Responsible Sámi Tourism: Visitor Guidance and Teaching Material for Travel Industry to Safeguard Sámi Culture
The objective of the Sámi tourism visitor guidance project is to improve the equity and equality of the Sámi community, and advance Sámi culture’s maintenance, development, and enablement of its inter-generational transmission. The project aims at promoting equality between various ethnic groups by eradicating objectification of the Sámi in tourism, improving equality by strengthening positive portrayal of the Sámi by distributing accurate information, participation by highlighting the opinions of the Sámi, mutual respect by paying attention to different cultural customs and practices, and sustainable development that lies at the heart of Principles for Responsible and Ethically Sustainable Sámi Tourism – guidelines.
The project supports particularly responsible conduct aiming at improving and/or ensuring the safeguarding of meaningful life on equal basis also to the part of the Sámi population who is not involved in tourism at pressures of constantly increasing tourism and the loss of the natural habitats and resources.
Sámi Parliament in Finland has received financing from the Ministry of Education and Culture to implement Sámi tourism projects almost continuously since February 2017.