Saamelaismatkailun hyvä sekä huono tulevaisuus.

Discover Responsible Visitor’s Guidance to Sámi Culture and Sámi Homeland in Finland

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Do you know the customs and must-nots of Sámi culture like the back of your hand? Test your knowledge with the new Sámi tourism quiz and watch the animation on holistic sustainability. Sámi Parliament in Finland has published Responsible Sámi Tourism Visitor Guidance with its accompanying materials at www.samediggi.fi/saamelaismatkailu/en/.

Saamelaismatkailun hyvä sekä huono tulevaisuus.
Illustration: Sunna Kitti

The visitor guidance is primarily aimed at national and international visitors, non-local travel industry entrepreneurs and employees arriving in Sámi Homeland. Tourism study teachers and students may also utilise the materials if interested in Sámi tourism. At the moment, the site is available in Finnish and English.

– General knowledge regarding Sámi people, their history and modern Sámi society is still superficial, and often coloured by preconceptions and misrepresentations. Hence, increasing and distributing truthful information and knowledge about the Sámi also through tourism is crucial, says Tuomas Aslak Juuso, the President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland.

– I hope the visitor guidance for Sámi tourism will be widely used and it benefits as many stakeholders as possible. We want to encourage tourists to make responsible and ethically sustainable choices while visiting Sámi Homeland in Finland, continues Leo Aikio, the II Vice President of Sámi Parliament in Finland.

Visitor guidance for Sámi tourism and tourism in Sámi Homeland introduces the visitors to special characteristics of the region and Sámi culture. This digital material package is designed to meet the current challenges in tourism and to guide visitors on how to respect and take into consideration Sámi communities and their culture. In addition to the actual visitor guidance, the new site includes animation on holistic sustainability, vision of optional futures, large vocabulary on Sámi tourism and Sámi Homeland, as well as quiz to test one’s newly acquired knowledge.

– In addition to the vocabulary, the whole site still needs small adjustments. However, that is the benefit of digital material package.  As it is updatable, it is easy to react to new touristic trends and challenges depending on how they affect daily lives and festivities of local communities, says Kirsi Suomi, the co-ordinator of the project.

Responsible Tourist Is Aware of Being a Guest at Local People’s Home

Sámiland has been home to Sámi people since time immemorial. When visiting Sámiland, a tourist is a guest in a special and precious cultural landscape that has been formed and sustained by everyday life and festivities of the Sámi, the only indigenous people within the area of the European Union. This living cultural landscape still enables the vitality and wellbeing of Sámi culture and transmission of it all to future generations.

In all the places, where our deeds and footprints reach and affect, we all share responsibility of our future together. Together we can make today more responsible and ethically sustainable. Tomorrow’s generations also need all this beauty and richness to live and experience.

This responsible visitors’ guidance website is based on the ethical guidelines for Sámi tourism adopted by the Sámi Parliament in Finland in 2018. Sunna Kitti’s illustrations clarify and exemplify ethical guidelines’ message of how to behave and act in order to secure more responsible and ethically sustainable future in Sámi Homeland and support the continuation of Sámi culture.

Sámi Parliament’s Responsible Sámi Tourism Visitor Guidance with its accompanying materials has been financed by Ministry of Education and Culture.

More information:

Tuomas Aslak Juuso
President of Sámi Parliament in Finland
+358 40 687 3394
tuomas.juuso@samediggi.fi

Leo Aikio
II Vice President of Sámi Parliament in Finland
+358 40 621 6505
leo.aikio@samediggi.fi

Kirsi Suomi
Co-ordinator, Responsible Sámi Tourism projects
+358 10 839 3118 / +358 40 594 5492
kirsi.suomi@samediggi.fi

Sámi Tourism Project Aims at Building a Responsible and Ethically Sustainable Sámi Tourism Collaboration Network

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The project aims at creating responsible and ethically sustainable collaboration and marketing network for Sámi tourism together with Sámi community. Sámi Parliament in Finland has received funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland for a new Sámi tourism project which is implemented in 2022–2024.

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.

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.

Supporting the message of the ethical guidelines for Sámi tourism are the illustrations made by the comic artist Sunna Kitti.

– 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 co-ordinator Kirsi Suomi.

Sámi Parliament in Finland 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.

More information:

Tuomas Aslak Juuso
President of Sámi Parliament in Finland
+358 40 687 3394
tuomas.juuso(at)samediggi.fi

Kirsi Suomi
Co-ordinator
+358 40 594 5492
kirsi.suomi(at)samediggi.fi

The First New Illustrations of the Ethical Guidelines of Sámi Tourism Have Been Released

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Young Sámi comic artist, Sunna Kitti, illustrates Principles for Responsible and Ethically Sustainable Sámi Tourism -guidelines. All the new illustrations are now ready and waiting to be published. New material is primarily meant to be used as study material for students in the field of tourism studies and for various sectors and actors in tourism industry and as well as for the tourists arriving to the Sámi Homeland in Finland

By combining illustrations with the text of the ethical guidelines, the Sámi Parliament in Finland wants to raise larger public awareness of the challenges of Sámi tourism. ‘We hope that the visual information clarifies the message of the guidelines and, thus, eases their internalisation and implementation.’ says the project co-ordinator Kirsi Suomi.

First illustrations are now released. The Future We Want -illustration is based on the vision in the ethical guidelines. Following the vision, the traditional livelihoods of the Sámi are viable and profitable. Modern livelihoods such as responsible and ethically sustainable tourism based on Sámi culture support the profitability of traditional livelihoods and promote employment locally.

According to the vision, there will be a Sámi tourism information centre distributing accurate information on the Sámi and Sámi culture to visitors and various interest groups in tourism industry. Furthermore, the centre has information about the responsibly and ethically sustainably operating Sámi tourism entrepreneurs. In the good vision, the everyday lives and festivities of the Sámi community as well as the land use in Sámi Homeland have also been successfully co-ordinated with the needs of tourism while primarily securing and respecting the rights of the Sámi and their culture.

The Future We Want. Illustration: Sunna Kitti

The opposite of the good vision is The Future We Do Not Want. In this illustration, the vision in the ethical guidelines has not taken place. The uncontrolled and constantly increasing numbers of visitors arriving to the Sámi Homeland have caused increasing amounts of challenges that have not been manageable or solved. The traditional livelihoods of the Sámi have been forced to retreat due to tourism. The safeguarding of the cultural practices and traditions of the Sámi not involved in tourism have failed. Instead, the everyday lives and festivities of local communities have ended up as tourist attractions against the wishes of the local people.

The Future We Do Not Want. Illustration: Sunna Kitti.

‘I hope my illustrations have impact on the way in which tourism industry and tourists react to and treat the Sámi and Sámi culture. Tourism based on incorrect and outdated conception of the Sámi reduces the already-limited space where Sámi can freely practice their own culture without being disturbed. I am worried that the villages [in the north] will become inhabitable for the locals’, says the comic artist Sunna Kitti when explaining why she decided to participate in the project by illustrating the ethical guidelines for Sámi tourism.

On September 24th in 2018, the Plenum of the Sámi Parliament in Finland accepted Principles for Responsible and Ethically Sustainable Sámi Tourism. The main aim of these ethical guidelines is to terminate tourism exploiting Sámi culture as well as erase false information and misrepresentations regarding the Sámi and Sámi culture spreading through tourism. The second aim is to safeguard the cultural practices and traditions of the Sámi not connected to tourism industry. The project has been financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

More information:

Co-ordinator Kirsi Suomi, Culturally Responsible Sámi Tourism, 010 839 3118, kirsi.suomi(at)samediggi.fi