Mass Tourism and the Arctic: The Impacts of Globalization on Peripheral Communities

• Main Author: Stone, Talor
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ODU Digital Commons 2022
• Subjects: Critical and Cultural Studies; Environmental Studies; Indigenous Studies; Tourism; Arctic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gh/vol3/iss1/21; https://doi.org/10.25779/htng-xj92; https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/context/gh/article/1034/viewcontent/vol3article03tstone.pdf

[First paragraph of Introduction] In the last 20 years, the number of tourists venturing into remote parts of the Arctic has increased dramatically. This rapid growth has shifted the region from a niche expedition destination reserved for hardy explorers to a popular bucket list item luring tourists with the promise of an exotic adventure to be experienced en masse. Although the phenomenon of mass tourism in the Arctic is relatively new, it fits into broader themes of globalization in which today far more people are aware of distant places, interested in global travel, and are able to afford both the means and time to travel for pleasure. Revolutions in affordable transportation in the modern era have made travel more affordable and accessible for people than ever before while the proliferation of social media around the globe has romanticized images of far-flung places. As such, “low-priced transportation and organized tours have played a huge role in the increase in global tourism†even to the world’s most remote and unlikely places (Ritzer & Dean, 2015, p. 289).