To Örebro University

Purpose – Urban-to-rural consumption-led mobility contributes to restructuring of stagnating rural areas in Europe and elsewhere. Against this background, the paper at hand explores international rural placemarketing efforts by Swedish municipalities in Dalarna and Bergslagen, toward affluent West-European migrants, exemplified by campaigns in the Netherlands. The analysis is carried out utilising the concepts of rural place marketing, rural idyll, lifestyle migration and the good life.

Design/methodology/approach – Research methods employed in this paper are observation and a survey during migration fairs and information meetings, followed by an interview study.

Findings – Results suggest that rural, peripheral and sparsely populated municipalities are most actively engaged in international place marketing efforts. Although numerous modes of spreading information are utilised, presence at migration fairs is increasingly essential. The engaged municipalities are highly selective considering target groups. Attracting even a few of the ‘right type’ of migrants (i.e. families and entrepreneurs from affluent countries) over the course of some years contributes considerably to maintaining a small municipality’s population and economic viability.

Originality/value – Therefore, these social dimensions should be included in any type of measure of effectiveness. However, conditions and resources vary across rural areas in Sweden and elsewhere, implying that different variants of the above analysed place marketing efforts may continue to develop in rural areas of Europe and beyond.