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The use of Sámi cultures in the Finnish tourism business has been problematic for many decades. The aim of this article is to explore how the notion of cultural sensitivity could help to find alternative approaches and new solutions to this situation, especially for Sámi tourism. For this purpose, a systematic literature review method was used to examine and describe how previous academic literature has approached the issue of cultural sensitivity in the Finnish context. While the concept has not been used in tourism research in Finland, previous discussions have focused on questions of respect, cultural sustainability, cultural carrying capacity, cultural representations and cultural identity in tourism contexts. Simultaneously, research in other fields of study has drawn attention to the importance of healing, reconciliation and recognition for Sámi cultures. Reviewing the social work and pedagogy literature indicates how the idea of cultural sensitivity can enrich the search for more responsible ways of thinking, doing and researching tourism. In sum, the article calls for future research, theoretical conceptualization and practical application of cultural sensitivity that emphasizes recognition of and respect for cultural differences.

Researchers have, most commonly, been studying souvenirs from two different streams: one that discusses the impact of souvenirs on the producers and another that focuses more on tourists as consumers of the souvenirs. Recently, the studies have also concentrated on the stories given with souvenirs, connectiveness to places and on the effectiveness of their memorability. However, research about the embodied experiences of and, most importantly, with souvenirs has been overlooked even in craft tourism, which can be seen fundamentally different way of experiencing tourism destinations as it invites people to involve the body in the actions, touch and move together. Therefore, in order to grasp the embodied encounters with souvenirs, we use an autoethnographic narrative of self-knitted green and white mittens to gain understanding about our experiences with the non-human actors, to research how emotions and affect are produced through craft tourism and the souvenirs, and how care as an affect is present in different situations and. By drawing inspiration from previous discussions on relational ethics, non-representational theory and affect in Tourism Studies, the narrative of the mittens explores the intensive entanglements in meanings and matter between handicrafts, places and humans. There, the ability to care is not limited to the social lives of humans. The self-made souvenirs emerge in unpredictable ways around everyday actions and create multiple affects, with movement, vitality and encounters on their own, becoming part of a lifelong journey filled with memories of certain moments. Furthermore, our findings encourage future tourism research to go beyond representation when exploring the intensive entanglements between people, souvenirs and places.