Arctic ‘concessions’ and icebreaker diplomacy? Chinese tourism development in Iceland

Abstract

This paper is based on a case study on a Chinese investment proposal in Iceland and sets out to explore the different ways in which actors from different backgrounds, with an extensive range of expectations and ideas of what a destination could and should be, produce and sustain ideas about tourism development. Our point of departure is how tourism represents a new globalised economic expansion possibly reflecting processes of empire building of days gone by. This research suggests that the conflicting worlds of Chinese investment plans, seemingly pregnant with imperial aspirations, coreperiphery dichotomies, as well as contesting ideas of regional development, represent a need to begin re-thinking our understanding of tourism regional development from the perspective of what empires are.

Contested Development Paths and Rural communities: Sustainable Energy or Sustainable Tourism in Iceland?

“…In general, the tourism industry and, the communities that have embraced it, reflect the difficulties of long-term economic planning in a 'neoliberal laboratory' for nature and the resource-based sectors [114,115]. Adequate evaluation of the relative environmental, economic and social trade-offs between different development options and their distributional effects has not been fully implemented by the Icelandic government.…”

Sustainable Leisure Landscapes in Icelandic Rural Communities: A Multidisciplinary Approach

“…The exponential increase of tourism in the Arctic in recent decades has drawn the attention of numerous researchers (e.g., Zelenskaya, 2018; Keskitalo, 2017; de la Barre, Maher, Dawson, Hillmer-Pegram, Huijbens, Lamers, Liggett, Müller, Pashkevich, & Stewart, 2016;Huijbens, 2015;Huijbens & Alessio, 2015;Müller, 2015;Kaján, 2014;Müller & Brouder, 2014;Lemelin, Maher, & Ligget, 2013;Fay & Karlsdóttir, 2011;Grenier & Müller, 2011;Hall & Saarinen, 2010), highlighting the critical importance of a holistic understanding of the impacts of tourism on Arctic environments and communities. In Iceland tourism has grown rapidly in the past decade, with an escalating annual increase as high as 40% from 2015 to 2016 (ITB, 2017).…”

The rise of Asia in a changing Arctic: a view from Iceland

“…Iceland has long emphasized being a 'coastal state' in official documents and pronouncements in part because of the term's connection to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and associated increased economic rights (including fishing and continental shelf rights) resulting from this designation (Dodds and Ingimundarson 2012); the emphasis on being an Arctic coastal state took new prominence after the 2008 Illulissat Declaration where Canada, Norway, Russia, Denmark (in respect of Greenland), and the USA met separately to emphasize the stewardship role of the five Arctic coastal states and pointedly excluded Iceland (along with Finland and Sweden) from both the meeting and the declaration (Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2008;Dodds 2013). Just as Iceland has officially encouraged the phenomenal growth of tourism arrivals from abroad (Huijbens and Alessio 2013) to promote economic growth, so too have 220 J.G. Hastings the economic opportunities in the Arctic been talked up both domestically and internationally.…”

“…First, it will give an overview of Iceland's rising interest in the Arctic, both describing the 'what' and also exploring the geopolitical, economic, and scientific factors driving this interest. Iceland's Arctic interests have been detailed by some scholars inside and outside of Iceland (Cela 2010;Bailes and Heininen 2013;Bailes and Thorhallsson 2013;Dodds and Ingimundarson 2012;Huijbens and Alessio 2013) and this section will complement these efforts. Second, it will explore Iceland's embryonic engagement with and response to Chinese Arctic overtures.…”

“…Preliminary discussions are ongoing between Icelandic and Chinese shipping companies about trans-Arctic partnerships (Interview #9, #10). Most visibly, Chinese real estate developer Huang Nubo and Chinese Investment Group Zhongkun made an attempt to buy, and then lease, a large group of farms in Northeast Iceland for an eco-tourism resort in 2012 and 2013 (Huijbens and Alessio 2013).…”