Theoretical contribution, managerial implications and future study suggestions

6.1.1 Meaning of silence tourism

Purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about silence tourism regarding meaning of the concept of silence tourism and how silence tourists differ from the other tourists in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, interest toward silence tourism, travel behaviour and espe-cially, motivations for silence tourism. Interest toward silence tourism included expectations for silence tourism, interest in buying nature tourism services based on silence experiences, and type of destination respondents were interested in travelling at that moment.

Meaning of the silence tourism concept is wide, as it relates at least to nature tourism, rural tourism, slow tourism, health tourism, spiritual tourism, religional tourism, wellbeing tourism and digital-free tourism as discussed earlier in the theory part through formal concept analysis and as mentioned once in the context of adventure tourism (Fuchs et. al., 2016). As the general purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about silence tourism, next, meaning of silence tourism in Finland as well as marketing silence and tranquility in Finland are discussed based on how Visit Finland presents topic in their marketing. In addition, the discussion includes managerial implementations about how to market silence in Finland.

Peace and tranquility were noted to be central parts of Finnish wellbeing, for example in expe-riences related to sauna, pampering treatments, wellbeing cottage holidays, nature and espe-cially forests. Finnish wellbeing, in turn, have much in common with slow tourism. Hence it is interesting and noteworthy that Visit Finland have decided to market the mentioned elements through wellbeing tourism and partly through slow tourism, but not for example from silence tourism perspective. On the one hand, wellbeing related elements are obviously part of wellbe-ing tourism, but on the other hand, isn’t it after all, just a decision to group certain elements in a certain way? The same elements could be marketed through silence tourism if wanted.

Currently silence have separated being just one element within wellbeing tourism products (Business Finland, 2020), even though it is admitted aiming to be a part of the primary experi-ence (Visit Finland, 2020). Being a part of the primary experiexperi-ence, for instance a skiing trip, relates to earlier mentioned idea about silence being ubiquitous (Han, 2019), meaning that it is

“everywhere” and therefore not being a separate product that travelers could buy, for example.

As a Finn who knows the Finnish culture and has an understanding of what Visit Finland call Finnish wellbeing and products related to it, it is easy to recognize that tranquility really is a central part of Finnish wellbeing and that tranquility really is “everywhere” when considering a typical Finnish cottage holiday.According to FinRelax product recommendations, “a wellbe-ing cottage” should be located in a peaceful environment and is hence related to rural tourism as well. “A typical rural holiday includes accommodation in a cottage, local food, sauna and some kind of nature activities: swimming, rowing and walking in the forest” (Pesonen & Komp-pula, 2010, p. 150-151). However, tranquility being a very central part of typical Finnish holi-days is not opened up too clearly in Visit Finland’s marketing, and as a foreigner it may be impossible to figure out how big role tranquility have in many wellbeing, rural and slow tourism experiences in Finland.

Tranquility can be noted from Visit Finland’s marketing, but as easily it may remain hidden for a tourist who does not know to search for it. Not marketing products that clearly include tran-quility as a central part of the experience as a silence tourism, raises a question whether a silence tourism is a sub concept for wellbeing tourism or slow tourism, and hence not worth of men-tioning separately in marketing. On the other hand, it may just tell about difficulty or challeng-ing to sell the silence and tranquility, or the concept of silence tourism bechalleng-ing unknown and hence difficult to use in marketing.

As stated earlier, silence tourism may not be the best concept to describe peacefulness, quiet-ness or tranquility experienced during holidays. The actual question is, how silence tourism should be marketed, and if it should be marketed separately, distinguishing from the other tour-ism types and emphasizing silence, tranquility and reaching inner silence through outer silence as a main feature of the experience. This option would require clarifying more how does it feels like to experience silence, to avoid scaring potential tourists who are not familiar with silence

and tranquil environments. Another option would be to market silence tourism as a part of some other tourism type, for example as a part of nature, rural, wellbeing or slow tourism as it has been done currently by Visit Finland. However, this option does not give much space to tran-quility, and it may remain hidden treasure and does not show the full potential of what tranquil environments and tourism products have to offer for tourists in all over the world. Hence, if the possibilities of silence tourism are wished for raised, silence tourism should be marketed sepa-rately focusing on clear communication about what it is, whether it is marketed as a silence tourism, tranquility tourism or labelled as some other way.

6.1.2. Sociodemographic characteristics

Results of this study revealed that silence tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics differed statistically significantly from the other tourists, in this study, from ”Potential silence tourists”

or those who are ”Not interested in silence tourism” regarding the country of residence and household size, proving that great majority of ”Silence tourists’” come from Finland and live in two persons households. However, as the responses for the survey were gathered by using convenient sampling method, and the purpose of this study was not to segment respondents according to their sociodemographic characteristics but their interest to travel silence tourism destination and purchase silence tourism holiday, the results are not generalisable. It can be assumed that most of the respondents live in two persons household and, as the survey was developed in Finland, it is natural that majority of the respondents come from Finland hence making the results not generalisable. However, the results give valuable information about si-lence tourism as a phenomenon. The result about sisi-lence tourists sociodemographic characteris-tics not differing from the other tourists is not in line with alike previous study, in which a typical rural wellbeing tourist was defined being a female aged 45 to 54 years old and who has lived her childhood in the countryside (Pesonen & Komppula, 2010).

6.1.3. Interest toward silence tourism Silence tourism expectations

Regarding the findings related to silence tourism expectations, it is interesting that differences among the clusters were so clear. The only factor what almost every respondent in the study

agreed, were expectation about silence tourism being relaxing. Those who are interested in travelling to silence tourism destinations and buying silence tourism holidays, called in this study ”Silence tourists”, expected silence tourism being also enjoyable, exciting, favourable and fun. Hence, it would be a good idea for those who are marketing and organizing silence tourism products to really make them relaxing, enjoyable, exciting, favourable and fun. On the other hand, the findings may just tell about the opinions that certain tourists have about certain activities, for example the ones mentioned in the beginning of the survey, and regardless of making a silence tourism product meeting the expectations, there might still exist tourists who would not be happy with the product and think for example, that the product is boring. That is why it is important to plan silence tourism holidays and products to meet the expectations of those tourists who are already interested in silence tourism. In future studies, it would be a point of interest to study whether those who were not interested in silence tourism in the study, are people who are just not interested in nature tourism or silence tourism at all, or are there certain prejudices or misunderstanding behind their opinions.

Interest in buying nature tourism services based on silence experiences

It was found that ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” had notably more experience of nature tourism holidays, and nature tourism holidays with silence tourism experiences com-pared to those who are ”Not interested in silence tourism”. ”Silence tourists” were also most interested in buying nature tourism services that are based on silence experiences. So, when tourists have been on a nature tourism holiday and possibly experienced silence tourism related activities, meaning being familiar with the concepts of nature tourism and some of them also with silence tourism, they are more likely interested also in buying silence tourism products later. The findings show the importance of spreading information of silence tourism and in marketing, communicating clearly what does it means in practise, i.e. what should customers expect for a silence tourism holiday or silence tourism product. When a tourist is aware of what is meant by silence as a part of tourism experience, participating in the experience is not scary, or at least it is less scary, as it would be without knowing what to expect. Hence, the attention should be paid on guidance in silence tourism, in addition to clear communication in marketing.

Active role of guides as a part of silence tourism experience have proved being appreciated by customers (Komppula et. al., 2017).

Type of destination attracting silence tourists

Findings of this study points out the clear association between silence tourism and nature tou-rism, which is in a line with prior studies (e.g. Komppula, 2017). ”Silence tourists” were re-markably more interested in travelling rural or nature destinations and on the other hand, less interested in travelling to urban or city destinations compared to other clusters.

6.1.5 Travel behavior

It was found out that ”Silence tourists” disagree most with the statement ”I always like to mix with the local people and experience the local customs”. The finding might refer to silence tourists’ desire to spend time with friends and family, which was found as travel motivation in eight studies out of 15 (see Table 1). However, a motivation to meet new people and/or people with similar interests were found in six previous studies. Due to the small amount of selected articles, any conclusions cannot drawn from the motivations found in those studies. The state-ment seems contradictory to silence tourists’ earlier noted strong motivation to increase know-ledge, in this related for instance, to the local customs. On the other hand, the statement makes sense with potential silence tourists’ strong motivation for not to discover new things. As the reasons for this kind of travel behavior still remain unknown, it would be inresting to study silence tourists’ motivations for culture tourism and hence clarify in which degree they are interested in getting familiar with local people and local customs, and why.

6.1.4. Silence tourism motivations

Motivation to spend time in nature and increase knowledge

Both ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” were very motivated to spend time in nature, which get support also from several related motivations which were found from the selected articles of previous literature as follows: enjoying nature as a motivation were found in five out of 15 articles, heritage and nature in three articles, rurality seeking in two articles as well as nature seeking and healing effect of nature, both found in one article. ”Silence tou-rists” and ”Potential silence toutou-rists” were also very motivated to increase knowledge. Similarly in prior studies, learning was found as a motivation in six studies. Hence marketers of silence tourism holidays should pay attention to building silence tourism products that enable

increasing knowledge i.e. learning something new. Silence tourists seem not to expect passive holiday but actively learn something new.

Motivation not to get away

Findings revealed that ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” do not have strong get away motivation when holidaying in silence tourism destinations. This is not in a line with previous studies, as escape (desire to get away) was found in 11 out of 15 selected studies related to silence tourism. However, the escape (desire to get away) is quite a wide motivation factor in Table 1, as there were a great variety of related motivations, for example escape, es-caping from routines, eses-caping busy daily life, get away, and get away from the demands at work and home. As can be noted from earlier found motivations, there are several ways to label the same thing. Therefore, it is impossible to know if all of the respondents have understood

”get away” in a same way when answering to the survey used in this study. Maybe some of the respondents have thought more like escaping something in their daily life, whether it be dutys at home or work or unwanted feelings or thoughts, while some other respondent may have thought just a break from routines, for example, without a special need to escape something, but just a break because it is fun. Hence, a better results would have got if it was better distin-guished in Table 1 what kind of escape or desire to get away is meant by escape (desire to get away) in the table, as this might be a relevant information for getting a deeper idea about the finding. Anyway, the finding that silence tourists do not usually have get away as their motiva-tion, brings something new to the previous literature.

The finding is interesting as it points out that silence tourists are in this sense, different than many other travellers in silence tourism related holidays. The finding would mean, contrary to previous studies about silence tourism related tourism types, that there are some tourists whose voice is not heard, who are partly similar, for example nature tourists interested in spending time in nature, but partly different as they do not have the need to get away. These slightly different tourists are, in this light, silence tourists. It would be worth of effort to investigate deeper what makes silence tourists different, for example what are their values compared to some other tourism type representatives. Get away not being a motivation for travelling might refer silence tourists’ ability to handle different thoughts and feelings in their own mind, so that they do not need to escape anything in their life but they are willing to spend time in silent

environments for achieving a silence of mind or inner silence. Silence tourists might even feel they need that space to listen their own thoughts in a peaceful and tranquil environment regu-larly. Self-reflection & discovery motivation were found in six previous studies out of 15 in Table 1. Willingness for self-reflection and discovery may explain why these tourists are not scared of neither outer silence nor inner silence.

Opposite findings regarding get away motivation also makes clear that silence tourism related tourism types presented in this study are just different tourism types, for example slow tourism or rural tourism, which may be partly related to silence tourism, but which are not synonyms or concepts that have a connection in every case. What is said, for instance, about rural tourism is not completely true with silence tourism. Hence these silence tourism related tourism types can never fully explain silence tourism alone, but more studies about silence tourism are needed.

Potential silence tourists’ motivation not to discover new things

In addition, it was noted that ”Potential silence tourists” were not so motivated to discover new things. At first, it may seem contradictory to ”Silence tourists’” and ”Potential silence tourists’”

strong motivation for increasing knowledge. However, even if a tourist travels every time to the same silence tourism destination, it is always possible to learn something new there. Disco-vering new things, instead, refers rather traveling to a new destination and having an adventure there, which is quite far from increasing knowledge. Therefore, it makes sense that silence tou-rists like to travel to rural or nature destinations without a motivation to get away but learn new things there with their friends, family or like-minded people, and in overall, spend relaxing, enjoyable, favorable and fun holiday.