En kvantitativ studie om besöksnäringens effekt i de svenska landsbygdskommunerna

The population decline and the rural restructuring of the Swedish countryside has been an issue for the last decades. The restructuring of rural areas had led to the migration of young people that leave the countryside for education and work, and a wider supply of culture and activities in the growing metropolitan regions. Rural areas have difficulty competing with the labour markets in urban areas and larger cities that can offer to a wider range of job opportunities. The rural restructuring has led to that municipalities in these areas face various kinds of challenges, such as an elderly population and big strains on the welfare system. The tourism industry has grown into one of the largest businesses of the world, and it continue to expand. The global development of the tourism and recreation brings increased share of employment rate and increased GDP. Likewise, tourism in Sweden has shown a strong growth and many people also argue that the tourism industry can be the future of many rural areas. As employment is one of the main reasons for migration, increased tourism may affect the population growth in these areas. The rural areas in Sweden need to attract young people to move, and stay, to these areas to make the demographic distribution more balanced. There are some rural areas in Sweden that are known as tourism-related areas and the purpose with this thesis is to examine whether this tourism areas have a more positive population development than other rural municipalities. This thesis is based on a quantitative method and includes information about the Swedish municipalities in aim to examine the differences and development since the year 2000.