ALPINE ATTRACTIONS

Origins and early Development of some major Tourist
Attractions and Destinations in Northern Scandinavia

Carl-Henrik Berg (manuscript from 1998)

INTRODUCTION

Rome was not built in a day, and organized tourism in Northern Scandinavia did indeed not arise from nothing by the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless most sources on the history of tourism in the north of Sweden claim that we can speak of no tourism up here worth mentioning until in the 1880s and 1890s. Of course that notion is correct if we talk about numbers of visitors, but still we have forgotten one important thing. In my opinion, we must search for the beginnings to get the whole picture, and the tool I will use to show the need for this is the theory of "Sight sacralization", introduced by Dean MacCannell in his book The Tourist (1976: pp 43). I do not believe that this is a theory of universal validity, but I do believe that it can be of real use to us as one important tool for understanding tourist attractions.

One explanation to our lack of knowledge here in Sweden is, I guess, the fact that we by force of habit speak about tourists. While tourists have travelled all over Continental Europe for centuries, the visitors to the more remote parts of our boreal peninsula were not regarded as tourists until they became many enough. And therefore most of our tourist attractions have no complete written history, accounting for those early days when they gradually were established as obligatory sights for each "serious" traveller/tourist to visit.

This is not just a matter of historical interest. As far as I can see it is something for the tourism industry of Northern Scandinavia to pay active attention to, since this knowledge not only enriches our region with a touristic heritage much more far-reaching than the standard version, which generally starts with the foundation of the Svenska Turistföreningen, STF in 1885. It also gives us a matrix for questioning ourselves how each individual site has developed into the stage where we find it today.

For those who are not familiar with Dean MacCannell's theory of the five stages of Sight sacralization I will account for them here:

The naming phase.

The framing and elevation phase.

Enshrinement.

Mechanical reproduction.

Social reproduction.

To illustrate in this paper the use for this theory I will choose an example fetched just a stone's throw from this Symposium in Hospitality and Tourism Research in Åre, Jämtland, Sweden - namely the mountain of Åre, or in full Åreskutan . I do not claim that I have found proof of the universality of this theory; just that I have found it useful. There are also reasons to believe that tourist attractions of today do not always develop in the same way as in the past, when markers and sights were not at all exposed visually in media like today (for MacCannell's definition of the relationship tourist/sight/marker see his book from 1976, pp 41). For comparison I therefore intend to study some attractions created in the nineties in my research. Among the new is the Ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi in Swedish Lapland, which in a few years has become one of the most successful new tourist attractions in Scandinavia - probably more renowned among foreigners than for us here in Sweden.

In the following text I will try to expound the theoretic model I want to use through testing it on two quite different tourist attractions in the Swedish mountain region. First I discuss the case of the Ice hotel, and then Åreskutan.

There are, of course, many important prerequisites involved when considering a sight's opportunities of becoming a major tourist attraction, such as communication, accomodation and other necessities. Tourist attraction research also requires knowledge of local history, and ability to retrieve written records about the site. It is important to know basic facts about population, trade, roads, etc. If visiting the attraction has been part of a "ceremonial agenda of obligatory rites" (Goffman, after Horne 1984:11), this fact must not be neglected. With Åreskutan this was indeed the case. The Ice hotel, on the other hand, seems to have quite a different history, and its sudden success makes it an obvious choice for a study like this.

MacCannell stresses the importance of markers, and this importance becomes - as we shall see - very obvious in the case of the Ice hotel. Another factor, introduced here, is the importance of grandeur. In northern Norway Arvid Viken (1996:4) has defined some recent trends in the development of boreal attractions:

1. Presenting documentation on the nature to be experienced (National Park centres etc.)
2. Establishing museums and heritage centres (natural/cultural)
3. Establishing amusement parks
4. Establishing small private centres and shops

As Viken points out, "most tourist attraction is a bit of everything" (ibid.). We can see this pattern developing also around The High Coast Bridge, probably the most visited tourist attraction in northern Sweden today. If we take a look at the plans for this site we find that the local government wants to (1,2) make the High Coast area a World Heritage, with scientific documentation and a museum close to the bridge, (3) build a casino close to this centre, and (4) build a centre for tourists with small shops and a playground or amusement area for children.

We are now approaching the question of how we should define different attractions. I think it could be very useful trying to establish a typology of attractions, and have therefore developed a very simple classification (mainly after Swarbrooke 1995:4):

Natural attractions

Historic Artifacts, man-made but not originally for tourism

Touristic Sites, man-made for the purpose of tourism

Special events

I find this typology especially useful in the case of the Ice hotel, and will go on right now with this example.

THE ICE HOTEL IN JUKKASJ\ÄRVI

Each winter since 1992 a man from the village of Jukkasjärvi in northern Lapland, Yngve Bergqvist, has built a huge igloo from snow and ice, originally called Arctic Hall. It didn't take long until this creation became a major international hit, attracting hordes of Japanese, Americans, Englishmen, Germans, French and many other people. One important "secret" behind the success is the fact that the Swedish vodka manufacturer Vin & Sprit uses the Ice hotel and its surroundings in expensive advertisements, and also uses the hotel as a "display-window" for Absolut vodka - the name of the hotel bar is "Absolut Ice" bar. The Absolut image becomes a marker (MacCannell 1976:41) for the Ice hotel, while its Absolut Ice bar becomes a marker for the brand Absolut.

Obviously, the Ice hotel must also possess its own special qualities. If we try the typology of attractions on this site we get the following result: Is it a natural attraction? Well, not for the orthodox typologist. On the other hand, many visitors probably want to look upon it as a natural attraction, as a remarkable accumulation of snow and ice; actually the biggest igloo in the world. Consequently, the Ice hotel is not a pure natural attraction, but it indeed is considered to have the qualities of one. From the environmental point of view the site is of course 100 % artificial. The hotel is wholly made by man, with the help of machines, and the most coveted visitor is the one coming by airplane from the other side of the planet. If we on the other hand look upon Jukkasjärvi as a destination, then we can speak about the surroundings as a natural attraction.

But is the hotel an historical artifact then? For the orthodox definitely not, but on the other hand the site alludes to timelessness, as well as to the limited time of our earthly lives. Yet, it is built for tourism, and therefore not an historic artifact. It has a very special quality though, in the fact that it literally disappears (almost) without a trace each spring, to rise again the next winter. "You cannot visit the same hotel twice", one could travesty the words of Herakleitos (who also said: "Everything floats away"). In other words; it also has historic qualities. Noteworthy is the fact that the construction also includes an Ice Church.

No doubt, the Ice hotel is mainly a touristic site , since it is built for the purpose of tourism. One could also argue that the whole thing is a special event, happening every winter. I believe that the success can be partially explained from this fact, that the Ice hotel is an attraction utilizing all these four dimensions. Another important crucial condition is the location in the "Arctic" , above the Arctic Circle, in Lapland, in the land of Saami and reindeer and Aurora Borealis and arctic cold. On top of this, the name Jukkasjärvi is suitably exotic.

In Sweden this site is actually marketed under the name of Jukkasjärvi. I was very confused until I realized that the Ice hotel is marketed mainly abroad, obviuosly just as the "Ice hotel" with its "Absolut Ice" bar. (Compare the result of searching with the help of a search engine on the Internet, on the term "Absolut" combined with "Ice hotel"). Obviously the most important market is abroad, and this new phenomenon of foreign winter tourists in northern Sweden is, of course, of economic significance.

With the help of MacCannell's sight sacralization theory and Neil Leiper's definition of primary, secondary and tertiary nuclei (Leiper 1990:374 - see the part about Åre below) we can develop the discussion about the Ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi as a tourist attraction. We will find that here the stages of sight sacralization didn't follow the order suggested by MacCannell. One probable reason for this is an important change in modern society, namely the fact that today actually anyone can market a product worldwide through visual media, eventually without even having one permanent name for the product.

There are no doubts that the Ice hotel is a primary nucleus - rather than a secondary or tertiary attraction visited by tourists on their way further into Lapland. An interesting question is what the fact that Jukkasjärvi's geographical position is rather unknown means to visitors. Possibly a certain amount of anonymity is better than fame for a place like this, living on its "naturalness". Interesting but little known is also the fact that the history of tourism in Lapland had one of its first touristic nuclei right in this small village, early visited by several foreign travellers. Among them was Francois Regnard, "the first tourist in Lapland", who visited Jukkasjärvi in 1681. Regnard's travelogue became the first touristic marker of importance for this destination, which surely would get a prominent position in a written history of tourism in Lapland, still so sadly neglected by historians and tourism researchers.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ÅRE AS A TOURIST DESTINATION

The following is a new interpretation of the development process of Åre as a major tourist destination, carried through using the theory of sight sacralization introduced by Dean MacCannell in 1976. But first some basic facts about the province of Jämtland as a tourist destination.

Jämtland is Swedish territory since the peace treaty at Brömsebro in 1645, but the close historic links to Norway are still affecting the inhabitants, who are known to take much pride in their native place. No part of Sweden produces more local literature than Jämtland. The province has its own flag and "national anthem", but curiosly enough still no National Park within its boundaries. This is a fact that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is well aware of, and therefore works hard today to make the Vålådalen-Sylarna mountain area our next National Park - against the will of the locals.

Thinking in images maybe one could say - roughly generalizing - that touristically Jämtland (with Härjedalen) differs a bit from the province of Dalecarlia in the south, with its famous colourful folk culture, folk costumes and dalecarlian horses, as well as from the huge province of Lapland in the north, with its waste wilderness and harsh mountain chains. For Jämtland, situated between these two famous provinces, one could likewise generalize and appoint this province the playground of Sweden. It was here the British sportsmen went with their rods and rifles, from the middle of the 19th century and onward, and by the end of the last century the mountains of Jämtland became the number one location for cross country skiing. This has developed into the situation of today, with Åre as the obvious choice of destination for pleasure-seeking Swedish ski tourists. "Today's touristic image of Jämtland is obviously Åre in winter" (Nilsson 1994:140).

Winter tourism in the Jämtland mountains is not much more than one century old, but it has been significant already from the very beginning. Today we can speak of a demarcation line between the more oldfashioned crosscountry skiing culture south of the road E14, and the more fashionable and mundane hotel villages for downhill skiers north of the E14.

Since medieval times Åre has been situated close to the public road between the Baltic sea and Trondheim in Norway. The relics of S:t Olof, who died in 1030, enshrined in the cathedral of Trondheim, made this mountain road an important pilgrim route (in summer). The peasant trade between Jämtland and Norway with horse and sleigh has also followed this route (in winter). Speaking with Neil Leiper (Leiper 1990:374) Åre was originally a tertiary nucleus, or a place unknown to the traveller before the visit, later gradually becoming a secondary nucleus, or a place known to the visitor but "not significant in decisions about the itinerary" (ibid.). A primary nucleus is, according to Leiper, "A potential tourist destination, which is influential in a traveller's decision about where to go. That implies information is available to the traveller about the attribute and is active, pre-visit, in stimulating motivation in the person to travel towards the place where the attribute can be experienced." (ibid.)

In clear days the mountain of Åreskutan is easily visible from the top of the island of Frösön in lake Storsjön, in the heart of the province. In sunny winter and early spring days one can see the mountain rise like a huge shimmering cream cake, and it is easy to imagine that this sight has tempted several people to visit Åreskutan (an outlook tower was later built by STF on Frösön, in 1892, and the tower itself soon became a very popular attraction - at least one name book is preserved in STF's archives in Stockholm). But yet in the early 19th century only just more than 150 persons lived in the young city of Östersund, so the number of people gazing at Åreskutan from the top of Frösön was probably not very considerable by then. In the year 1810, when Östersund became town of residence for the administrative province of Jämtland, the number of inhabitants was 250. Actually, in the middle of the 18th century the most populated place in Jämtland was the copper works of Huså (c. 600 inhabitants), just ten kilometres north of Åre.

The name, Åreskutan , is known at least since the year of 1645, when Jämtland definitely became Swedish territory. That was the first stage of sight sacralization - naming . By the end of that century Åreskutan was appointed the real mountain of Ararat, by the famous Swedish scientist Olof Rudbeck (the elder) in his patriotic Atlantica , and in the summer of 1686 king Carl XI had travelled here. The king wrote in his diary, that he passed "Åre church and the renowned mountain, which is the highest in Jämtland, Åreskutan denominated". In the early 18th century one could find the "Åreskuta" depicted on maps of Sweden. This was the second sacralization stage, that of framing and elevation , which leads us to the early 19th century.

The third stage, enshrinement , in this case refers to the fact that the very top of Åreskutan literally became a shrine worth aiming at. This was firstly due to a soapstone with king Carl's initials, which had been transported to the top, where a whole pile of stones with traveller's names scribbled upon them soon covered the ground. In 1775 the Swedish writer Abraham H\'fclphers reports that many names now are inscribed in the rocks on the top. 77 years later the founder of Skansen and Nordiska museet in Stockholm, Artur Hazelius, climbs the mountain as a young school boy, and he finds an urn with a name book in it on the top. Later the camera became a kind of replacement for this urn, with the magic power not only to put an actual picture of the tourist's ascent into the shrine, but also to make it possible to bring the contents of the shrine - the proof - back home.

In 1818 the first novel with a title connected to Jämtland was published. It was W.F. Palmblad's book Åreskutan , followed thirty years later by C.A. Wetterbergh's romantic novel Tännforsen . These books were early markers (MacCannell 1976:41) for the two main attractions of 19th century Jämtland. The waterfall Tännforsen a few kilometres further west had became famous during the thirties, in connection with the royal inauguration in 1835 of a new main road over to Norway. Since that time and until the end of the century Åreskutan and Tännforsen were the two famous sights in Jämtland that every serious tourist had to visit. The Scotsman John Francis Campbell was one of them.

The Svenska Turistföreningen, STF, was founded in 1885, and in a ten year retrospect in the year-book of 1895 the founders wrote about their young association: "The mountains of Jämtland was it's cradle, Åreskutan and the peaks of Sylarna its godparents, and Tännforsen sang the lullabies" (Sylarna are included in the planned "Jämtland Mountains National Park", which is situated entirely south of the E14). In 1862 a botanist wrote: "Besides Åreskutan Jemtland here owns a piece of remarkable natural beauty, which no traveller in these regions neglect paying a visit, and that is the famous Tännforsen " [...] "Not without reason it has been named The Niagara of Sweden." (Andersson 1862: pp 66)

The stage of mechanical reproduction came later in the 19th century, and as in the case of the touristic discovery of Lapland it was natural scientists and mineralogists who paved the way, through the illustrated reports from their journeys. Around 1820 the mineralogist Wilhelm Hisinger travelled several years in Sweden and Norway, and the only illustration in his printed reports was of - Åreskutan. In 1840 the mountain was depicted in a volume of lithographs called "Sverige framstäldt i teckningar" (Sweden described in drawings).

In the literary year-book Svea from 1862 there is an article written (anonymously) by the aforementioned botanist Nils Johan Andersson; "En sommartur till Åreskutan" (A summer trip to Åreskutan), with illustrations by the artist Per Daniel Holm. Worth noting is the fact that Andersson includes the name of the place in the title, like he does three years later in his illustrated travelogue from Lapland, "Några teckningar från en sommarfärd till Sulitelma" (Some sketches from a summer trip to Sulitelma). Sulitelma was still considered the highest mountain in Sweden (as Åreskutan had been in earlier times), and together with Åreskutan it was by now the most remarkable and renowned mountain in Sweden. No person by that time made such propaganda for the Swedish mountains as this botanist Andersson, but he is completely forgotten for these achievements today, since most of his efforts were made "mouth-to-mouth", and since the actual number of visitors never could be very large in the 1860s.

But Andersson was a renowned researcher with influential friends, not least among the patriotic painters of the time, and some of those painters went to see for themselves and put the grandeur of the fells on canvases. Among these was the king himself (Carl XV), who visited Kvikkjokk in Lule Lappmark in 1858 and made that place famous nationwide, four years after Andersson had published his praise of this "Lapland's paradise", in the literary calendar Rosa . As always Andersson put the name of the destination in the title: "Till Lappland!" (Andersson 1854). The focus is on the idyllic village of Kvikkjokk (or Qvickjock), which is mentioned by name not less than twenty times in his text.

Attractions, then, can be successfully promoted through one single person. In the essay about Åreskutan from 1862 Andersson opens up with some words from the renowned mineralogist Hisinger (see above): "For those, who wish to comfortably look upon mountains and also climb them, no one in our country is more suitable than Åreskutan" (Andersson 1862:43). In August the following year a new "communication line" with an east-west chain of steamboats over the major lakes in the province was inspected and inaugurated. Only seven years after Andersson another botanist writes: "No Swedish mountain has been visited so much by botanists as the mountain of Åreskutan" [...] " partly due to its convenient situation close to civilisation and the relatively low cost for a trip there" (Almqvist 1869:440). For the botanists the exploring years were over, but now the interest for mountain sports intensified. In 1868 the highest mountain in Jämtland, Sylarna, was reported climbed for the first time. The fact that Norway now had become too expensive and overcrowded for British sportsmen also helped making Sweden a more interesting playground.

P.D. Holm's woodcuts in Andersson's article from 1862 became widely spread in the following decades, in guidebooks for tourists as well as in illustrated magazines. The three motifs were: Åreskutan, lake Tännsjön and the waterfall Tännforsen. They were all three reproduced in the Svenska Familj-Journalen in 1868, and the woodcut Tännforsen became widely spread in the first edition of the official Swedish reading-book for the elementary school (also in 1868), accompanied by Andersson's text. All three cuts also appeared in the early tourist guide Sverige, illustrerad handbok för resande, II: Dalarne och Norrland (Stockholm 1882).

Guidebooks and texts like Andersson's often coincide in time with improvements in communication conditions. In 1882 the railroad was opened for passenger traffic through Jämtland all the way to Trondheim. Suddenly Åre and the Jämtland mountains were in easy reach from Stockholm, and tourism expanded fast in the following years, not least health tourism. Two years later the need for a tourist association was evident, and in 1885 this association was founded. The first STF year-books were not illustrated, but Åreskutan was depicted in other publications, and soon came the time of postcards and souvenir photo albums.

With the railroad and the influx of visitors the challenge to climb Åreskutan gradually disappeared. The only challenge left was now climbing against the clock. Sadly enough the shrine on the top eventually disappeared. It was still there in 1883, but today we have no trace of it. As I have suggested earlier the Kodak may have become a new kind of shrine, a replacement, now making it possible to bring proof of the magic moment back home.

The fifth stage, social reproduction, with naming of other things after a sight, started with Palmblad's novel Åreskutan from 1818. In 1840 Jämtland got its first steamboat. It was named "Åreskutan" and maintained service on lake Kallsjön (skuta also means 'small cargo ship' in Swedish). But in the case of Åreskutan the social reproduction stage is mainly connected with the development of Åre as a winter destination during the twentieth century.

With the new interest in skiing and winter sports Åre was reloaded with new excitement, which made the mountain a still today unsurpassed challenge. In 1892 the Swedish Association for the Promotion of Skiing was founded, and already in their year-book from 1895 we can read about "An Easter on the Åre mountains"; a theme to be repeated three years later in the year-book of 1898.

The history of Åre as a modern winter resort, giving Åreskutan a new life as a winter attraction, is already told in many places. Therefore I will conclude here. Åre was established as a fashionable winter resort in 1910, with the inauguration of the Åre Mountain Railway that year. The main thread in Åre's history as a tourist attraction might be summarized in the word grandeur , in this case meaning that Åreskutan by a combination of size , shape and position has became attractive to visitors. In its first phase as a summer attraction it was enticing for its splendid isolation, while the mountain in its later quality as mainly a winter attraction can maintain its role as an important destination much because of its geographic position, within easy reach for young pleasure-seekers from Stockholm. Today you can visit Åre just for its entertainments, spending your time and money there without caring much about the fact that the mountain Åreskutan lies just outside the window.

Using the typology of attractions here we find that Åreskutan originally was a natural attraction , gradually developing into a touristic site. As an attraction growing into a more complex destination it today also includes special events. Obviosly many attractions have qualities in all these categories, but reasonably it should be possible to range each site in one of the four groups. As major tourist attractions grow old they automatically also become historic artifacts (at least for people like myself, who find interest in visiting strange and forsaken places just because of their bygone days of glory). I realize that the simple typology used in this paper needs a bit of overhaul, but I strongly believe that such a typology of attractions is necessary in this research field.

I also want to point to the fact that while modern British and American researchers have made good use of travelogues as historic sources, all too many researchers here in Sweden still today seem to stick stubbornly to the message in the following old quotation: "Traveller's tales in all countries are notoriusly untrustworthy, and untrustworthy in proportion to the distance of the travels from familiar territory, just as ancient maps become less and less reliable toward their edges." (Scholes 1975:73). Notoriusly untrustworthy? I hope that I have shown in this paper that we cannot afford dismissing all traveller's tales so easily. In my opinion a travelogue is not necessarily much more untrustworthy than any other text, and if we decide not to listen to what people from other parts and cultures of the world have to say and find worthy to note about our way of life, we definitely lose a lot of vital and valuable information. To get perspectives on things we need to hear the tourists' opinions, too.

REFERENCES

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Andersson, N. J., (1854), "Till Lappland!", Rosa. Vittert Album. Stockholm: J.L. Brudin, pp. 81-106. Andersson, N. J., (1862), "En sommartur till Åreskutan", Svea, pp. 43-69.
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Nilsson, P. Å., (1994), "Turismen i Jämtland", Vår lott och arvedel. Östersund: Mitthögskolan.
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Scholes, R. & Kellogg, R., (1975), The nature of narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Swarbrooke, J., (1995), The development and management of visitor attractions . Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Viken, A., (1996), "Tourist attractions as indistrialized experience and substitute of nature", Mike Robinson, Nigel Evans & Paul Callaghan (eds.), Tourism and cultural change . Newcastle: University of Northumbria.

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