Tourism, research, and governance on Svalbard: a symbiotic relationship

Abstract

The tourism industry, research activities, and governing institutions are often seen as three very different, independent, and partly antagonistic activities and sectors -tourism as pure profit-pursuing, research as indifferent to business, and governing as controlling both. In this paper, it is argued that this is not the case on Svalbard, where a symbiotic relationship exists between the three sectors. Tourism to the islands emerged in the wake of the exploration of the Arctic in the late 1800s, but for a long period tourism rates were low, mostly due to a strict environmental regime supported by researchers in the natural sciences as well as the government. However, tourism has increased over the past 20 years, partly due to changes in the relationships between the tourism industry, researchers, and governing bodies. The involvement of research in different types of governance and its influence on tourism development will be demonstrated using theories of modern governance as points of departure for an analysis of the current situation; how tourism has provided governors with activities to govern and researchers with a rationale for comprehensive research activity. This case study shows how a symbiosis between tourism, research, and governance can be seen to emerge.

Editorial: Tourism issues and international borders in the Nordic Region

“…The recent Dutch decision to make most of its Caribbean territories full "countries" within the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a well-known example. There are several unique territories in the Nordic region that have a special status regarding their administration and autonomyGreenland, the Faroe Islands, Svalbard and Åland (Grydehøj, 2010;Timothy, 2010;Viken, 2011). These unique situations and supra-state spaces with distinctive governance models in Northern Europe have clear consequences for tourism legal frameworks, management regimes, marketing, taxation and other related processes.…”

Tourism and Arctic Observation Systems: exploring the relationships

“…Cruise ship operators contribute to environmental monitoring, as all passenger vessels sailing in Svalbard waters are required, by law, to report all landings of passengers to the Governor. The NPI has established a comprehensive web-based environmental monitoring system called Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, which contains over 200 environmental indicators, including tourism indicators (Viken 2011).…”

Marine communities : governing oil & gas activities and cruise tourism in the Arctic and the Caribbean

“…Consistent with the global tendency toward emerging network governance (Sørenson and Torfing, 2005), this message was an important impetus for collective self-governance in tourism development on Svalbard (Viken, 2011). Hence, in 2003, the AECO, a spinoff of its sister organisation, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), was established by eight tour operators 6 : (I-M-44).…”

“…Expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard was selected as a case study because it presents a clear case of the coexistence of state governance and collective self-governance, driven by the establishment of AECO, in one cruise destination. Tourism in Svalbard increased rapidly in the 1990s, which made the need for regulations urgent (Viken, 2011). Until that time, people referred to Svalbard as the Wild West, where cruise operators and visitors could behave like cowboys and take human bones, polar bear skulls, flora and fauna and fossils without any re strictions.…”

“…Growing cruise tourism leads to a new range of opportunities and challenges for marine and terrestrial ecosystems, communities and regulatory systems on Svalbard (Hagen, Vistad, Eide, Flyen, and Fangel, 2012;Hovelsrud and Smit, 2010;Viken, 2011) and elsewhere in the Arctic (e.g. Greenland, Iceland and Russia).…”