Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the multiple roles of a national airline in destination development. A concept of stopover tourism is introduced, and Finnish national airline Finnair and Stopover Finland destination development project are introduced to illustrate the concept of stopover tourism.
Methodology
This study is conducted as a mixed-methods research and following pragmatic scientific worldview. Research material collection is based on a varied collection of material from interviews, articles, public forums, presentations, project database and newspapers, and observations are made from a seminar and from promotional videos.
Findings
National airlines balance with their roles as socio-political corporations and as profit oriented corporations. As instruments in nation building, national airlines also spread national consciousness and unify countries and their people by spreading national consciousness and spirit of nationhood. National airlines are intertwined to socio-political conversations and can result to passionate reactions at the times of negative news. Furthermore, at the times of positive news the national airlines are a pride for the people of its nation. Stopover Finland project has been launched in April 2015 and has Finnair as a leading stakeholder and as a main promotional platform participating the project. This is significant factor, due to the fact that previous stopover projects in Finland have been failed because of lack of leading stakeholder (Finnair) and therefore no common will among the stakeholders. Theoretical framework of stakeholder engagement can be used as a tool to understand different stakeholder scenarios. Models can support to form a stakeholder engagement process and meaningful engagement. Other stopover destinations Iceland, Singapore and Dubai are all having their national airlines strongly participating the stopover concepts. Even though their concepts differ from each other in some areas, what is similar to all the destinations, is the leading role of their national airlines in the projects. This supports the significance of a national airline participating destination development projects.
Originality
It is relevant to acknowledge the complex role of a national airlines and how a balance can be achieved to have a national airline participating in destination development project while operating as a profitable airline. It is also important to understand the significance of a national airline to be participating in destination development but it is also important to understand the many expectations for a national airline.