Green Ice: Tourism Ecologies in the European High North

125 Pages·2016·3.257 MB·English

by  Simone Abram, Katrín Anna Lund (eds.)

Green Ice
SimoneAbram(cid:129)KatrínAnnaLund
Editors
Green Ice
Tourism Ecologies in the European High North
Editors
SimoneAbram KatrínAnnaLund
LeedsBeckettUniversity UniversityofIceland
Leeds,UnitedKingdom Reykjavik,Iceland
ISBN978-1-137-58735-0 ISBN978-1-137-58736-7(eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-58736-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016958041
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Much of the research reported in this volume comes under the interna-
tionalresearchproject‘ArcticEncounters:ContemporaryTravel/Writing
in the European High North’ (see arcticencounters.net). The authors
gratefully acknowledge the funding of this project by Humanities in the
European Research Area (HERA). We should also like to thank the
project leader, Professor Graham Huggan, for his leadership and support
in the production of this work, and the project researcher, Dr. Roger
Norum,forhisvaluable assistance.
v
C
ONTENTS
1 GreenIce?Tourism Ecologies in the HighNorth 1
Simone Abram andKatrínAnnaLund
2 ResponsibleCohabitationin Arctic Waters:The Promise
ofa Spectacle TouristWhale 25
Britt Kramvig,Berit Kristoffersen andAnnikenFørde
3 Chasingthe Lights: Darkness, Tourismand the Northern
Lights 49
KatrínAnnaLund
4 Greenland,My Greenland—AccessingGreenlandicHistory,
IdentityandNation-building throughits Nation-branding
Strategy,aTourist Websiteand 247Comments 73
AstridAndersen
5 Afterword 97
Juan FranciscoSalazar
Index 115
vii
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig.2.1 Photo(BrittKramvig) 27
Fig.2.2 Photo(EspenBergesen) 35
Fig.2.3 Markedorcaandmap(AudunRikardsen) 36
Fig.2.4 PhototakenbyHeikeVester/OceanSounds(Vester2014:7) 42
Fig.3.1 ‘TheNorthernLights’flickeringabovealuggagecabinetinan
Icelandairplane.(KatrínAnnaLund) 52
Fig.3.2 AnimagefromaGraylinetour 60
Fig.3.3 AnimagefromaSagaTraveltour 61
Fig.4.1 AportraitofUlloriaqKreutzmannfromSisimiut
inGreenlandwithDogSled(MadsPihl—VisitGreenland) 77
Fig.4.2 ScenefromaGreatGreenlandphotoshootinNuuk
inGreenland(MadsPihl—VisitGreenland) 82
Fig4.3 AportraitofUjarneqSørensenwhoworksinthecontrol
toweratKulusukAirportinEastGreenland
(MadsPihl—VisitGreenland) 91
ix
CHAPTER1
Green Ice? Tourism Ecologies
in the High North
Simone Abram and Katrín Anna Lund
Abstract Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic
alongsidegrowinginternationalinterestintheArcticasasiteofextreme,
palpable climatechange. This chapter explores the ideaof tourism ecolo-
gies,tracingthedevelopmentoftourismintheEuropeanHighNorthinits
colonial contexts, and highlighting the tourism narratives that help to
sustain Arctic ecotourism. We ask what entices people to travel from afar
toexperiencesomethingcalled‘theArctic’,whattheymightbeexpecting,
andhowitispromotedandperformedinpractice.WhatideaofNatureisit
thatsustainsthistourism,andhowarethepeopleoftheEuropeanArctic
imagined,frominsideandout?Thechapteroutlinestheecologiesofthis
tourism,lookingbeyondthenotionofanaturalArctic,andconsideringthe
manypeople,placesandthingsthatcometogethertomakeArctictourism
possible. In the current forms of tourism development in the European
HighNorth,weseeechoesofearliercolonialimagesandpractices,butwe
also see attempts to learn from past mistakes that may help to redefine
S.Abram(*)
DurhamUniversity,Durham,UnitedKingdom
e-mail:[email protected]
K.A.Lund
UniversityofIceland,Reykjavik,Iceland
e-mail:[email protected]
©TheAuthor(s)2016 1
S.Abram,K.A.Lund(eds.),GreenIce,
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-58736-7_1
2 S.ABRAMANDK.A.LUND
tourism development and reinvent tourism for an ecological future. The
chapterthussituatesthecurrentgrowthinArcticecotourisminrelationto
postcolonialEuropeannarratives,introducingthechaptersthatfollow.
Keywords EuropeanHighNorth(cid:1)Arcticecotourism(cid:1)PostcolonialArctic(cid:1)
Tourismecologies (cid:1) Sápmi (cid:1)Greenland(cid:1) Iceland
TourismintheArcticregionsisexpandingrapidlyinbothscaleandscope.
Whereonceintrepidtravellerssetoutonwell-equippedexpeditionarytours,
today’stouristscanglidethroughArcticwatersonluxurycruiseshipsorfly
fromdestinationtodestination,livingtheArctictourismproducttheywere
sold in anticipation of their actual journey. Tourism has been seen as a
primary target for economic development in many peripheral regions, and
all of the European Arctic nations have prioritised tourism in recent years.
But tourism has consequences, some perhaps surprising, which have to be
considered. In this chapter, we introduce ideas about tourism ecologies in
theEuropeanHighNorth,outlinethekeyconceptsandset anagendafor
newtourismresearch,layingthegroundforthechaptersthatfollow.
Ourtitle‘GreenIce’gentlypokesfunattheideaofArcticecotourism.As
manycommentatorshaveobserved,forpeopleoutsidethepolarregionsthe
word‘Arctic’oftenconjuresvisionsofsparklingsnowandice,startlingblue
skies and an overall impression related to the concepts ‘clean’, ‘untouched’
and, of course, ‘cold’. Arctic tourism itself retains much of the spirit of the
expeditionformanytourists,withallitsassociatedvisionsofwildernessand
the exotic sublime (Oslund 2005; Oslund 2011; Sæþórsdóttir et al. 2011).
The promotion of tourism in European Arctic regions leans particularly
heavily on such imagery, adding in icebergs, polar bears and other Arctic
wildlife, as well as the stock images of tourism promotion—luxury-tinged
hotels and occasional indigenous colour. Of course, that is not the whole
story,andoneaimofthisbookistoshowwhatelseArctictourismisinthe
Europeanregion,howitischangingandwhatsomeoftheconsequencesare
forpeoplewholiveandworkintherelevantregions.Contrarytothekindof
imaginedfrozenArcticofthetourismbrochureworld,manypeopledolive
andworkintheEuropeanHighNorth,inArcticandsub-Arcticzones,which
extendrelativelyfarSouthintoScandinavia,dependingonwhichofthevarious
definitionsof‘Arctic’arebeingused.Forthisbook,wehavereferredtothe
European High North, an area that extends from around the Arctic Circle
northwards,alsoincorporatingIceland,butwearenotincludingtheRussian
1 GREENICE?TOURISMECOLOGIESINTHEHIGHNORTH 3
Northinourdiscussion.Thisismainlyforpragmaticreasons,sincethebook
reports primarily on recent research on ecotourism in Norway, Iceland and
Greenland, but we also reflect on related regions in the broader context of
polar tourism, including a comparison with Antarctic tourism (see the
Afterwordtothisvolume).
Ourparticularfocusisalreadyabroadareathatencompasseslandandsea
that is Nordic, Scandinavian, Sámi and Inuit—but not necessarily in that
order.Theordermatters,notleastbecausetheseareplacesthatneedtobe
consideredinrelationtovariousphasesandformsofcolonialism.Thesister
volume to this one, subtitled ‘Unscrambling the Arctic’, includes a more
detaileddiscussionoftheclaimsandmeritsoftheideaofthe‘postcolonial’
(HugganandJensen2016)thatcomplementsthediscussionshere,butthe
politicalcontestarounddefining,claimingandexploitingArcticresourcesis
central to all the following discussions. The broader context is thus the
rising clamour about the fate of the Arctic in a time of global climate
change, with increased pressure for resource extraction, bubbling tension
over sovereignty claims and a rapid expansion in industrial activity in all
sectors,notleastmineralandfuelextraction,andtourismactivities.
Thepolitical‘heat’buildingaroundArcticissuesisspreadingwellbeyond
thecountrieswhosecoastsbordertheArcticoceans(seeRousselandFossum
2010).SincetheArcticCouncilwasfoundedin1996inthewakeoftheend
ofthecoldwar,itsworkasahigh-levelforumhasgraduallygivensubstanceto
the idea of the Arctic as a region. Yet the tension over who belongs to the
Council,andwhoshouldhaverightsorclaimsonArcticresources,continues
to bubble. The role of indigenous organisations acknowledges thetensions
related to what Martello calls ‘Arctic citizenship’ (Martello 2004), but is
hardlystraightforward.Theseorganisationsareacknowledgedas‘permanent
participants’,buttheirstatusisnotequaltothe‘memberstates’whomakeup
thecouncil.TheArcticlittoralstatesarecontinuallytestingtheirrightsover
the extended continental shelf through the auspices of the United Nations
ConventionontheLawoftheSea(UNCLOS),1andthereispressureatevery
ArcticCouncilministerialmeetingtonegotiatethestatusofotherinterested
partiesasobservers.ChinaandKoreawereallowedtobeadhocobserversin
2009 but their applications to be permanent observers were declined. By
2013adifferentapproachwasreached,withanew‘manual’clarifyingobser-
verstatus,includingtherequirementtosupporttheCouncil’sobjectiveand
respect its authority. At this point, 11 countries were given permanent
observer status, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland,
Spain,theUK,China,Italy,Japan,Korea,SingaporeandIndia.Theclaims