Tourist Motivations in the Arctic: The (Non-)Role of Climate Change in Northernmost Alaska

Abstract

Last-chance tourism is an increasingly widespread phenomenon well-documented in established Arctic tourist destinations. Utqiaġvik is the economic and tourist hub of the North Slope region of Alaska and host to large populations of marine mammals and migrating birds seemingly ideal for last-chance encounters. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in May/June 2023 with thirteen Iñupiaq residents and thirteen residents of other ethnic backgrounds. Results found that residents were in agreement that tourism in the community was largely positive, and that climate change was having minimal impacts on the sector. Birding was referenced by all residents as a key tourist motivator. However, experiencing indigenous culture and the unique environment were more often cited by Iñupiaq residents, while polar bears were more often mentioned by residents of other ethnicities. Birding was more often noted by Iñupiaq residents as a major tourist motivator for visiting Utqiaġvik, while residents of other ethnicities were more likely to point to Utqiaġvik’s status as America’s northernmost town.

Semi-structured interviews were also conducted in May/June 2023 with nine tourists and supplemental data was added from unstructured interviews with nine other tourists in June/July 2022. Tourists unanimously indicated high awareness of global climate change, but a large majority stated that climate change did not factor into their decisions to visit Utqiaġvik. Few tourists visited Utqiaġvik with the primary goal of seeing marine mammals or endangered species despite the presence of such life. Additional results from archival research provided temporal perspective on tourist motivations from 1996 to the present.