National Boundaries and Place-making in Tourism: Staging the Finnish-Russian Border

Abstrakti

In the context of tourism, national boundaries are usually discussed as controlled, dividing lines between two states and scenes for international tourism. In addition, boundaries can be significant tourist attractions. This paper focuses on the representations of the Finnish (EU)-Russian border found in the Finnish tourism landscape. Special attention is paid to the staged tourism settings where the national boundary has become an object for the tourist gaze and a place for tourism enactments. By observing and reading the tourism landscape, I will discuss various manifestations and meanings that this boundary has in tourism, and how these elements are produced. My observations suggest that the Finnish-Russian border is represented in the tourism landscape as visualized, narrated or experienced. As a part of the tourism product, representation of the national boundary has become both a commodity and entertainment, but its visual and experienced authenticity is deep enough to challenge the actual border.