| Summary: | The Arctic has attracted considerable research attention from various disciplines and this trend has intensified in recent decades. Reasons for this increased scrutiny include growing social and political foci on climate change that is felt sharply in the region (Sturm et al., 2001; Ford and Smit, 2004; Hinzman et al., 2005); increased debates over the sustainable use of natural and cultural resources of the Arctic (Kaltenborn, 1998; Riedlinger and Berkes, 2001); and amplified geopolitical tensions that result from the opening of the region (Heininen and Nicol, 2007; Young, 2009). The Arctic tourism experiences described and analysed in this edited book are informed by all of these 'macro issues'. Despite this increased interest in the macro issues in the Arctic area, there is still a need for knowledge regarding the micro issues, such as how to facilitate sustainable tourism. The present book focuses on the tourist and the tourist experiences, in addition to the tourism facilitators: that is, the firm, the organizations and the stakeholders providing for tourism in the Arctic. The aim of this book, specifically, is to better understand the production and consumption of visitor experiences in the Arctic region as a rapidly changing tourist destination. This knowledge will contribute to a balanced triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability approach in Arctic tourism. Tracing the historic and contemporary experiences of how the Arctic has been and is currently visited and 'consumed', the book focuses on the paradoxical dichotomy of the Arctic where the peak tourist experience, or a multidimensional 'experiential core', is attained through a context of geographical peripherality. With the core-periphery dichotomy as its fundamental approach, the book discusses how and by whom such experiences are created and consumed in the Arctic region, and considers the environmental, sociocultural and economic repercussions of this production/consumption nexus. No Full Text
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