Tourism and Arctic Observation Systems: exploring the relationships

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Gateway Antarctica
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2016
Authors
de la Barre, Suzanne
Maher, Patrick
Dawson, Jackie
Hillmer-Pegram, Kevin
Huijbens, Edward
Lamers, Machiel
Liggett, Daniela
Pashkevich, Albina
Stewart, Emma
Abstract

The Arctic is affected by global environmental change and also by diverse interests from many economic sectors and industries. Over the last decade, various actors have attempted to explore the options for setting up integrated andcomprehensive trans-boundary systems formonitoringandobserving these impacts. These Arctic Observation Systems (AOS) contribute to the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of environmental change and responsible social and economic development in the Arctic. The aim of this article is to identify the two-way relationship between AOS and tourism. On the onehand,tourismactivitiesaccountfordiversechangesacrossabroadspectrum ofimpactfields.Ontheotherhand,duetoitsmultipleanddiverseagentsandfarreaching activities, tourism is also well-positioned to collect observational data and participate as an actor in monitoring activities. To accomplish our goals, we provide an inventory of tourism-embedded issues and concerns of interest to AOS from a range of destinations in the circumpolar Arctic region, including Alaska, Arctic Canada, Iceland, Svalbard, the mainland European Arctic and Russia. The article also draws comparisons with the situation in Antarctica. On the basis of a collective analysis provided by members of the International Polar Tourism Research Network from across the polar regions, we conclude that the potential role for tourism in the development and implementation of AOS is significant and has been overlooked.

Description
Citation
Suzanne de la Barre, Patrick Maher, Jackie Dawson, Kevin Hillmer-Pegram, Edward Huijbens, Machiel Lamers, Daniela Liggett, Dieter Mueller, Albina Pashkevich &Emma Stewart (2016) Tourism and Arctic Observation Systems: exploring the relationships. Polar Research, 35, pp. 1-13.
Keywords
Arctic, Antarctic, citizen science, observation systems, tourism, IPTRN
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::05 - Environmental Sciences::0502 - Environmental Science and Management::050206 - Environmental Monitoring
Field of Research::15 - Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services::1506 - Tourism
Rights
Polar Research 2016. c2016 S. de la Barre et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.