NS34 Session 32

 

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Title: Planning for „Good“ Tourism in the Nordic Region

Organisers: Anna Karlsdóttir and Íris Hrund Halldórsdóttir

Affiliation: University of Iceland

 

Description

Understanding the degree to which regional tourism strategies are used by the tourism actors, policy makers and local communities as tools has become more important. Aiming at balancing positive economic returns and social development in rural areas with the environmental or social burden of the tourism is key to a potential pathway of prosperity for involved communities. Enabling local communities to address their concerns on challenges and benefits for their regions in strategic plans has also become more common. What are the main concerns and interests in the different tourism planning documents? What visions for tourism development do they express, and what role do sustainability concerns play in the plans envisaged? Are municipalities and tourism authorities coordinating efforts or is the dialogue missing? In this session we want to address how local and regional stakeholders are addressing future visions of sustainable tourism for good. This session invites contributions that ask how tourism planning manifests in the regions the strategies aim at. We are especially interested in work that reconnects conversations often kept apart on visions, planning and/or strategies and the use of them in practice for the greater good of tourism development in the Nordic regions.

 

Abstracts

Title: Strings from Nordic Rural Tourism and from Danish and Swedish Experiences of Thinking Sustainability Beyond Economic Returns
Author: Anna Karlsdottir, University of Iceland

This paper pulls together different strings from a journey of analysing the sustainability of regional tourism strategies and destination plans in the Nordic countries. Designing the analytical framework was developed with Nordregio and Centre for regional and tourism development (DK). The Pan-Nordic focused research project was ongoing 2018-2020. This research focused on sustainable rural tourism development across the Nordic regions, analyzing over 100 tourism development plans (TDPs) from rural areas. The study identified key challenges such as balancing economic growth with environmental preservation, enhancing local community involvement, and improving infrastructure. We found that the importance of developing region-specific or local community based strategies was seen growing among stakeholders. Also that sustainable focus was prioritized and strategies were shifting from strictly economic indicators to evaluating environmental and social impacts. Work with the Centre for regional and tourism research in Bornholm and the destination management organizations in Denmark (2021-2022) led the way for this development. Further work with the Swedish regions (SKR) (2022) and the Swedish statistical office (SCB) on tourism satellite accounts and environmental accounts methodology development reveiled a need to take action rather than keep talking the talk. Effective planning requires collaboration among local stakeholders, policymakers, and tourism operators to ensure long-term sustainability and inclusivity in Nordic rural tourism. This then founded the idea and realized a the Regional Research fund supported project in Iceland focusing on cooperation and coordination of regional travel plans with emphasis on the process behind drafting the plans.

 

Title: Planning for "Good" Tourism? Destination Management Plans, Municipal Responsibilities and Regional Coordination in Iceland
Author: Íris Hrund Halldorsdottir, University of Iceland

Tourism policy and planning in the Nordic region are increasingly expected to integrate economic value creation, community wellbeing, environmental protection and responsible destination development. In Iceland, this ambition is reflected in the national tourism policy to 2030, where sustainability, regional development, infrastructure, safety, data and residents’ quality of life are framed as interconnected concerns. At the regional level, destination management plans are intended to translate such priorities into the contexts of different regions.

This presentation explores how tourism planning is articulated and enacted across Icelandic regions. It draws on interviews with representatives of municipalities and destination management and marketing offices (DMMOs), alongside analysis of the national tourism policy and destination management plans for Reykjanes, South Iceland, North Iceland and East Iceland. The paper asks how visions of sustainable and socially beneficial tourism are expressed in policies and plans, what role municipalities are assigned, and how coordination takes place in everyday practice.

Preliminary findings suggest that destination management plans provide an important framework for shared priorities, particularly regarding infrastructure, visitor dispersal, safety, destination development and public funding applications. However, their practical role varies between regions and municipalities. In some cases, they are embedded in regular dialogue and administrative processes, while elsewhere tourism is less institutionally anchored, underfunded or dependent on individual initiative.

The presentation argues that planning for “good” tourism is not only about formulating desirable futures, but about building the capacity, relationships, responsibilities and procedures needed to make such visions actionable.

 

Title: Planning with Risks: Airports, Laws and Repercussions
Authors: Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson, University of Iceland, and Carina Ren

The dynamics of tourism in Greenland are changing. The building of new international airports in Nuuk (opened in 2024), Ilulissat, and Qaqortoq, (both to open in 2026) is designed to enhance global connectivity and cement the premise of this world’s largest island as a tourist destination. Infrastructure not only functions to connect people and facilitate flow of resources across space but also is imbued with hopes, dreams and concerns about what the future will bring. In this presentation we will focus on how the interplay between infrastructure, hopes and fears of tourism development and efforts to plan for “good” tourism leads to a new riskscape of tourism in Greenland. The concept of riskscape underlines that risk is a relational outcome of ordering work involving a plethora of human and more-than-human actors. The effort to steer and manage a phenomenon like tourism thus enacts risk. We will focus on the period leading up to the opening of the Nuuk airport, in November 2024, in which many lingering concerns were in play, such as evident strains on accommodation, limited labour pool and local ownership and investment capacities. We ask how did Greenland actors act on the likelihood of the airport creating new, perhaps ‘more’ or at least ‘different’ tourism’ and what new riskscapes unfolded after its opening. The account is based on material gathered during repeated fieldvisits in the period 2019-2026. Material includes interviews with tourism stakeholders, public officials and inhabitants, fieldnotes and written policy related documents.

Keywords: Greenland tourism, risk, tourism futures, planning, tourism law

 

Title: Managing Overtourism in Protected Areas: A Longitudinal Study of Tourist Attitudes in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland
Authors: Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir, University of Iceland, Edita Tverijonaite, and Anna Helga Jónsdóttir

Increasing visitation to protected areas can challenge conservation objectives and affect visitor experience. This study examines how increasing tourism affects visitor perceptions in Þingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Iceland’s most visited destinations. The analysis draws on on-site visitor surveys conducted during peak seasons in 2014, 2019, and 2024, 6,883 responses. It examines changes in visitor characteristics, travel behavior, overall satisfaction, and perceptions of service quality, crowding, and environmental impacts over a decade of substantial visitation growth. The results revealed significant shifts, including fewer domestic visitors and shorter stays. Perceived crowding increased markedly, while overall visitor satisfaction declined, despite improvements in perceived service quality and reduced perceived environmental impacts. Although service quality is the strongest predictor of satisfaction, its positive effects appear increasingly constrained by growing tourism pressure. The findings highlight the complexity of managing overtourism in protected areas the need for adaptive management strategies.

 

Title: Regenerative Tourism in Local Contexts – Between Fatigue & Enthusiasm in the VERNE Co-Creative Community of Practice on Bornholm
Authors: Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, ULUND, Josefine Östrup Backe, and Michael Johansson

New “limits to growth” oriented approaches to destination development are emerging, asking if local community economic growth can co-exist with sustainable communities and citizens. But how can more regenerative approaches be developed and tested in real life? Should local community or researchers take the lead? Or maybe the two in combination? The VERNE study has been able to create an action research-oriented community of practice (CoP) – a greenhouse for new regenerative ideas and solutions in the domain of food. The CoP is based on a Multi Actor Approach, the principles of Action Research and qualitative data-collection. The study uses the CoP as a method for taking advantage of stakeholders’ perspectives on sustainable and circular solutions. Although the CoP approach has been praised as a well-suited framework for co-creation, it has also limitations since researcher-practitioner collaboration need a robust project framework and resource allocation. In this paper we share the insights from the co-creative work in the VERNE project and discuss how stakeholders’ ideas for circular solutions can be developed at the same time as researchers conceptualise scalable solutions for more general use. We discuss how stakeholder fatigue can be balanced against enthusiasm and how the emerging solutions can be delivered to create sustainability of intervention. Results suggest that important elements include trust, time, resources and participatory methodologies. Important process-steps were found to be: 1/ Identification of stakeholders. 2/ Situational mapping of structural context. 3/ Engaging stakeholders. 4/ Demonstrating value propositions 5/Choosing robust organisational setups and 6/ Provision of visibility & outreach.

 

Title: Antarctic Scientific Bases as a Space of Social Sustainability under Increasing Tourism Pressure
Authors: Katia Iankova, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Sonia Mileva

I will present preliminary results of a 2 years project “Antarctic Scientific Bases as Spaces of Social Sustainability under Increasing Tourist Pressure,”. The aim is to examines how growing tourism affects the daily life, work and governance of scientific communities in Antarctica. It approaches the continent as a fragile polar environment where human presence must be managed through ecological responsibility, institutional cooperation and social awareness. While existing debates often focus on environmental impacts, this project highlights the less studied social, cultural and organisational dimensions of interactions between tourists and scientists.

The research focuses on the Bulgarian Antarctic Scientific Base “St. Kliment Ohridski” as a case study. Drawing on policy analysis, field observations and face-to-face interviews with scientists living and working at the base, it explores how tourist visits influence safety and security, pollution risks, research routines, interpersonal relations and perceptions of sustainability. The scientists’ point of view is central, because they are among the permanent human residents of Antarctica and directly experience the pressures created by increasing and concentrated tourist activity.

The project seeks to identify formal and informal mechanisms that help regulate encounters between tourism and science, and to develop indicators for assessing social sustainability in Antarctic bases. Its preliminary results contribute to a wider debate on the sustainable management of fragile polar zones.