Outdoor Recreation, Hospitality and Rural Development: From COVID-19 to Sustainable Futures

The PhD research project is part of a larger project called Outdoor Recreation, Hospitality and Rural Development: From COVID-19 to Sustainable Futures. The project explores how the increased public engagement with outdoor recreation in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to long-term rural resilience and sustainable development.

The research focuses on the intersection between outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, and hospitality, particularly concerning the role of food and local food and meals in rural areas. Hospitality and local food are central to the visitor experience, and the project examines how rural communities host, feed, and interact with visitors through these practices.

This qualitative study is based on interviews and focus groups with tourism entrepreneurs, municipal actors, and other stakeholders. It focuses on the period during and after the pandemic and looks at how rural areas adapted to crisis conditions and how these adaptations may support future resilience. Sweden offers a unique case due to its relatively relaxed pandemic measures. With no strict lockdowns and a strong tradition of public access to natural areas (Allemansrätten), many people turned to nature as a refuge. Domestic tourism rose sharply, with increased visits to rural regions and a notable movement from urban to rural areas, some temporary, some permanent.

Preliminary findings show that Sweden’s rural tourism and hospitality sectors have demonstrated adaptability in the face of crisis. Short-term strategies such as strengthening local food systems, digitalizing services, or developing new forms of collaboration are now being evaluated for their long-term transformative potential. One of the project’s key ambitions is to understand whether these crisis-driven innovations can form the basis for more community-based and sustainable tourism models, which focus not only on economic growth but also on strengthening social ties, protecting natural resources, and supporting long-term resilience in rural regions. This work also speaks to broader concerns about climate change, inflation, and global instability in the post-pandemic world. It asks how rural tourism and hospitality can be part of more sustainable and resilient futures.

External research organizations:

MEAL - Food and Meals in Everyday Life

FOHRK - Centre for Food, Health and Retail