In recent research it has been shown that a large share of the tourism work force in the Swedish mountain municipalities have their permanent place of residence outside of daily commuting distance from the municipality where they work. In this study, tourism labour mobility and migration to two Swedish mountain municipalities, Åre and Malung, is examined. The principal question addressed is whether temporal tourism labour migration leads to permanent migration of tourism workers or not. The research is based on a longitudinal database material including individual observations between the years 1991–2001. It is shown that the case municipalities have a higher propensity than the rest to employ in‐migrants in tourism. Results also show that relatively few people involved in temporary labour migration to tourism employment in the case municipalities later will permanently migrate to the mountain municipalities but that tourism sector employment is important for the in‐migration of long distance commuters to the case municipalities. The reason for this it is argued is that the motive to seasonally migrate to tourism employment is lifestyle‐related and not meant to be permanent. The seasonality of tourism employment has implications for the local and regional development through tourism.

The development of national parks and other protected areas has been widely promoted because of its potential for regional development in peripheral and sparsely populated areas. The argument is that the economic and social benefits seen in national parks in the USA and UK will also occur in the Swedish context in the form of an increased tourism-related labor market. Our aim was to analyze the possibility of such a development both in light of the policy visions of positive regional and local development and from the adversary point of view that protection of land is making it more difficult for 15 sparsely populated mountain municipalities in Sweden to prosper. We used a database covering the entire population of the area for 1991 to 2001. Our results show that factors other than the protected areas are connected to the development of a tourism labor market. The most positively correlated variables for change in tourism employment are population growth and proximity to ski lifts. Positive population development is also correlated to a positive change in the number of people employed in forest sectors. Thus, one of the main outcomes is that the assumed and almost automatic positive relation between nature conservation and tourism can is questionable.

Knowledge about the impact of climate change on the forest-related employment is important for making relevant policy decisions in areas where forestry is economically important. This paper contrasts two different areas in Sweden and Finland in terms of population structure, employment structure and forest-based economy. The paper discusses the future possible outcomes of climate change in terms of forest-related employment. The geographical level of analysis is the county of Norrbotten in Sweden, and the county of Lappi in Finland. These are sparsely populated peripheral areas with ageing populations. There has been a decline or stagnation in the economic and social conditions and the survival of many rural communities, in particular those inland, is seriously threatened. In the context of climate change the issue of how the forest growth will change and how well the different areas will adapt to these changes are addressed.