The eco friendly city : A study about how the city of Karlstad relates to environmental and climate aspects in the work on destination development

Tourism is an increasing part of the social planning and should strive more towards sustainable development (Müller 2007). The municipality of Karlstad strives to become "The eco- friendly city" (Karlstad 2016a), which means that people are given the opportunity to live a good life in a sustainable way (WWF 2017). The study shows that cities today should strive to prioritize environmental and climate issues in relation to destination development. This study examines how units in the municipality of Karlstad prioritize and include environmental and climate issues in the work of making Karlstad attractive. How these areas affect each other, as well as how dialogues and collaborations appear in the municipality regarding environment and climate. The Regional Centre of Värmland, Karlstad, is a municipality that wishes to invest and create good business conditions in order to attract visitors (Karlstad 2016b). At the same time, Karlstad is one of the cities in Sweden that is at the forefront of the work on climate change (SIDA 2014). This study uses a qualitative approach, semi-structured expert interviews and qualitative document analysis of Karlstad's environmental and climate strategy and Visit Karlstad Tourism Strategic Destination Development Plan, deriving from a hermeneutical approach of understanding and interpreting the phenomenon environment and climate issues in relation to destination development. The study intends to answer questions about how and which environmental and climate issues that are prioritized in the municipality of Karlstad in relation to destination development, if there are any conflicts of objectives and the ways in which the various development units cooperate in these areas. The theoretical framework of the study processes areas that deal with the municipality of Karlstad, destination development, sustainable development, environment, and climate changes and conflict of interests which are the themes of the study. Based on the results of the study, one can conclude that in social planning, both tourism, and environmental issues have taken more space, which has led to the use of the concept development more widely. The environmental and climate issue that the municipality of Karlstad choose to prioritize is the transport area. The municipality is actively working to reduce motorism and focus on sustainable alternative solutions in the area to make the city more attractive. These initiatives lead to certain conflicts of interest within the development units, so it is important that there are collaborations and dialogues between them. In addition, the development units of the municipality of Karlstad use strategies such as work tools to help them achieve the goals pursued.Uppsatsens betyg: Väl Godkänd