Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 514

514 Arctic Yearbook 2014 Practice: Tourism Safety and Security System in Lapland as an Operative Model Tourism Safety and Security System in Lapland is an innovative approach developed by various actors in a regional, national and international partnership, combining theory and practice. It has been co-financed by the European Union (ERDF, ESF) and it binds together the theoretical approach on the wider understanding of safety and security with practical level activities in sparsely populated Finnish Lapland. The activities are not coincidental as, on a national level, hospitality and voluntary activities designed for international tourists have a long tradition in Finland, for example, the Voluntary Road Service at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952.   Figure 2. Tourism Safety and Security System in Lapland: main activities and main actors Therefore, Tourism Safety and Security System in Lapland is not without predecessors or parallel activities. On the contrary, innovation in the activities can be seen as resulting from strong cooperation with previous and existing parallel activities as well as the understanding of the contexts in which they are implemented. Tourism Safety and Security System in Lapland was implemented in practice as a network that has regional, national and international level members. It provides safety and security education for tourism destinations, tools for crisis communication, safety and risk management and foresight as well as quality. The approach has been identified as a national (Diamond Act 2010) and European (EPSA 2013) best practice. The network includes private companies, public authorities and associations. The activities are especially planned for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It is an operative model that is possible to tailor to other operative environments based on our customers’ needs. This idea has gained support from regional level strategies, from the Finnish Arctic Strategy (2013) and also from the EU (for more information, see: www.luc.fi/matkailu/turvallisuus/en). Niemisalo