Tourism in Context: Place-based Tourism Strategy Evaluation in the North Atlantic

The ITRC is working alongside Robert Gordon University, Hólar University, The University of Faroe Islands, Molde University College, and the Norwegian Centre for Transport Research on the project Tourism in Context: Place-based Tourism Strategy Evaluation in the North Atlantic, funded by NORA.

The aim of the project, lead by the ITRC, is application of the Place-based Strategy Evaluation Framework (PlaSE), developed during a PhD project in the Orkney Islands, Scotland by Dr Alöna Roitershtein, Research Assistant at RGU Orkney and Aberdeen Business School. The work centres around supporting small local destinations in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and coastal Norway in their sustainable tourism strategy development and evaluation using the PlaSE Framework. The case studies for PlaSE framework application in this project are: Dalabyggð, Iceland; Suðuroy, Faroe Islands and Åndalsnes, Norway.

The project provides a tool for local destination managers to strategically plan for socially sustainable tourism that supports local communities, emphasising local identity, culture and traditions as key elements that tourism development should be based on. The outcome of this work will enable destination managers to support local tourism initiatives, that are regenerative, aligned with community needs, and enable using tourism for local development. The project also contributes to supporting place-based development that is rooted in place identity and contributes to the overall wellbeing of the communities, relying on tourism, by aligning its strategic development to the sense of place.

Ása Marta Sveinsdóttir [asamarta@rmf.is] and Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir [gudrunthora@rmf.is] oversee the project on behalf of the ITRC.

The project begun on 1st September and concluded on 31 August 2026.

The final report is available here: https://my.visme.co/v/76j0vo6y-5d4137#s1

The project’s findings were presented at the UArctic Congress 2026 in the Faroe Islands and at the 34th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research in Reykjavík, where the project team organised the following sessions:
- Place-based Strategic Planning for Sustainable Tourism in the Arctic and the North Atlantic
- Sense of Place as a Foundation for Value-Driven Tourism Development in Small Rural and Coastal Communities
- Community-Centred and Place-Based Regenerative Cultural Tourism in Northern and Arctic Rural, Island and Peripheral Communities

In addition, the team hosted an open online presentation in November 2026 entitled Beyond Visitor Numbers: Place, Values and Tourism Futures in the North Atlantic.

The team is currently preparing a paper for a special issue to be published in the Journal of Arctic Tourism in 2027.