This article proposes new insights on sustainability of tourism through social innovations. The underlying aim is to find practical ways to enhance sustainability in and through tourism, as sustainability has been criticized for its abstract nature. The marginally studied relationship of sustainability of tourism and social innovations is explored by utilizing ethnographic data on tourism, which is expected to grow in Kemi, Finland. Two examined examples of social innovations—related to social inclusion, employment, and using waste food—offer insights for tourism by bringing out non-traditional public sector perspectives and novel, multi-sectoral grass-root initiatives for coping with societal challenges at the local level. This paper suggests that sustainability of tourism can be informed through social innovations as cooperative processes, which respond to local needs and create novel solutions and social and other value at the destination. It is discussed how insights from social innovations can widen the understanding of what constitutes a tourism stakeholder, bring in the holistic, multi-sectoral dimensions of sustainability, and provide examples on the use of collaborative spaces for practical tourism planning.

本文通过社会创新提出了关于旅游业可持续性的新见解。根本目标是找到切实可行的方法来提高旅游业的可持续性，因为可持续性因其抽象性质而受到批评。通过利用预计在芬兰凯米增长的旅游业人种学数据，探索了旅游业可持续性与社会创新之间的边际研究关系。两个社会创新案例——与社会包容、就业和使用废弃食品相关——通过提出非传统公共部门的观点和新颖的、多部门的基层举措来应对当地的社会挑战，为旅游业提供了见解水平。本文表明，旅游业的可持续性可以通过作为合作过程的社会创新获得信息，响应当地需求并在目的地创造新颖的解决方案以及社会和其他价值。讨论了社会创新的见解如何拓宽对旅游利益相关者构成的理解，引入可持续性的整体、多部门维度，并提供使用协作空间进行实际旅游规划的例子。