Regional development & resilience in the Gotland region - An analysis of regional development plans

Abstract: This paper is a case study analysis of the region of Gotland, and it investigates how Gotland as a tourist dependant region can improve their resilience. I analyzed two different regional development plans “Vision Gotland 2025” and “Vårt Gotland 2040”, look at key differences between these and also look at employment data in Gotland from 2005-2018. This is done with the following research question: What differences can we see from “Vision Gotland 2025” to “Vårt Gotland 2040”? As well as the sub question: To what degree has Gotland aimed to increase their resilience as a tourist heavy region, as envisioned with the new development plans? The analysis is done with a mixed method approach of both a document/ideal type analysis and a quantitative analysis. The theoretical framework is based on Evolutionary economic geography and the term resilience. When comparing the two different regional development plans we can see that there has been an increase in interest and use of terminology related to resilience from “Vision Gotland 2025” to “Vårt Gotland 2040”. The new regional development plan is more directly aiming to improve resilience of the region.