Tourism and Transport : How will improvements in the transport section change the tourism flows to a city? Case study of Umeå, Sweden and Wasaline

The tourism industry includes many industries and can be affected by many things. The tourism flows’ are highly linked with the accessibility of the destinations and improvements in the transportation have historically had impacts upon the intensity in the tourism flows. But the exact role is still in a way blurry. This thesis studies how improvements in transportation effects the tourism flows to a city, and the case of Umeå was chosen. Factors like comfort in traveling, fare tickets and improved availability tend to increase the number of passengers. These factors are studied when a new ferry was introduced in 2013 for the traffic linkage between Umeå in Sweden and Vaasa in Finland. Statistics over the number of passengers and Finnish guest nights in Umeå was compared over the years 2011-2013 and an interview with the local Tourist Agency in Umeå was held. In addition, there was a survey that included passengers’ views on the ferry and the improvements that have been done. Local newspaper were also studied to get the societies’ views upon introducing Wasaline. The result that was given in this thesis indicates that improvements in transportation are highly linked to an increase in the tourism flows. In 2013 both passenger numbers and guest nights had a rapid increase