New Intern at ITRC

The ITRC is pleased to welcome Gyde Rudolph back as a research intern for the next few months. Gyde recently completed her Master’s degree in Sea and Society at the University of Gothenburg. Over the past year, she has been based in Húsavík and Tromsø, where she has combined research and practical field experience related to cetacean research, marine conservation and regenerative tourism.

During this internship, Gyde will work on project examining how smartphones and cameras mediate outdoor tourism experiences in Iceland. The project examines how digital technologies - especially photography, smartphone use, and social media sharing - mediate tourists’ encounters with Icelandic landscape and outdoor activities. Through a combination of desk research, visual analysis, and tourism communication review the study will explore how operators and tourism institutions frame smartphone use, how visual storytelling visitor expectations, and what opportunities exits to support more mindful and balanced engagement with nature.

This research contributes to a growing interest in how digital practices shape contemporary tourism and offers insights relevant to both sustainability goals and visitor experience management in Iceland.

Gyde will be based in Húsavík, and supervised by Ása Marta Sveinsdóttir, researcher at ITRC.

We are excited to have Gyde with us again and look forward to sharing the results of the project in the coming weeks.