On the one hand, certain rural areas of Central Sweden are facing challenges of economic decline and depopulation in the early 21^st century. On the other hand, the number of Dutch migrating to Sweden has increased steadily over the past decade. As a result of these two developments, Dutch migrants have become a target group for the promotional activities of certain Central Swedish municipalities.

Against this empirical background, this paper aims to examine contemporary international place promotion of Nordic rural areas in order to attract counter-urban movers, exemplified by Central Swedish marketing campaigns towards Dutch (prospective) migrants. Methods applied are observation during emigration fairs in the Netherlands and a study of promotional material disseminated by Central Swedish municipalities through their “Holland-projects”. Moreover, an interview-study is conducted amongst municipal officials and recruiters at two organisations actively engaged in attracting Dutch and other counter-urban migrants to Central Sweden. Empirical questions considering the expectations of the recruiting municipalities are addressed in the paper. Moreover, the paper studies how the municipalities justify recruiting affluent western migrants.

This study is conducted within the theoretical and conceptual contexts of lifestyle migration (Benson & O’Reilly 2009) and place marketing (Ashworth & Voogd 1990). A cultural economy approach (Ray 1998) is employed, to investigate promotional practices in this problematic rural and sparsely populated area (Heldt Cassel 2008).