Lights in Jyväskylä: How Urban Lighting Influenced the Tourism Image of the Destination
Bogachev, Dmitrii (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060621217
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060621217
Tiivistelmä
The study was conducted to examine the impact of urban lighting on Jyväskylä’s appeal as a travel destination. The work was commissioned in collaboration with the City of Light. The objective was to explore how lighting strategies have influenced the city's tourism image, particularly through the City of Light festival and permanent lighting installations.
An inductive qualitative approach was applied, combining expert interviews with secondary sources to support empirical findings. Two lighting coordinators involved in festival organization and urban lighting projects were interviewed using semi-structured methods. Narrative, thematic, and content analysis techniques were used to interpret the interview data and analyse social media content tagged with relevant hashtags, including images of illuminated landmarks. Secondary sources such as academic research, grey literature, and tourism materials supported the analysis.
The results indicated that urban lighting has played a significant role in shaping Jyväskylä’s image over the past two decades, enhancing off-season domestic tourism and community inclusion. Lighting-based initiatives were shown to strengthen experience-driven tourism, urban attractiveness, and placemaking.
It was concluded that lighting technology can generate long-term value for tourism development when embedded in urban planning, education, and marketing. Continued cooperation between public institutions and the creative sector was recommended to strengthen Jyväskylä’s appeal and preserve its identity as the City of Light.
An inductive qualitative approach was applied, combining expert interviews with secondary sources to support empirical findings. Two lighting coordinators involved in festival organization and urban lighting projects were interviewed using semi-structured methods. Narrative, thematic, and content analysis techniques were used to interpret the interview data and analyse social media content tagged with relevant hashtags, including images of illuminated landmarks. Secondary sources such as academic research, grey literature, and tourism materials supported the analysis.
The results indicated that urban lighting has played a significant role in shaping Jyväskylä’s image over the past two decades, enhancing off-season domestic tourism and community inclusion. Lighting-based initiatives were shown to strengthen experience-driven tourism, urban attractiveness, and placemaking.
It was concluded that lighting technology can generate long-term value for tourism development when embedded in urban planning, education, and marketing. Continued cooperation between public institutions and the creative sector was recommended to strengthen Jyväskylä’s appeal and preserve its identity as the City of Light.