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Tourism at the Crossroads of Contesting Paradigms of Arctic Development

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Abstract

Tourism, like oil and gas development, has made the Arctic a hub of industrial activity. A lot of Arctic tourism is built around nostalgic ideas of frontier expeditions, creating curiosity for a sparsely or uninhabited and untamed environment, enriched by special treats such as Aurora Borealis, whale-watching, and other fruits of nature that professional tourism operators aspire to turn into safe and luxurious experiences. The perceived weakening of the presence of indigenous peoples and their cultures, as well as unspoiled nature has led to these becoming objects of tourist desire. Imaginaries, spread through media and social networks, create a rush due to a growing awareness of “last-chance-to-see” landscapes.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Pasi Satokangas and Nuccio Mazzullo for valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Soile Veijola & Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo

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  1. Soile Veijola
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  2. Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo
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Correspondence to Soile Veijola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Technology and Public Policy, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Matthias Finger

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Lassi Heininen

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Veijola, S., Strauss-Mazzullo, H. (2019). Tourism at the Crossroads of Contesting Paradigms of Arctic Development. In: Finger, M., Heininen, L. (eds) The GlobalArctic Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91995-9_5

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