3 displays the proportionate distribution of papers across these 10 areas. In total, the publications in these 10 areas count for 70% of the total number of publications published from 2001 to 2020.

Table 1. Overview of the most prominent research areas.

Research area	n	Most downloaded paper	Most cited paper	Total number of downloads for area	Total number of citations for area
Nature-Based Tourism	71	Frontiers in Nature-Based Tourism (2010)	Frontiers in Nature-Based Tourism (2010)	+47,000	+1000
Experience	64	A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience (2007)	A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience (2007)	+84,000	+1500
Hospitality	53	Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality: Issues and Implications. A Case Study of Scandic (2008)	Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality: Issues and Implications. A Case Study of Scandic (2008)	+40,000	+600
Events and Festivals	42	Conceptualisation and Operationalisation of Event and Festival Experiences: Creation of an Event Experience Scale (2016)	Stakeholder Influences on the Ownership and Management of Festival Brands (2006)	+50,000	+570
Rural Tourism	31	Innovation Gaps in Scandinavian Rural Tourism (2018)	Environmental Impacts of Rural Second Home Tourism – Case Lake District in Finland (2007)	+20,000	+370
Marketing and Nordic Place Branding	26	“A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience” (2007)	“A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience” (2007)	+33,000	+539
Tourism Economics	18	The Tourist in the Experience Economy (2007)	The Tourist in the Experience Economy (2007)	+17,000	+400
Second Homes	16	Second Homes in the Nordic Countries: Between Common Heritage and Exclusive Commodity (2007)	Second Homes in the Nordic Countries: Between Common Heritage and Exclusive Commodity (2007)	+8000	+300
Climate Change	14	Climate Change Acknowledgement and Responses of Summer (Glacier) Ski Visitors in Norway (2018)	The Operational and Regional Vulnerability of Winter Tourism to Climate Variability and Change: The Case of the Finnish Nature-Based Tourism Entrepreneurs (2008)	+7000	+170
Arctic and Indigenous Cultures	12	Polar Tourism: Definitions and Dimensions (2010)	Access to Sami Tourism in Northern Sweden (2001)	+9000	+230

Figure 3. Overview of the 10 most prominent areas of research of the journal.

Nature-based tourism research

The nature-based tourism theme makes up the largest collections of papers (n = 71) since the start of the journal. Key contributors in the field are Peter Fredman with his 9 publications and Reidar J. Mykletun (5 publications). Two papers in the group have more than 3000 downloads respectively. The most downloaded paper is written by Peter Fredman and Liisa Tyrväinen entitled “Frontiers in Nature-Based Tourism” (3780), published in 2010 and introducing the 10th Anniversary Issue which focused on nature-based tourism. The second most downloaded paper is Ann Heidi Hansen and Lena Mossberg’s “Tour Guides’ Performance and Tourists’ Immersion: Facilitating Consumer Immersion by Performing a Guide Plus Role” (3723), published in 2017. Fredman and Tyrväinen’s paper is also the most cited (76) publication in the group followed by Kaarina Tervo’s 2008 article “The Operational and Regional Vulnerability of Winter Tourism to Climate Variability and Change: The Case of the Finnish Nature-Based Tourism Entrepreneurs” (64). The total number of downloads exceeds 47,000 and 1000 citations. Please see Fredman and Margaryan (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Experience research

The group of papers included in the category experiences (n = 64) is the second largest category presented here. The key contributor to the field is Lena Mossberg with a total of 6 publications in the category followed by Erose Sthapit with 4 articles. The most downloaded (9928) publication in the group is Lena Mossberg’s, 2007 publication “A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience” which is also the most cited paper (234). This is followed by Svein Larsen’s “Aspects of a Psychology of the Tourist Experience” published the same year as a part of a Special Issue with its 8016 downloads and 175 citations. The publications in this category have received more than 84,000 downloads and 1500 citations and is thus the area of highest impact. Please see Björk et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Hospitality research

Hospitality research covers a broad spectrum of papers (n = 53). Authors represent both Nordic and international researchers. The most downloaded and citated papers are Paulina Bohdanowicz and Piotr Zientara’s (2008) paper on “Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality: Issues and Implications. A Case Study of Scandic” (5078 downloads and 91 citations) and Conrad Lashley’s 2008 paper “Studying Hospitality: Insights from Social Sciences” (4157 downloads and 70 citations). The total number of downloads and citations for all publications in the category exceeds 40,000 downloads and 600 citations. Please see Gjerald et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Events and festivals research

The group of papers included in the category events and festivals (n = 42) were predominantly published during the years of 2009–2016. Tommy D. Andersson (6 publications), Reidar J. Mykletun (6 publications) and Donald Getz (5 publications) are the key contributors in the group followed by John Armbrecht (4 publications). The most downloaded (4162) publication in the group is “Conceptualisation and Operationalisation of Event and Festival Experiences: Creation of an Event Experience Scale” written by Sjanett De Geus, Greg Richards and Vera Toepoel, published in 2016. This is followed by Donald Getz and Richard Robinson’s article “Foodies and Food Events” with a total number of 3147 downloads, published in 2014. The most cited paper (48) is “Stakeholder Influences on the Ownership and Management of Festival Brands” by Lena Mossberg and Donald Getz, published in 2006. The publications in this category have received more than 50,000 downloads and exceeds 570 citations. Please see Armbrecht et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Rural tourism research

More than half of the articles categorised in the group rural tourism (n = 31) was published between 2014 and 2019. Scholars from all Nordic countries are included in the group. Two papers have more than 2000 downloads. These are “Innovation Gaps in Scandinavian Rural Tourism” (2350) by Anne-Mette Hjalager, Grzegorz Kwiatkowsk, and Martin Østervig Larsen, published in 2018 and “An Empirical Investigation of Tourists’ Consumption of Local Food in Rural Tourism” (2241) published in 2016, by Svein Frisvoll, Magnar Forbord, and Arild Blekesaune. The most cited publication in the group is Mervi J. Hiltunen’s 2007 publication “Environmental Impacts of Rural Second Home Tourism – Case Lake District in Finland” with 51 citations. The number of downloads and citations for the group total exceeds 20,000 and 370 citations respectively. Please see Helgadóttir and Dashper (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Marketing and Nordic place branding research

All Nordic countries are represented in the author line-up for articles included in the group marketing and Nordic place branding⁷ (n = 26) in addition to a few international scholars. The most downloaded (9928) paper in the group is Lena Mossberg’s, 2007 publication “A Marketing Approach to the Tourist Experience” which is also included in the experiences research category described in this paper. This is followed by Donald Getz and Richard N.S. Robinson’s “Foodies and Food Events” (3147) published in 2014. The most cited papers in the group are (again) Mossberg’s paper (234) followed by Can-Seng Ooi’s 2004 article “Poetics and Politics of Destination Branding: Denmark” (69). The number of downloads and citations for all papers in the group are exceeding 33,000 downloads and 539 citations. Please see Cassinger et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Tourism economics research

2016 was an important year for manuscripts grouped in the category economics (n = 18) with almost 30% of the publications within the group. The most downloaded and cited paper in the category is Tommy D. Andersson’s 2007 publication “The Tourist in the Experience Economy” with its 6957 downloads and 125 citations. In terms of downloads, this is followed by Katja Pasanen, Heidi Taskinen, and Jenni Mikkonen’s paper “Impacts of Cultural Events in Eastern Finland – Development of a Finnish Event Evaluation Tool” published in 2009 (2099). On second place regarding citations we find Jarkko Saarinen’s 2003 publication “The Regional Economics of Tourism in Northern Finland: The Socio-economic Implications of Recent Tourism Development and Future Possibilities for Regional Development” with its 75 citations. The number of downloads and citations for all publications in the category are exceeding 17,000 downloads and 400 citations. Please see Falk et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Second homes research

Manuscripts categorised in the group second homes (n = 16) were predominantly published during the years of 2007–2013. Dieter K. Müller is the key contributor in the lineup (5 publications). Müller is also the author of the most downloaded (1330) and cited (66) article in the group, entitled “Second Homes in the Nordic Countries: Between Common Heritage and Exclusive Commodity”, published in 2007. This paper is closely followed by “Environmental Impacts of Rural Second Home Tourism – Case Lake District in Finland” by Mervi J. Hiltunen in 2007 with 1272 downloads and 51 citations. The total amount of downloads for the publications on second homes in the journal exceeds 8000 and 300 citations. Please see Müller (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Climate change research

All papers grouped as climate change publications (n = 14) were published between 2008 and 2018. Authors from all Nordic countries are represented in the group in addition to a few international scholars. Two papers in the group stand out in terms of number of downloads. These are O. Cenk Demiroglu, Halvor Dannevig and Carlo Aall’s paper “Climate Change Acknowledgement and Responses of Summer (Glacier) Ski Visitors in Norway” from 2018 with its 2295 downloads and Eva Kaján’s 2014 publication “Arctic Tourism and Sustainable Adaptation: Community Perspectives to Vulnerability and Climate Change” with 1444 downloads. In terms of citations, the 2008 paper “The Operational and Regional Vulnerability of Winter Tourism to Climate Variability and Change: The Case of the Finnish Nature-Based Tourism Entrepreneurs” (64) by Kaarina Tervo and Stefan Gössling and C. Michael Hall’s article from the same year “Swedish Tourism and Climate Change Mitigation: An Emerging Conflict?” (35) are at the top of the list. The total number of downloads in the group exceeds 7000 and citations 170. Please see Hall and Saarinen (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Arctic and indigenous cultures research

Most of the papers categorised in the group Arctic and indigenous cultures (n = 12) were published during the years of 2006–2016. The group is made up by a wide group of researchers from Nordic countries. The most downloaded (2698) paper in the category is Michael Hall and Jarkko Saarinen’s “Polar Tourism: Definitions and Dimensions” from 2010 followed by “Tourism and the Sámi in transition: a discourse analysis of Swedish newspapers, 1982–2015” by Jundan Zhang and Dieter Müller published in 2018 (1336). The most cited papers in the category are Dieter K. Müller and Robert Pettersson’s 2001 publication “Access to Sami Tourism in Northern Sweden” (48) and C. Michael Hall and Jarkko Saarinen‘s article “Polar Tourism: Definitions and Dimensions” (38) published in 2010. The total number of downloads in the category exceeds 9000 and 230 citations. Please see Ren et al. (2021, this issue) for review and future research agenda.

Looking forward

As we look to the future of events, hospitality, and tourism research and industry development, it is unavoidable to consider the time and challenges during which this paper was written. The main challenge of 2020–2021 has by far been COVID-19 and it is safe to say that its implications on the industry and research will have long-term and far-reaching effects. In this vein, we would like to mention previous contributions in SJHT particularly looking into responding to external challenges, namely a Special Issue guest edited by Professor Svein Larsen (Vol. 11, No. 3) devoted to lessons learned in tourism after a decade of terrorism, disasters, and threats (Larsen, 2011), and two empirical papers (Hallin & Marnburg, 2007; Ritchie et al., 2011). Hallin and Marnburg’s (2007) study of Copenhagen hotel directors, investigated their perceived uncertainty in terms of decision-making during change processes. The findings suggest that hotel directors do not benefit from uncertainty in order to develop competitive advantages, but rather employ traditional strategic approaches (planning, procedures & routines) to reduce uncertainty. Another relevant study by Ritchie et al. (2011) shows that crisis planning is considered an important strategy in turbulent times, and particularly important for industries such as tourism which may be prone to a range of external and internal risks, crises and disasters. Ritchie et al. (2011) evaluate the level of crisis planning and crisis preparedness within the Australian accommodation industry and found that organisational type, size and age had an impact on the implementation of crisis planning and the perceived level of crisis preparedness.  Thus, we support would inquire follow up studies on how industry managers rate their pre-pandemic preparedness, how they have addressed the challenges met during the pandemic, and how they prepare for the future. In light of the pandemic, new studies analysing panel data on different tourism markets’ responses to global economic decline (Xie & Tveterås, 2020a, 2020b) are needed. For the journal, it is likely that research focus will shift in terms of both empirical focus and conceptual development and it is our hope and aim to continue to be an important platform through building knowledge, particularly in a Nordic context for academia and practice.

It has been suggested that the pandemic has intensified already existing trends – a phenomenon known as The Great Acceleration (McKinsey & Company, 2020). The idea behind The Great Acceleration proposes that the world was already experiencing these trends pre-COVID-19, but that the pandemic has brought them to the forefront with an urgency not previously experienced. In the case of event, hospitality, and tourism industry, existing challenges pre-pandemic times facing the industry, for example, sustainability concerns for sectors such as air transport and cruise industry have been further accentuated to a point where they may be facing major structural changes post-pandemic times.

The current and future primary challenges identified by the international research network TRINET in the document Initial TRINET Responses to COVID-19 Tourism (2020) post COVID-19 are policy, sustainability, marketing, integration, community, and consumers. Policy issues refer to for example collaborative efforts involving different stakeholders such as government, DMOs, and industry, finding a balance between volume and quality of target markets, development of recovery and crisis strategies and mitigate tendencies to tourist phobia and racism. Sustainability issues are likely to be even more in focus, particularly in promoting more sustainable actions and policy development. Relaunching of products and destinations, targeting loyal markets and initially on domestic and nearby international markets, social networking are all marketing related issues that are likely to be in focus a post COVID-19 future. Integration and community issues may centre on working with transport providers to reduce entry barriers, reassuring local community, local purchasing, consumption, solidarity, and altruism. This also includes the disruption of the hospitality and tourism industry due to the sharing economy, which was recently addressed in a Special Issue (see Adamiak, 2020; Casado-Diaz et al., 2020; Garay et al., 2020; Gyimóthy et al., 2020; Jokela & Minoia, 2020; Lindström, 2020; Nilsson & Zillinger, 2020). And finally, consumer related issues may focus on assuring destination safety, relationship, and trust building, promoting sustainability and educating tourists on sanitation and caring for physical and social environments. These are only a few examples of the possible re-focus of research in post-pandemic times according to the network. Although we may see a slight shift in academic focus, we would stress the importance of building on previous research to build accumulated knowledge (Furunes & Lundberg, 2020).

In this issue, the future of the 10 research areas that have been central in the 20-year history of the journal is outlined by identifying state-of-the-art within a Nordic context and related to international research. Furthermore, the future research agenda for each of these fields within a Nordic context are presented partly in relation to post-pandemic times. The proposed future areas of Nordic research for each of these 10 research topics echoes some of what the TRINET community has identified from an international perspective. For example, continued research on sustainability challenges for event, hospitality, and tourism were emphasised by the Nordics researchers in this anniversary issue. The importance of long-term development of events and festivals was identified by Armbrecht et al. (2021). A continued effort towards a better understanding of the different aspects of sustainable nature-based tourism such as policy challenges related to over- and under tourism and socioeconomic effects in the form of nature protection and local communities and resilience was called for by Fredman and Margaryan (2021). The need for further knowledge on resilience and climate change of destinations, governments, businesses, communities, and individuals was also raised by Hall and Saarinen (2021). The labour market perspective (one of UN 2030 sustainability goals) was addressed by Gjerald et al. (2021) and finally, the future need to understand the promotion of sustainable experiences was proposed by Björk et al. (2021).

Post-pandemic issues such as health and wellbeing and the importance of the local were also identified by the Nordic researchers as key areas of future research. For example, the relationship between nature, health, and wellbeing was addressed by Fredman and Margaryan (2021). Further knowledge on consumers’ wellbeing related to events and festivals was stressed by Armbrecht et al. (2021). Cassinger et al. (2021) proposed that one key Nordic branding research focus should be the connectedness to local cultures and imaginaries (e.g. Danish hygge and Sápmi) and Falk et al. (2021) stressed the under-reported understanding of micro-enterprises as an important area of future research.

Technology was also pinpointed as a crucial area of future research. Online platforms and their impact on markets and regulations was raised by Falk et al. (2021) and how new digitally enhanced experiences can benefit destinations and their stakeholders as well as how digital innovations may lead to new business models in the experience economy were put forward as a future area of research by Björk et al. (2021). Finally, the use of new technology at different stages of the customer journey was raised by Fredman and Margaryan (2021). In addition to this, the need for further interdisciplinary and conceptual work, to replace single-case empirical research, was emphasised by for example Armbrecht et al. (2021). New analytical approaches and methods were also identified as central in future research in order to contribute to theoretical advancement (Fredman & Margaryan, 2021; Ren et al., 2021).

As these identified future research areas suggest, these are not new research topics in event, hospitality, and tourism. However, the urgency in understanding them better by researchers and addressing them in practice by the industry has been intensified by The Great Acceleration. Areas such as climate change, sustainability, health and wellbeing, and technology will continue to pose as the main challenges for the industry and therefore be at the forefront of Nordic event, hospitality, tourism research in the years to come.

We hope that this anniversary issue brings you the reader insights into the last two decades of research into the event, hospitality, and tourism fields in the Nordic region, North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic regions and directions for future research. In the years moving forward, we endeavour to make sure that the journal will continue to contribute to knowledge beneficial to facing industrial and societal challenges and strengthen the Nordic event, hospitality, and tourism research community. We will continue to strive for a diverse and inclusive approach to event, hospitality, and tourism research that mirrors the rich and varied nature of research contributions by our community. We thank you for your readership and contribution to the journal to date and in the future.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Wasa in Finland, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Roskilde University, Denmark, University of Otago, New Zealand, and Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

2 Impact Factor is a measure of how many times a paper on average is cited, the first two years after publication.

3 The Altmetric Attention Score is an automated algorithm representing a weighted count of the amount of attention the paper has got online.

4 CrossRef citations.

5 Numbers for downloads and citations retrieved November 11, 2020.

6 Number of articles included in each research area below may differ from the expert researchers’ systematic reviews included in the anniversary issue. This is due to differing selection criteria made by each expert team.

7 Marketing and Nordic place branding articles have been included in this overview while the expert researchers’ systematic review only focuses on what is typically Nordic in the marketing field of the journal.