Category: Sustainable Tourism

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Cultural Tourism Green transition Just Governance Linnaeus University Meeting News Sustainable Tourism Sweden

TourNord goes to Kalmar, Sweden!

Sustainable tourism – justice, green transition and cultural tourism were the main topics for TourNord’s 6th network meeting in Kalmar, Sweden. Hosted by the Linnaeus University and Associate Professor Marianna Strzelecka, the network meeting served as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism. We were treated to two days of fantastic presentations, discussions and an insight into the coastal community of Kalmar and its neighbouring island, Öland. In true TourNord fashion, the weather also delivered so we were able to see the south-east coast of Sweden at its best!

Day 1: Justice in tourism, co-creation with cultural tourism and excursion to Öland

The beautiful Kalmar Slott set the scene for the first part of our network meet. After a warm welcome from TourNord Project Lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, the group was given a tour around the historic Kalmar Slott. This was then followed by an exciting presentation given by Marianna Strzelecka from Linnaeus University on one of their current research projects.

Kalmar Slott (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

The project, titled “Energy justice for rural communities – Towards pathways to empowerment in sustainability transitions”, aims to bring justice to the residents of rural areas in sustainable energy transitions. It seeks to provide knowledge about energy injustices by exploring how they are perceived and reproduced in rural settings. As a specific example – if wind turbines are installed in a rural setting – close to houses, communities and/or nature, how can authorities and communities ensure a just distribution of the boons/costs they bring?

A very relevant project when considering the “not in my backyard” mentality that has dominated the energy transition landscape.

Presentation by Marianna Strzelecka (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Marianna’s presentation was followed by her colleague, Senior Lecturer Per Pettersson-Löfquist, who presented an ongoing project called “Innovative Cultural Entrepreneurship in Collaborative Co-creative Research”. Quite a mouthful of a title, yet Per deftly highlighted several aspects of the larger project, and dove into depth the parts he was directly involved in. More specifically, Per gave a rousing presentation about his work with cultural tourism actors, and how many of these cultural tourism offers are for many tourists the main “reason to go”, but hardly ever the biggest recipients of the income of tourist spend. That is, accommodation and restaurants tend to capture the lion’s share of tourist spending, despite not being the main reason to go. Per went on to show great local examples in the Småland region (of which Kalmar is a part of) on how hotels can collaborate with local glassmakers.

In an age of of co-creation, and with calls for better forms of tourism where we have to look at destinations more holistically, Per’s work certainly brought novel perspectives and food for thought for the TourNord network!

Presentation by Per Pettersson-Löfquist (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

After Per’s presentation, Marianna followed up by sharing their team’s vision for a knowledge environment for sustainable tourism at the Linnaeus University. This was an inspiring presentation on all the processes, politics, and necessary organizational structures needed to create such a knowledge environment at an institution of higher education. There were good lessons for all the TourNord partners who wished to perhaps try the same at their own institutions. This also permitted Marianna to receive feedback from other institutions on how to progress with such a knowledge environment, as well as to extend an invitation to further collaborate on such matters. The discussion also dove into the status of tourism students, the makeup of new study programs and how some schools have tried to tackle the downturn in tourism students. A truly Nordic cooperative meet!

After a wonderful vegetarian lunch at the castle, we were in for a real treat as we were given a tour of Kalmar’s neighbouring island, Öland. The tour was spearheaded by associate professor Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay. Ludvig’s unique knowledge of Öland was not only due to his background as an archaeologist, but also as a resident of the island. Driving around the island, we were treated to insights on the unique flora and fauna of the island, the natural phenonemons such as the Stora Alvaret – a large limestone plain home to many unique and rare species. We were shown how history, nature and tourism interweave on the island, and how the island naturally segments the different types of tourists who arrive (for example – the northern part of the island attracts more ‘traditional’ beach and sun tourists, whereas the southern part attracts more nature-based tourists). We also had an in-prompt discussion on the island’s untapped potential (and pitfalls!) of surf-tourism!

TourNord visiting Öland (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

We also visited several farm shops (a unique and critical component of tourism localness in the Småland region), as well as the famous Station Linné, home to world-leading research on flowers, insects and Alvaret’s nature.

Station Linné (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)
A local farmshop on Öland (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Day 2: Workshop, TourNord business, and tour of Kalmar oldtown

After a good’s night rest, we started out bright and early at the beautiful Linneus University campus. As this was our 6th and last Nordplus financed network meet, we needed to discuss how we wished to continue with TourNord – and in what format.

Linnaeus University (source: Educations.com)

A workshop was held on how we wished to structure TourNord going forward, with the following decisions being made:

  • We still wish to meet physically and will pursue funds on how to do so. Until funds are secured, we will meet as a minimum twice a year (1x per semester) online, or more often if needed.
  • Microsoft teams channels will be created, with each channel serving a different function (general communication, different funding possibilities, staff exchange, etc.) to streamline our different acitivities
  • All team members will be proactive in looking at different calls for projects that are of relevance to TourNord institutions
  • Christian Dragin-Jensen will continue as Project Lead
Mia Post-Lundgaard and Christian Dragin-Jensen leading the workshop (source: Trine Thomsen)
Brainstorming! (source: Trine Thomsen)

Christian Dragin-Jensen and Ove Oklevik were also able to present the manuscript of TourNord’s upcoming book “Nordic Coastal Tourism – Sustainability, Trends, Practices and Opportunities”. The book is in its final stages at the publisher and we are hoping that the book will be ready for its release by the end of the year!

The book has been the brainchild of the TourNord network and editors Christian Dragin-Jensen, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski and Ove Oklevik applauded all the hard work done by all the Tournord members and other authors of the chapters for making this book a reality!

The TourNord network also agreed to look into further funding possibilities for science communication regarding the publishing of the book, as well as creating teaching material regarding the book.

With the workshop and Tournord business settled, we were given a tour of the beautiful and historic old town of Kalmar, followed by a lunch.

TourNord touring Kalmar (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

All the participating TourNord members would like to thank Linnaues University 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.

Kalmar Slott (source: Trine Thomsen)

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Arctic Tourism Business Academy SouthWest Dania Academy Greenland Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Linnaeus University Meeting News Nordic Tourism Sustainable Tourism Tourism Tourism Employment Tourism lessons learned: from remote locations Turku University of Applied Sciences University of Greenland University of the Faroe Islands Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

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.

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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.

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Arctic Tourism COVID-19 Greenland Guest Post Nordic Tourism Sustainable Tourism Tourism Tourism Education Tourism Employment Tourism lessons learned: from remote locations University of Greenland

Arctic Tourism – some lessons for the Greenlandic South

Guest post by Gestur Hovgaard, Professor at the University of Greenland.

Greenland is not only the largest island in the world, it is also the most sparsely populated country. Today more than 50% of the total population of 56000 live in the five municipal centers of Nuuk, Sisimiut, Ilulissat, Aasiat and Qaqortoq; the capital, Nuuk, has 19000 people. The Greenlandic economy is primarily based on fishing and fish processing, but there is increasing emphasis on developing industry (trade, construction, services), mining for e.g., gold, and rare earth elements and not the least tourism. Although still in its infancy, tourism grew slowly over the past few decades, save for a downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A minor indication of tourism development in Greenland can be seen in Table 1, which includes national and international stays:

                      Source: own table based on numbers from stat.gl

The Arctic in general has attracted great tourist interest, but destinations are unevenly distributed. The major tourist destination of the North, Iceland, had 4,5 million foreign overnight hotels stays in 2018, and 9 million overnight stays in all accommodations land and Greenland (Icelandic Tourist Board, 2019). Greenland is not Iceland and should not be, but the contrast between Greenland and Iceland suggests some possibilities for Greenland (Jóhannesson et.al. 2022).

Tourism in Southern Greenland

South Greenland is Greenland’s smallest municipality in terms of area and population. Today there are about 6700 inhabitants in the region, which is somewhat larger than Denmark, with four smaller towns (Narsassuaq, Narsaq, Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) and 11 settlements. There is a complicated geography, with no roads between towns and villages; the sea is the “highway”, with government providing some aircraft and helicopter connections.

In 2009, the three municipalities in the southern region, Nanortalik, Narsaq and Qaqortoq, were merged into Kommune Kujalleq, with Qaqortoq as the administrative center. The amalgamation was an attempt to use the region’s limited financial and cultural resources more efficiently. Although there is skepticism about the amalgamation, the region has gained Innovation South Greenland (ISG), an organization which serves as a meeting point for business development in the region (https://www.isg.gl/kl/). In the municipality’s planning, the development of tourism into a year-round activity is a central focal point for ISG.

The first organized adventure tourism in South Greenland started back in the early 1970s, and has developed slowly over the years to the current number of operators and destination options (for an overview, see: https://visitsouthgreenland.com/all-adventures-in-south-greenland/). South Greenland has also had development in cruise tourism that roughly follows the pattern in Greenland generally (see Table 2). The Disko Bay area has been particularly important. In 2020 and 2021, no tourist ships arrived, but the expectation is that cruises level will soon resume.

South Greenlandic tourism has been in a positive development in recent years, but was slowed down by Covid-19. As we see in Table 3, South Greenland had a declining relative share of total overnight stays in Greenland, but in fact increased relatively in 2020 and 2021. A probable exSouth Greenlandic tourism has been in a positive development in recent years, but was slowed down by Covid-19. As we see in Table 3, South Greenland had a declining relative share of total overnight stays in Greenland, but in fact increased relatively in 2020 and 2021. A probable explanation is that Covid-19 made South Greenland a popular destination for domestic tourism.

Some lessons for further tourism development

There are many challenges facing Arctic tourism (Rantala 2019). In a Greenlandic context, accessibility is the central parameter for the development of tourism. The planning of three new airports is particularly important. The airports in Nuuk (the capital) and Ilulissat (in the north) are underway, while the airport in South Greenland has not yet begun. At the local level, the formation of the ISG has been an important development. There are also two tourism programs at Campus Kujalleq in Qaqortoq which provide the entire country with new skills for the industry. Further, a short tourist season, and the many tourists with more and bigger cruise–ships will bring, pressure on local communities and the environment. It is also a challenge for the industry that work is seasonal and poorly paid. There is a need for more focus on environmental and social sustainability, both locally and nationally.

References

Icelandic Tourist Board. (2019). Tourism in Iceland in figures. https://www.ferdamalastofa.is/static/files/ferdamalastofa/tolur_utgafur/january-2019.pdf

Jóhannesson, G. T.; Welling, J.; Müller D. K., Lundmark, L., Nilsson, R. O., De la Barre, S., Granås, B., Kvidal-Røvik, T., Rantala, O., Tervo-Kankare, K., Maher, P. (2022). Arctic Tourism in Times of Change. Uncertain Futures – From Overtourism to Re-staring Tourism. Nordic Council of Ministers.

Rantala, O., de la Barre, S., Granås, B., Jóhannesson, G. Þ., Müller, D. K., Saarinen, J., Tervo-Kankare, K., Maher, P., Niska M. (2019). Arctic Tourism in Times of Change – seasonality. TemaNord 2019:528.

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Business Academy SouthWest Dania Academy Denmark Digital Competences Linnaeus University Meeting News Sustainable Tourism University of Greenland University of Turku Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

TourNord’s 1st network meeting!

What an exciting week this has been! After so many delays and postponements due to COVID-19, TourNord was finally able to have its first ever network meeting!

From the 22 – 24 of November 2021, Business Academy SouthWest hosted the network meeting in Esbjerg, Denmark, where participants from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Linnaeus University, University of Turku, University of Greenland and Dania Academy attended.

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. Preparing students and educators in tourism with digital skills & competences
  2. Developing Sustainable Tourism Destinations

Day 1: A day of digital skills & competences

After a warm welcome, TourNord got straight down to business with a presentation from Alice Bank Danielsen from Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism, who gave us a fascinating insight on the schism that exists between educational institutions’ understanding of digital competences in the tourism sector versus the actual reality. She also rounded off by presenting the digital toolbox they have created, to serve as an inspiration and guidance tool for tourism actors in Denmark. This was followed afterwards by a great debate on how we (as educational institutions) can better gear our staff and students to be more prepared for the digital world that is tantamount to succes in modern tourism.

After a quick break, we then went into a brainstorming session on how we could generate a concrete course which would help contribute to the digital competences skill gap in the Nordic tourism sector. Splitting into two groups, we came up with two very different (but equally inspiring) ideas!

One group laid a framework for a completely digital course (geared at both higher education students and the life-long learning adult education sector), which could be completed through a series of achievements and tasks (microcredentials). The course would stand on ‘three digital legs’, focusing on strategy, marketing and operations. The course would be case-based, in order to be context specific for the local partner institutions’ needs and demands.

The second group loved the idea of a digital course, but also saw the need and desire after long COVID-19 lockdowns for students to travel and meet – creating a short and intensive physical course where partner institutions’ students where required to travel to 2-3 partner schools. Students would receive both lecturing and be able to work on local cases with regards to using digital tools to optimize business performances of local tourism actors. Each partner institution has different skills (close ties to practitioners, workshop and creative thinking facilitation, digital skill application, etc.) and would be fine-tuned accordingly.

We plan to further work on these two ideas at our next network meeting!

Innovation Consultant Alice Bank Danielsen presenting.

Day 2: Excursion and Sustainable Tourism Development

Esbjerg is known for being windy (and the odd spot of rain as well!), yet we could not have asked for better weather in late November for our excursion to the Wadden Sea National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The morning started off with a visit to the Wadden Sea Center, where we were introduced to the the park, the relationship between nature and tourism, and how the Wadden Sea was unique in its biodiversity.

We then went on an oyster safari in the Wadden Sea, traversing ca. 2.5km into the ocean during low-tide (our guide informed us that the difference in water level between low and high tide was 1m70!).

Once we reached an oyster reef, our guide showed us how to chuck and eat oysters, all the while informing us about the types of tourists these tours normally get, interesting information about the wildlife (including snails that surf the waves, and white-tailed eagles) and the importance of knowing how to navigate the landscape.

Safely back at the Wadden Sea Center, the TourNord group then held a brainstorming session on future development projects – inspired by the Wadden Sea excursion, sustainable tourism development was the focal point. After a great discussion (where many ideas where generated), we decided that coastal tourism in the Nordics is indeed incredibly unique in the world of tourism (and how to develop it sustainably). We will therefore continue working on developing a project revolving around Nordic Coastal Tourism at our next network meeting in Finland!

Our day ended by passing by Ribe, Denmark’s oldest town, and a well-known tourist destination.

TourNord on an oyster Safari in the Wadden Sea National Park!

Day 3: Sustainable Tourism Development: Academic discussions and practical realities

The final day of the network meeting had a very special guest – Professor of Tourism Janne Liburd from the University of Southern Denmark, and Chairman of the Board for the Wadden Sea National Park. Janne invited us to a scintillating group discussion on understanding collaborative and sustainable tourism development. We were inspired by Janne Liburd’s transformative approach to sustainable tourism development, and we collectively tried to see how we could introduce this paradigm shift of moving tourism as growth-based industry selling a ‘product’, to instead how tourism can be a generator of wellbeing (moving across domains of cultural, economic, and ecological wellbeing). Specifically, how tourism can move from an industry that depletes an area of its resources, to instead to become a holistic part of its habitat – something the UN development goals would definitely adhere to!