IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v114y2025ics0160738325001100.html

Pathway evolution of Arctic enclave resorts

Author

Listed:
  • Bohn, Dorothee

Abstract

This paper examines the rapid proliferation of Arctic-themed enclave resorts in northernmost Sweden and Finland. Drawing upon the concept of opportunity spaces, this qualitative inquiry traces how tourism development pathways unfold at the intersection of institutional environments' strategic selectivity and entrepreneurial agency. Results indicate that a new generation of highly industry-experienced entrepreneurs has seized the opportunities provided by a combination of strong international demand for exclusive Arctic tourism and low interest rates, as well as comprehensive state-backed financial assistance for business development. The enclave resort is advantageous for tourism in remote locations as it overcomes the economic challenges of distance decay and agglomeration deficiencies through a low-volume/high-yield business strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Bohn, Dorothee, 2025. "Pathway evolution of Arctic enclave resorts," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:114:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325001100
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2025.104004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738325001100
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2025.104004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank Moulaert & Bob Jessop & Abid Mehmood, 2016. "Agency, structure, institutions, discourse (ASID) in urban and regional development," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 167-187, July.
    2. Yang, Yi & Whitford, Michelle & Lockstone-Binney, Leonie, 2024. "Reconceptualising urban space with second home tourism: The emergence of an urban second-home tourism enclave," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Bob Jessop, 2001. "Institutional Re(turns) and the Strategic – Relational Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1213-1235, July.
    4. Anders Kärnä & Andreas Stephan, 2022. "Do firms in rural regions lack access to credit? Local variation in small business loans and firm growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(11), pages 1919-1933, November.
    5. Wang, Yi & Huang, Zhuowei & Fan, Aihan, 2025. "Tourism and new rurality: gentrified space versus co-created place," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Isabel Rodriguez-Sanchez & Allan M. Williams & Matilde Brotons, 2019. "The innovation journey of new-to-tourism entrepreneurs," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(8), pages 877-904, May.
    7. Ya-Yen Sun & Futu Faturay & Manfred Lenzen & Stefan Gössling & James Higham, 2024. "Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Laura James & Henrik Halkier & Heidi Vorre, 2025. "Constructive and destructive agency, regional path development and critical junctures: the case of cruise tourism in Nuuk, Greenland," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 2461755-246, December.
    9. Mellon, Vicky & Bramwell, Bill, 2018. "The temporal evolution of tourism institutions," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 42-52.
    10. White, Paul & Morgan, Nigel & Pritchard, Annette & Heimtun, Bente, 2019. "Framing the land of the Northern Lights," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Rydzik, Agnieszka & Kissoon, Chavan Sharma, 2022. "The shaping of the neoliberal worker: Socialisation of young adults through flexible hospitality work," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    12. Taylor, Paul & Frost, Warwick & Laing, Jennifer, 2019. "Path creation and the role of entrepreneurial actors: The case of the Otago Central Rail Trail," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 79-91.
    13. Maximilian Benner, 2023. "Revisiting path-as-process: agency in a discontinuity-development model," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 1119-1138, June.
    14. Bianchi, Raoul V. & Milano, Claudio, 2024. "Polycrisis and the metamorphosis of tourism capitalism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daisuke Sotohebo, 2025. "Trajectory of path creation theory in evolutionary economic geography: expansion of research from manufacturing and producer services to tourism," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 431-443, September.
    2. Anna Herzog, 2022. "Imaginaries, directionalities, agency and new path creation [Imaginaries, directionalities, Akteurshandeln und Pfadkreation]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(3), pages 279-307, December.
    3. Paula Fernandez-Wulff, 2019. "Collective Agency in the Making: How Social Innovations in the Food System Practice Democracy beyond Consumption," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 81-93.
    4. Andrew M. Wood, 2004. "Domesticating Urban Theory? US Concepts, British Cities and the Limits of Cross-national Applications," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(11), pages 2103-2118, October.
    5. Nikoletta Kaszás & Bálint Jakab & Krisztina Keller, 2026. "Rethinking Tourism Sustainability Certification: a Circular Economy Approach - Analysis of the Circular Economy Criteria for Sustainability Certificates in Tourism," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-24, February.
    6. Franziska Görmar, 2023. "Loss and change: Culture narratives in old industrial regions in East Germany," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(7), pages 1577-1595, September.
    7. Hao Li & Yun Tong, 2025. "Developing a quantitative analytical framework for carbon neutrality in tourism-dependent regions," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    8. Prathiwi Widyatmi Putri, 2024. "The political: A view from Jakarta’s kampungs," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 979-987, May.
    9. Leiashvily, Paata, 2026. "The Autopoietic Model of Economic Reproduction (AMER)," MPRA Paper 128833, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Wilfred Dolfsma, 2013. "Government Failure," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15372.
    11. Paula Fernandez-Wulff, 2019. "Collective Agency in the Making: How Social Innovations in the Food System Practice Democracy beyond Consumption," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 81-93.
    12. Isaac, Rami K. & Farkic, Jelena, 2024. "Walled off: Tourism and justice in oppressed communities," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    13. Simon Pemberton & Janice Morphet, 2014. "The Rescaling of Economic Governance: Insights into the Transitional Territories of England," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2354-2370, August.
    14. Tom Barnes, 2023. "Punish, protect or redirect? Synthesising workfare with ‘spatially Keynesian’ labour market policies in times of job loss," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 871-889, June.
    15. Shrestha, Roshis Krishna & Shrestha, Tara Lal & Ruhanen, Lisa & Johnson, Abbie Gayle, 2025. "Precarity and indigenous tourism work in Nepal," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    16. Bernhard Truffer, 2024. "New methodological inroads to regional path development - Epistemological reflections on the contribution of semantic network analysis," GEIST - Geography of Innovation and Sustainability Transitions 2024(05), GEIST Working Paper Series.
    17. Ilaria Delponte, 2021. "Institutional and Non-Institutional Governance Initiatives in Urban Transport Planning: The Paradigmatic Case of the Post-Collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Monios, Jason & Ng, Adolf K.Y., 2021. "Competing institutional logics and institutional erosion in environmental governance of maritime transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Bin Li & Chaoqun Liu, 2018. "Emerging selective regimes in a fragmented authoritarian environment: The ‘three old redevelopment’ policy in Guangzhou, China from 2009 to 2014," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1400-1419, May.
    20. Peter Fairbrother, 2015. "Rethinking trade unionism: Union renewal as transition," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(4), pages 561-576, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:114:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325001100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.