NS34 Plenary Session 40

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Title: Towards Decent Work? Dynamics of Employment in Arctic Tourism Sector

Organisers: Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson (corresponding), Outi Rantala, Jarkko Saarinen, Linda Lundmark, Cenk Demiroglu, Bente Heimtun, Patrick Maher and Suzanne de la Barre 

Affiliation: University of Iceland

 

Description

This session proposal presents and discusses the findings from the first year of the project Tourism Employment in the Arctic: Towards Decent Work conducted by seven universities within the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern Tourism and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers Arctic Co-operation Programme, the Canadian Global Arctic Leadership Initiative (GALI) and Nordplus and Erasmus mobility schemes.  

Each year focuses on a specific topic: in 2025, the central theme was precarity; in 2026, it will be internationalisation; and in 2027, community will be the focal point. The aim of the project is to gather knowledge of current challenges and potential solutions for each topic across the participating countries, identify specific research gaps and policy needs, and collaboratively work—together with tourism stakeholders and graduate students—towards bolstering decent work in tourism 

The central theme of the first year of the project was precarity and precarious work in tourism. The project results point to common bottlenecks and structural factors characteristic of tourism employment in the Arctic that need to be tackled to ensure decent work in tourism. In the plenum key findings will be presented and discussed by scholars and stakeholders related to the Icelandic tourism industry.  

Participants (Tentative):  

Jóhannes Þór Skúlason, CEO Icelandic Tourist Industry Association 

Outi Rantala, University of Lapland 

Patrick Maher, Nipissing University 

Kristjana Fenger, Icelandic Confederation of Labour