This article considers the development of cross-border trade and tourism in the Russian- Finnish borderlands in the 19th/21st centuries. We describe the evolution of cross-border trade in the Russian-Finnish borderlands at different stages of the territory’s development. The patterns of cross-border trade have always been depended on the national policies of the two countries. Since the 19th century, cross-border trade in the Russian-Finnish borderlands has been the product of two factors. The first one is the demand from local residents for certain imported goods that are either absent or much more expensive in their own country. The second factor is the possibility of receiving additional or even basic income. We distinguish several periods (peddlar trade, Soviet-Finnish tourism, shuttle trade, shopping tourism) in the evolution of Russian-Finnish cross-border trade and identify their major trends and characteristics. We describe the general patterns of cross-border trade in these historical periods and juxtapose the pertinent institutional, organisational and infrastructural settings. We explain why the direction of the flow of finance and goods changed. Until the early 20th century, goods were brought to and money collected from Finland’s borderlands. Since the 1920s, the opposite situation has been observed. The latter trend has been growing in recent years. In this article, we aim at providing a periodisation and detecting the trends in and features of the evolution of cross-border trade in the Russian-Finnish borderlands in the 19th/21st centuries. To this end, we carry out a statistics and data analysis. We describe the Russian and international approaches to studying cross-border shopping tourism. We address Finland’s experience in stimulating inbound shopping tourism from Russia and examine why the Russians are attracted to the neighbouring state.

The study aims to examine travel preferences of Finnish cross-border tourists with special reference to the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Data were collected using paper-based and online surveys from 300 respondents travelling from Finland to the Russian Karelia. Although cross-border tourists are a significant part in the inbound tourist flow to Russian Karelia, several obstacles for this type of tourism have been revealed. Measures to stimulate Finnish tourists to travel to Russian Karelia are suggested. The results of this study can be used to improve Karelian tourist products by providing services as expected by tourists. The findings are limited to visitors of Russian Karelia and should therefore be interpreted with caution.

Increase in the migration flows has become a challenge in the world today. In Finland there is considerable shift in the number of migrants from Africa and the Middle East countries. The paper is based on the sociological research conducted in August-September, 2016 in Tornio (Finland). The empirical observations were gained from the interviews with 12 migrants and the questionnaires on the city Tornio attractiveness (73 locals) and the human mobility challenges (89 locals). The obtained results highlight the significant role of the communication activities with the joint participation of locals and newcomers in understanding each others' culture, decreasing negative perceptions and reactions in the integration process.