Seasonality of Arctic Tourism

The sub-project led by the University of Lapland concentrated on the issues of seasonality of the Arctic tourism. These included:

• issues of employment and workforce in the north
• local community perspectives on seasonality
• issues of development of new seasons in relation to Arctification of northern tourism
• the fragility of the Arctic nature and the global environmental changes in context of seasonality.

The project brought together researchers, graduate and postgraduate students, and tourism actors to collaborate and to explore issues related to seasonality. A five-day workshop was organized at Science Centre Arktikum in Rovaniemi, Finland from October 29 to November 2, 2018. An open panel discussion “Disturbing tourism seasons: changing demands, changing expectations” oriented to wider public was held at Korundi House of Culture on October 31, 2018. The panel discussion was streamed and it is available here.
 

Panel discussion: Seasonality of Arctic Tourism from Outi Rantala on Vimeo.

The collaboration resulted in production of TemaNord series’report Arctic tourism in times of change: Seasonality. The report aims to help in decision-making regarding issues of Arctic tourism and seasonality.

The data for the report were produced in collaboration between researchers, students, the tourism industry and the public sector, and further analysed by the international research team. Based on the data, the research group formulated recommendations for set procedures for the issues of tourism seasonality. In order to develop a thriving and sustainable tourism sector in Arctic Europe, the following considerations should be addressed:

• adopting community-first planning;
• enhancing local business and tourism resources ownership – including sociocultural-oriented resources, for instance festivals or indigenous culture-based attractions, and the utilization of new local innovative integrations of nature and culture in tourism;
• labour and employment issues;
• creating strategies to reduce labour precarity associated with tourism;
• educating travellers about sustainable Arctic ways of living, which are also responsible for how lifestyle entrepreneurship is expressed in the Arctic;
• enhancing urban Arctic tourism opportunities;
• utilization of the diverse distinct seasons existing in the Arctic;
• recognizing global environmental change; and
• committing to sustainable transportation.