and accounting are well known areas, but knowledge on environmental issues is not at the
same high level. The importance of external support in environmental issues cannot therefore
be stressed enough. Tourism, which is a network industry ordered in a hierarchical way can,
at least, be discussed on the following four levels: international, national, regional, and local.
Strategies on a national level constitute the framework that planning on a lower level should
follow. An interactive communication and support network should be established. Tourism
companies, operating at the lowest level, should, for example, be able to ask for help from
different organizations and authorities, but above all, from the project leaders, who work in
close contact with the companies.
The aim of this article is to examine sustainable tourism development in small Finnish
tourism companies and to analyze the role project leaders play in the development process.
These aims will be pursued by answering the following questions:
• What is the general attitude towards sustainable tourism development in tourism companies,
• What have tourism companies done to support sustainable tourism development,
• What kind of support have tourism companies received in sustainability issues, and
• What do they think of the future and the importance of sustainable development.
The project leaders were asked the following:
• What they think of sustainable tourism development in Ostrobothnia (Finland),
• What they themselves know about the principles of sustainable tourism development,
and
• What they think of the future and the importance of sustainable development.
Sustainable tourism, sustainable tourism development, and sustainable principles are the three
main interrelated concepts the framework which is presented in the next part of this article is
build on. The importance of training project leaders for STD in small tourism companies is
stressed by Jithendran and Baum (2000). This dimension is also highlighted in the second part
of this article. Sustainable tourism development is studied from two perspectives in this research
project, using both a quantitative and a qualitative research approach. The methodological
issues are discussed in the third part. The results are presented in the fourth part, where
the question ”sustainable tourism development in small tourism companies, fact or fiction?” is
also answered. This article concludes with a suggestion on how to continue sustainable tourism
development in Finland.