Branding the middle of nowhere

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Darkness, lousy weather, and a sleepover in the middle of nowhere. Sound fun? Apparently yes! The Nordic countries have successfully branded their remoter edges as desirable tourist destinations. Is it luck because the far north is 'in' right now? Or does it reflect a growing longing for alternatives to well-known, popular destinations? In this episode, we find out how the Nordics attracted visitors to their outer rural regions and why Scotland is now following suit. And we ask just how long the coolness of the Nordic fringes can last… and if it is at all sustainable.

This episode comes from an online Nordic Talks event jointly arranged by Finland's Åbo Akademi University and the Swedish Literature Society in Finland.

“The fringes of the Nordics have become an authentic, trustworthy and unplugged experience that money cannot buy.”

Szilvia Gyimothy Mørup-Petersen, Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS)

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Alastair Mackie (Scotland)

Alastair Mackie is a researcher at the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. He studies European identity within the Scottish pro-independence movement and is an expert on small state theory and the concept of soft power.

Kristinn Schram (Iceland)

Kristinn Schram is Associate Professor in Folklore and Ethnology at the University of Iceland and was also director of the university's Centre for Arctic Policy Studies. His field of study ranges from oral narratives to food and festivals to the uses of irony in tourism in various cultural spaces, such as Arctic shores and city streets. At the university, he lectures on the dynamics of identity, national images and tradition, folk narrative and urban folklore.

Szilvia Gyimothy Mørup-Petersen (Denmark)

Szilvia Gyimothy Mørup-Petersen is Associate Professor of Marketing and Tourism at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). She specializes in tourism geography and the commodification of rural places and regions, also researching popular consumer culture trends, such as the Nordic terroir and adventure sports. Szilvia is interested in how tourism shapes places and place marketing and is the co-author of the study “20 years of Nordic Place Branding Research”, published this year.