PROSPECTING THE CULTURE OF THE SÁMI PEOPLE THROUGH TOURISM: An Experience in the City of Tromsø, Norway

• Published in: Applied Tourism
• Main Authors: Carvalho, Joelma Monteiro de, Tricárico, Luciano Torres
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade do Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI) 2021
• Subjects: Sami people; experience; Tromsø; Norway; Indigenous Ethnic Tourism; Arctic; sami; Sámi; Tromsø
• Online Access: https://periodicos.univali.br/index.php/ijth/article/view/17795; https://doi.org/10.14210/at.v6n2.p42-48

This report focuses on different forms of tourist attraction of the Sami indigenous people in the city Tromsø/Norway, such as identity marks and maintenance of traditions. The general objective is to analyse signs as symbolic elements of the Sami people, showing their potential for indigenous ethnic tourism. We conducted a survey of tourist attractions, and verified how this service is provided for tourists. This study uses as methodological and theorical perspective that is exploratory in nature, according to Husserl’s phenomenology (2001), with strategies of ethnography (MATTOS, 2011) and Peirce’s semiotics (2011). This research took place in Tromsø/Norway city, which is located 350 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and is home to the Sami people. The techniques of interlocution with those involved resulted in field annotations, and the techniques of participant observation, open-ended interview, pictures and audio recordings with ten participants were also used. Besides the interviews, documents were studied, such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Sami legislation. It was observed, as a result of this research, that the city of Tromsø in Norway has evident tourist potential through the culture of the Sami people. The tourist attractions are varied, such as watching the Northern Lights, reindeer herding, and listening to stories of ancestry closely connected to nature, in a dialogic relationship between cultural tradition and science. It was also found that these tourist attractions are carried out responsibly, with sustainability in mind.