2006 Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum | Abstracts

Changes In Arctic Tourism and the Need for a New Outlook on Collaboration

John Snyder^1
1Strategic Studies, Inc., 1789 E. Otero Avenue, Centennial, CO, 80122, USA, Phone 303-347-2095, Fax 303-347-2051, sssieti@aol.com

Tourism is now the single largest human activity in the Arctic. The number of tourists visiting the Arctic each year far exceeds their host populations. Additionally, polar tourism is the fastest growing segment of the world tourism market, in percentage terms, and arctic economies are increasingly reliant on the revenues, jobs, and personal income derived from it. As a result of these circumstances, changes in the Arctic's climate will have potentially significant effects upon the arctic resources and its people. Examples include decreased arctic sea ice cover that will facilitate improved tourist access; alteration of wildlife habitat and animal behavior that will influence both resource and tourism management practices; and transformation of ecological zones and seasonal characteristics that will affect both Native People's and tourist use of the Arctic. This presentation will briefly identify key relationships between tourism and its environmental, cultural, and economic setting. It will describe the most probable ways in which those relationships will be significantly influenced by Arctic climate change. Based on that review it will be evident that the Arctic is experiencing a new resource management paradigm that deserves an innovative collaborative response. Collaborative initiatives designed to meet that challenge will be presented.