Sustainable Tourism and Climate Change in the Arctic: Women’s (Missing) Opportunities and Tourist Motivations

Keywords: Climate Change, Tourism, Sustainability, Arctic, Feminist Theory
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Tourism plays an increasingly important role in Arctic communities around the world but the impacts of climate change on the long-term sustainability of Arctic tourism remains understudied. This research seeks an understanding of how residents of Arctic towns perceive the role of climate change in shaping tourism in their communities and how tourists visiting these locations perceive climate change impacts on the region. Women’s perceptions, particularly how indigenous Iñupiat women’s perceptions are situated on an axis of difference with women of other ancestries, are largely absent from existing scholarship and this research directly addresses this gap.

Results from unstructured interviews with residents of Utqiaġvik reveal perceptions regarding the influence of climate change on the region, how it is shaping daily life, and whether it is affecting local tourism. Residents’ perceptions of how tourism impacts privacy and safety in the community were examined. The role of tourism in Utqiaġvik was investigated to reveal its impacts on local women and the lack of resulting economic opportunities. Results from unstructured interviews with tourists in Utqiaġvik reveal perceptions regarding what, if any, role climate change played in their visit to the Arctic and other motivating factors. This research addresses questions from the literature around the growth of “last-chance tourism” in the Arctic and whether it is a motivating factor throughout the region. Research gaps on women’s perceptions of the role of climate change in Arctic tourism including a lack of data on women’s views of privacy and safety related to tourism are also addressed.