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TourNord goes to Nuuk, Greenland!

The prospects and challenges of arctic tourism were the central themes of TourNord’s 4th network meeting in Nuuk, Greenland on the 15th and 16th of August, 2023. Blessed with fantastic weather and an incredible program in Nuuk, TourNord was given firsthand insights from tourism industry leaders on the evolution of tourism in Greenland as a whole, as well as looking towards the future of tourism development as an Arctic destination.

TourNord in Nuuk! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, TourNord had invited speakers from Air Greenland, Visit Greenland, Sustine Consult and the University of Greenland to enlighten and inspire us on Greenland’s exciting development as an Arctic destination. We also had time to experience some of the tourism concepts firsthand, as well as discuss and work on our projects, future project applications and cooperation strategies. Read more below to find out what we did!

Nuuk (Source: Greenland Travel)

Day 1: The evolution of tourism and travel in Greenland – great possibilities, but also complex problems!

After a warm welcome from Gestur Hovgaard from the University of Greenland and TourNord Project Lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, we received a tour of the new campus – with its impressive buildings melding seamlessly into the majestic backdrop of Nuuk’s fjords and mountains.

University of Greenland (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

After an introduction of the network meeting program, we got stuck right in with our first speaker, CEO of Air Greenland and a native of Nuuk, Jakob Nitter Sørensen. He came to speak with us about new airports and the challenges to Greenlandic air transport and tourism – where he highlighted that no airline faces challenges quite like Air Greenland does due to the extreme weather conditions in Greenland. This was an incredibly apt way to start his talk as several of our TourNord members had not arrived as their flights from Reykyavik had been cancelled the night before due to weather conditions!

Jakob talked about the upcoming expansion of Nuuk’s landing strip and airport facilities, which will completely change the tourism realm in Greenland. Until now, the only way to get to Greenland by air is from Copenhagen or Reykjavik – with only large planes being able to land in Kangerlussuaq. Only small planes are able to land in Nuuk, and are very susceptible to the quickly changing weather conditions. With the expansion of the landing strip in Nuuk, the capital city will now be able to receive large planes from near and far!

CEO Air Greenland Jakob Nitter Sørensen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

This therefore also means that with the possibility to send more travellers to Greenland, the infrastructure also needs to follow suit – one of Greenland’s biggest challenges with regards to tourism. Jakob sees Air Greenland as an integral part of the Greenlandic community, and that they bear a great deal of responsibility to help strengthen Greenland as a nation – be that by educating and hiring a Greenlandic workforce, owning, expanding and operating lodges around Greenlands tourism destinations, or leading the charge for sustainable development. The latter was recently done by completely upgrading the fleet to more sustainable airplanes, as well as being one of the first airlines in the world to use sustainable aviation fuel. Much of this was done at a cost to the bottom line, but as Jakob humbly reiterated several times, Air Greenland’s mission is to “be the natural first choice that lifts Greenland. We will secure everyday life and create adventure. And we do it sustainably”.

After lunch, we received a visit from Linda Kleist, Destination Development Manger at Visit Greenland – who also happened to be a graduate from our TourNord partner Dania Academy! Linda showcased the great diversity of Greenland’s 6 different DMOs, and how their recent award-winning campaign to overcome wrong stereotypes of Greenland had been met with tremendous success – both nationally and internationally. Check out their award winning video below “Date a destination”.

Date a Destination: Visit Greenland

Linda then presented their ambitious tourism development strategy, which harboured around the concept “from more to better tourism”. The strategy highlighted several key concepts which TourNord were very happy to hear as tourism educators and researchers, namely: community is king, attracting the right travellers, and eating with the locals. Linda showed us how the most lucrative segment, adventure travellers, could help boost Greenlandic tourism and its local communities due to their desired activities, and would not overburden communities as far fewer are needed to reach the same economic KPI’s (as opposed to say, cruise tourists).

Visit Greenland’s Destination Development Manager Linda Kleist (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

The last concept – eat with the locals – was then tested by TourNord’s members in the afternoon! Heading out in a Nuuk Water Taxi, TourNord members had the chance to see Nuuk’s majestic fjords (in unusually good weather conditions!), catch their own fish (Cod and Acadian Redfish), where they were then prepared by locals in the village of Qooqqut.

TourNord catching cod! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
Our fish being prepared in the village of Qooqqut (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

After a fantastic meal, we were in for a real treat, as the captain of the boat learned that humpback whales had been spotted in the Fjord next to ours. We were offered to reroute on the way home and were lucky enough to catch a view of a pod of humpback whales just outside Nuuk!


Day 2: Tackling sustainable tourism in Greenland, and how the hotel industry is gearing for evolution in Nuuk’s changing landscape

After a good night’s rest, we started out the day with a visit from sustainability consultant Stine Selmer Andersen from Sustine Consult. She highlighted the schism between Visit Greenland’s sustainability initiatives and how this doesn’t necessarily translate to concrete actions as needed by EU’s upcoming European Commission ESG measurement requirements. While Greenland does not fall under these requirements, Stine noted that the vast majority of tourists coming to Greenland are European, and European tour operators are getting them to Greenland (who will be bound by these requirements). This means that Greenlandic tourism actors and operators who cooperate with European companies need to be able to report their ESG key figures as part of the tourism value chain. Stine further displayed headaches to come with this as most Greenlandic tourism actors don’t have the financial resources or know-how, as they tend to be entrepreneurial SME’s. Group discussions with Stine revealed that Visit Greenland should consider taking on a stewardship role and facilitate workshops and maybe even provide consultants to local actors to help them transition to more concrete measurements of their sustainability initiatives.

Sustainable Tourism in Greenland – Stine Selmer (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

A quick break, and next up was Christian Loiborg Tang, Hotel Manager at Hotel Hans Egede Group, who gave us a fascinating 40 year historical insight into the development of the Nuuk hotel industry. Interestingly, Nuuk has traditionally been dominated by business travel, but are now getting ready for an increase in leisure tourists as capacity has been reached at Ilulissat and the upcoming expansion of Nuuk airport. Christian also presented the challenges a Nuuk hotel faces – particularly with recruitment and retainment of (un)skilled labour, as well as training staff with soft skills (in this case – problem management). Rapid, customized internal training, as well as hiring a global workforce (ranging from Thailand and the Philippines to Danish and Greenlandic staff) were some of the solutions Christian offered.

The hotel industry of Nuuk by Christian Loiborg Tang from Hotel Hans Egede Group (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

After lunch, we got down to business on progress reports on our upcoming book – Nordic Coastal Tourism, discussed HORIZON project application possibilities, discussed future dates for our 5th and 6th network meetings (in Randers, Denmark and Kalmar, Sweden), as well as possible staff exchanges.

Two excursions were on the agenda in the afternoon, namely a visit to the Visit Greenland office, situated at the beautiful colonial harbour in Nuuk, where we met all the staff, including the editors of the award winning campaign video – there were some starstruck TourNord members 🙂

Nuuk’s Colonial Harbour (Source: Guide to Greenland)

Later on, we received a very unique, and incredibly insightful tour by Steven Arnfjord, Associate Professor and Leader of the Arctic Center of Welfare Studies at the University of Greenland. Having lived in Nuuk since a child, Steven walked us through all of Nuuk’s nooks and crannies, all the while delivering us fantastic anecdotes and stories highlighting the incredible speed at which Nuuk is changing. Modernization and urbanization of the country’s capital is happening faster than anyone has realised, and there is a sense of a lack of a coordinated city planning strategy. Steven also ensured we left the tourist bubble to see the “other side” of Nuuk – showing that while the city has made great advances, it also has social challenges in the form of homelessness, suicide rates, and housing problems. An inspiring talk full of charisma, humour and a good dollop of reality!

Steven Arnfjord (right) leading TourNord on a guided walk through Nuuk (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
Graffitti in Nuuk protesting the rapid modernization of the city (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

For the evening, we capped off our network meeting by sampling Nuuk’s burgeoning restaurant scene – where we tried Greenlandic tapas! An incredible meal where we sampled local delicacies with a modern twist, such as cod fish soup, muskox tartar and seared reindeer.

Muskox Tartar at Tapasimut (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the University of Greenland and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:

1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism
2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism

3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.

Categories
Business Academy SouthWest Dania Academy Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Koszalin University of Technology Linnaeus University Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences Meeting News Nordic Tourism Norway OVertourism Sustainable Tourism Tourism Education University of Gdansk University of Greenland University of Turku Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

TourNord goes to Bergen, Norway!

Resilience, sustainability, regenerative tourism and overtourism were some of the main topics discussed at our 3rd network meeting in Bergen, Norway. On the 6th and 7th March, 2023, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences hosted our largest ever network meeting, with TourNord partners participating from Denmark (Business Academy SouthWest, Dania Academy), Finland (University of Turku), Greenland (University of Greenland), Iceland (Icelandic Tourism Research Centre), Sweden (Linnaeus University), Lithuania (Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences) and Poland (University of Gdansk, Koszalin University of Technology)!

TourNord in Bergen! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, the central themes of the network meeting were:

  1. Innovative and Resilient Tourism
  2. Sustainable tourism: Preparing students for a greener future
Bergen UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bryggen (Source: Bergen Tourist Board).

Day 1: Overtourism and sustainability in Norway? Viewpoints from an industry and academic point of view

After a warm welcome from Ove Oklevik, from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and TourNord project lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, the group introduced themselves (as we had new TourNord partners participating for the first time from Lithuania, Poland and Iceland). It didn’t take long then before we went straight to the heart of the day’s topic – namely dealing with overtourism and sustainability – with a special focus on Norway.

The first presentation of the day was by Ståle Brandshaug, partner and consultant at 2469 Reiselivsutvikling, whose vast experience as not only a tourism consultant, but also as the former CEO of Visit Sognefjord and CEO of Region Stavanger, came to the forefront. Ståle challenged the media and academic notion and perceptions of overtourism in Norway, and instead suggested that due to Norway’s size and population, there was actually a case of undertourism! Ståle also challenged the notion of pointing the finger at cruise tourism as the easy scapegoat, instead suggesting that cruise tourism is easier to manage and limit, thus suggesting that land-based tourism could be the root cause of overtourism (since the tourism flow could not be controlled or managed).

Overtourism – a Norwegian perspective, by Ståle Brandshaug (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

This was in stark contrast to the following presentation done by Ove Oklevik, who presented his paper: “Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: A case study of activities in Fjord Norway”. The highly influential paper (published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and written with prominent scholars such as Stefan Gössling and Michael Hall), painted a very different picture to what Ståle Brandshaug presented.

These differences clearly highlighted some of the challenges we face in Nordic Tourism – balancing industry and academic viewpoints on how to progress with sustainable tourism (and defining whether we have overtourism or not!). This led to a fantastic discussion by all our partners on how such problems could be tackled and discussed, particularly also with how our tourism students need to be able to balance such different viewpoints.

The day’s program also had a presentation by Western Norway University of Applied Science’s research team – who came by to inform us of different Nordic and European funding possibilities which could be of relevance to TourNord, and led to great discussions, and finally, a decision on going for a project application!

Presentation by HVL’s Research Unit at the HVL Campus Bergen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

In the late afternoon, our hosts took us on an excursion of Bergen, which finished at the top of Bergen (Fløyen), where we could enjoy the beautiful sunset over Bergen and the fjord! We also found it hard to believe that Bergen is the city with the most annual rainfall when seeing this type of weather!

TourNord partners enjoying the view at Fløyen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Day 2: Sustainable hotels in Bergen, sustainable lawmaking and practices in education, and centres for excellence with regenerative tourism

Our second day started at the historic Grand Hotel Terminus, a part of “De Bergenske”. It was therefore only fitting that the first order on the program was a presentation by De Bergenske CEO and Owner, Kjertil Smørås. Kjertil highlighted the uniqueness of the chain, in that they wanted to “go deep” into Bergen – becoming the foremost experts on hotels and restaurants in Bergen, as opposed to just scratching the surface in multiple cities in Norway. This was also a testament to De Bergenske’s desire to be an integral part of the Bergen identity, both on social and environmental sustainable dimensions. Kjertil also highlighed how their forthcoming hotel would be a testament that they weren’t “working with sustainability”, but rather that sustainability was at the heart of every decision, and would be as natural as a part of the hotel’s DNA. Lastly, Kjertil highlighted what type of tourist would lead to more sustainable tourism in Bergen (the cultural tourist), and how cruise tourism would be detrimental to such a strategy.

Kjertil Smørås, CEO De Bergenske, presenting at Grand Hotel Terminus (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Next, a presentation came from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences’ Project leader on Sustainability, Tom Skauge. Tom provided us with a fascinating insight on how the upcoming EU-taxonomy and governmental sustainability regulations will have an impact on both the tourism industry and the educational system in Norway. His examples of zero-emission requirements for cruise ships in the Norwegian fjords, as well as the steep increase in interest in sustainability from students at their universities, highlighted the omnipresence of the climate crises, and how governmental regulations from both Norway and EU will be fundamental for securing sustainable mindsets and industries.

A slide from Tom Skauge’s presentation on implementing SDG in Norway Higher Education (Source: Tom Skauge).
University of Turku discussing centres for excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

After a lovely lunch at the hotel, there was then a group discussion led by the Sari Nyroos and Johanna Aaltonen from the University of Turku, who presented an idea of how to create a centre of excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism. There were interesting concepts used here with regards to education – particularly that of open badges and micro credentials, thus lending further credence that the future of tourism education needs to evolve in order to secure the workforce that is sorely needed. Afterwards, Christian Dragin-Jensen and Grzegorz Kwiatkowski provided an update on TourNord’s book: Nordic Coastal Tourism.

The last order in the meeting room was looking forward to our 4th network meeting, which will take place in Nuuk, Greenland! Gestur Hovgaard from the University of Greenland presented some great practical information, tips (and even a bit of history about Greenland!), so we are ready to head to Greenland in August 2023!

Finally, we had an excursion to the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site Bergen Bryggen and the nearby Bergen Castle.

TourNord members investigating Bergen Bryggen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:

1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism
2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism

3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.

Categories
Business Academy SouthWest Dania Academy Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Koszalin University of Technology Linnaeus University Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences Meeting News Norway University of Gdansk University of Greenland University of Turku Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

TourNord: Coming soon to….Bergen!

Just a little bit over a week to go!

We are all getting very excited for our upcoming network meeting, which will be taking place in Bergen, Norway on the 6th and 7th of March, 2023!

Our hosts, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, has prepared an exciting program for us. In line with the theme of the visit – innovative and resilient Nordic tourism – we will be looking at areas such as overtourism in the Nordics, as well as sustainability and resilient tourism in Norway. Presenters at the network meeting includes Academics, Tourism consultants, sustainability coordinators and a CEO of a Norwegian hotel chain!

One of our two host sites: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences – Campus Kronstad Bergen. Source: HVL.no

We will also be making on-site field visits to learn of how tourism has developed in Bergen. There are scheduled visits to Fløybanen, Bryggen and Bergenhus Castle.

There will also of course be time for discussing new projects within Nordic Tourism and Education. As you can see, we are going to have some busy days!

One of our two host sites: Grand Hotel Terminus Bergen. Source: Grand Hotel Terminus

This will be our largest network meet to date, with participants coming from Business Academy Southwest (Denmark), Dania Academy (Denmark), University of Turku (Finland), University of Greenland (Greenland), Linnaeus University (Sweden), Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (Iceland), Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania), Koszalin University of Technology (Poland), University of Gdansk (Poland), and of course, our hosts from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway).

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Iceland Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Lithuania Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences News

TourNord is expanding!

We are happy to announce that TourNord is growing with TWO new members!

A big welcome to the Lithuanian Business University of Applied Sciences (Lietuvus Verslo Kolegija) and the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (Rannsóknamiðstöð ferðamála)! We look forward to cooperating on Nordic Tourism education and research! A bit of information about the institutions can be found below.

The Icelandic Tourism Research Centre in Akureyri (Source: rmf.is)

Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (Rannsóknamiðstöð ferðamála):

The Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (ITRC) is a cooperative project between three universities: the University of Akureyri (UNAK), the University of Iceland (UI), and Hólar University (HU). The objectives of the centre are: to promote tourism research in Iceland, facilitate cooperation in Icelandic higher education institutes in the field of tourism studies, strengthening ties between academic work and industry, and to increase knowledge on tourism through domestic and international collaboration. The ITRC has participated in several multinational projects, e.g. funded by the EU Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme.

Website

Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (source: ltvk.lt)

Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (Lietuvos verslo Kolegija):

LBUAS is a Lithuanian higher education and research institution located in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda with a branch in Vilnius. The institution conducts professional bachelor’s studies in five directions: management, tourism, economy, law, and technology. Also, together with social partners and scientific institutions, it implements national and international scientific-applied research, based on which the Department of Scientific-Applied Research is founded.

Website