Arctic Tourism in Times of Change : Dimensions of Urban Tourism

• Main Authors: Müller, Dieter K., Carson, Doris A., de la Barre, Suzanne, Granås, Brynhild, Jóhannesson, Gunnar Thór, Øyen, Gyrid, Rantala, Outi, Saarinen, Jarkko, Salmela, Tarja, Tervo-Kankare, Kaarina, Welling, Johannes
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Arktiskt centrum vid Umeå universitet (Arcum) 2020
• Subjects: Social and Economic Geography; Social och ekonomisk geografi; Arctic; Canada; Norway; Climate change; Iceland
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-175685; https://doi.org/10.6027/temanord2020-529

Tourism has grown in many Arctic peripheries of northern Europe and North America in recent years, particularly among international markets interested in northern winter experiences and unique Arctic nature and culture-based assets. This recent growth has been facilitated by a combination of factors tied to globalization, climate change, and an increasing “Arctification” of northern tourism that has generated particular imaginations and representations of the North among consumers as well as industry and political stakeholders. In this context urban places have remained relatively neglected in both academic and policy discourses connected to Arctic tourism, with much of the research and public attention focusing on remote destinations and exotic attractions that typically dominate the popular promotional tourism imagery of the Arctic. This neglect is somewhat surprising considering that most tourism activity – along with its positive and negative socioeconomic impacts – seems to concentrate in and around the larger urban centers. This report is the second one developed as part of the project Partnership for Sustainability: Arctic Tourism in Times of Change (funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers Arctic Co-operation Programme 2018–2020). The report brings together expertise and case studies from several Arctic and northern peripheries in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Canada to illustrate the diversity of urban Arctic tourism dimensions and to identify important implications for sustainable local and/or regional tourism development across the North. The case studies indicate that the dimensions of urban tourism in the Arctic are plentiful. As urban places in the Arctic are not primarily tourism resort towns, tourism happens in the context of other economic and societal activities. Hence, urban places in the Arctic serve a regional demand for urbanity and urban services within leisure and entertainment and they serve as destinations for domestic and international markets looking for more typical northern ...