Green Ice: Tourism Ecologies in the European High North PDF
Preview Green Ice: Tourism Ecologies in the European High North
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 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2016 Theauthor(s)has/haveassertedtheirright(s)tobeidentifiedastheauthor(s)ofthisworkin accordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Coverillustration:Coverpattern©HarveyLoake Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisMacmillanPublishersLtd. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:TheCampus,4CrinanStreet,London,N19XW, UnitedKingdom 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
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