The growth of nature-based tourism has raised the need to better understand tourists’ expectations towards outdoor recreation environments. There is little knowledge, however, of international tourists’ attitudes towards forest management practises or of their effect during winter. This study investigated how commercial forests correspond to the environmental expectations of international nature-based tourists and how the season affects tourists’ landscape preferences. Altogether 750 foreign visitors to Finnish Lapland responded to a survey and evaluated photographs presenting various types of forest landscapes in summer and winter. Beautiful scenery was the most important motive for the choice of travel destination and for participating in outdoor recreation. The results highlight the strong impact of seasons on the perceived quality of the landscape in commercial forests. Seasonal differences are largest in regeneration areas as snow cover mitigates the effects of forestry operations. Even-aged, middle-aged and mature forest stands were considered to be suitable for tourism in both summer and winter. There is a demand for adapted management regimes in commercial forests targeting year-round nature-based tourism. In conclusion, forestry and tourism can coexist in the same area with good planning and with management actions that take visual quality and recreational values of the environment into account.

As a consequence of diversification with regard to tourists and their perceptions on adventure tourism, there has been a supposed softening of Arctic adventure tourism. To determine if any such changes were occurring, a study of adventure tourism services from Finnish Lapland was undertaken. This study incorporated methodological triangulation and used two different data sets drawn from an on-site survey of tourists (n = 308) and thematic interviews with tourism actors (n = 5). With respect to Lapland, the study determined that a softening of adventure tourism and diversification in tourists’ groups was occurring. Specifically, the study found that tourists possessed inadequate competencies and knowledge regarding Arctic destinations; entrepreneurs demonstrated increased preparedness to pull out mid-activity and that there was a need for multi-skilled, service-oriented actors within destinations. Subsequently, more research is needed on the soft dimensions of tourism in the Arctic, in order to address, for example, what kind of competencies are needed from different actors.

Forestry, as a large industry, has significant impacts on the quality of nature-based tourism landscapes in boreal forests. In Finland, the rapid growth of nature-based tourism has expanded outdoor recreation activities from protected areas into timber production forests; this is particularly so in northern Finland. This paper focuses on assessing balanced local net impacts of three alternative land-use scenarios, in which the level of integration between nature-based tourism (NBT) and traditional forestry is varied. The study is located in northern Finland in the area between two top-rated tourist resorts, Ylläs and Levi. The results of the case study support the idea of an eligible integration between NBT and forestry, which takes into account scenic qualities of forested landscapes by restricting traditional management practices. In our case, the increased number of tourists (due to a more attractive forest environment) offset the losses accrued in forestry (due to restricted forest management).