Free Walking Tours as a Pathway to Entrepreneurship for Foreigners in Finland
Morrow, Edward (2024)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024050810237
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024050810237
Tiivistelmä
This main goal of this was to investigate whether free walking tours can be a pathway for foreigners in Finland to engage more with entrepreneurship and help with their social and professional integration into Finnish society and jobs market. The secondary goal is to shed light on a different side of free walking tours, shifting the focus towards the social and economic benefits it can bring to foreigners in their journey to integration within their new surroundings. This aspect of free tours has been understudied in the past and this report aims to investigate this, as well as open new pathways for future study of this topic.
The theoretical framework of this report consists of the free walking tour industry in Finland, the entrepreneurial possibilities created by this industry and the push and pull factors which encourage or prevent this from happening. This involves the interaction of personal circumstances, state-sponsored business support mechanisms, the influence of demographics and the nature of the free tour model and the benefits it can bring foreigners in Finland.
The data collection method consisted of 9 semi-structured interviews with foreign free tour guides in Finland. The interviews took place in December 2023, January and February 2024. All of the interviews were done online using Microsoft Teams and the interviewees were all based in Finland. The interviews were between 25-45 minutes long.
The key findings of this research are three distinct pathways that foreign free tour guides take. Pathway 1 is unemployment, to free tour guide, to starting a business in Finland. Pathway 2 is unemployment, to free tour guide, to full-time employment. Pathway 3 is free tours as a hobby with no motivation to find full-time work or entrepreneurship and without starting from a position of unemployment.
Demographic factors appear to influence which pathway is taken and the push and pull factors which are associated with entrepreneurship can also present themselves as obstacles indicating the highly individualised nature of the pathways. Pathways 1 and 2 were of most relevance to the goals of this report, however Pathway 3 provided some interesting insights into the motivations of an underrepresented age group within the free walking tour industry.
The results indicate that in all three pathways, free tours have a positive effect on integration into the jobs market and society. The support mechanisms were well known amongst the interviewees indicating market barriers and risk aversion which was putting women off starting their own businesses off the back of their free tour experience indicating that more needs to be done to help foreign women in Finland overcome the perceived obstacles to entrepreneurship in Finland.
The theoretical framework of this report consists of the free walking tour industry in Finland, the entrepreneurial possibilities created by this industry and the push and pull factors which encourage or prevent this from happening. This involves the interaction of personal circumstances, state-sponsored business support mechanisms, the influence of demographics and the nature of the free tour model and the benefits it can bring foreigners in Finland.
The data collection method consisted of 9 semi-structured interviews with foreign free tour guides in Finland. The interviews took place in December 2023, January and February 2024. All of the interviews were done online using Microsoft Teams and the interviewees were all based in Finland. The interviews were between 25-45 minutes long.
The key findings of this research are three distinct pathways that foreign free tour guides take. Pathway 1 is unemployment, to free tour guide, to starting a business in Finland. Pathway 2 is unemployment, to free tour guide, to full-time employment. Pathway 3 is free tours as a hobby with no motivation to find full-time work or entrepreneurship and without starting from a position of unemployment.
Demographic factors appear to influence which pathway is taken and the push and pull factors which are associated with entrepreneurship can also present themselves as obstacles indicating the highly individualised nature of the pathways. Pathways 1 and 2 were of most relevance to the goals of this report, however Pathway 3 provided some interesting insights into the motivations of an underrepresented age group within the free walking tour industry.
The results indicate that in all three pathways, free tours have a positive effect on integration into the jobs market and society. The support mechanisms were well known amongst the interviewees indicating market barriers and risk aversion which was putting women off starting their own businesses off the back of their free tour experience indicating that more needs to be done to help foreign women in Finland overcome the perceived obstacles to entrepreneurship in Finland.