Caring4Cruise - Sustainable Arctic Cruise Communities: from practice to governance

For small and remote Arctic communities, the arrival of cruise ships can provide economic opportunities, such as offering tours to local attractions and supply services for the cruise ships. Nevertheless, the arrivals of cruise ships have been heavily discussed because of negative social and environmental impacts that are experienced by local communities. Examples are pollution, waste problems, loss of culture, overuse of local infrastructure and invasion of non-native species.This project addresses the challenges these communities face by creating knowledge of sustainable cruise practices in Arctic communities. In particular, knowledge is needed about how the cruise industry and Arctic communities can learn to co-exist and how controversies and disadvantages can be turned into opportunities for sustainable development. The project develops a toolkit for sustainable cruise tourism development which can promote a transition towards sustainable cruise visits in Arctic communities and thereby support the development of meaningful livelihoods for residents in the Arctic.The project focusses on sharing knowledge about best practices, loca ladaptations and sustainable solutions to challenges arising from cruise visitsin the Arctic. We explore how Arctic communities are defining and governing challenges resulting from cruise visits and how being a cruise destination can connect them in order to safeguard a sustainable future for cruise tourism across the European Arctic. In order to do that, we look at six cruise communities in Greenland, Iceland, Russia and Norway. Our ambitions are to connect these cruise communities through our case studies and to provide Arctic cruise communities with ideas for sustainable development through an overview of research-based best practices. Our empirical material will be based on contributions and knowledge from local cruise stakeholders, such as the locals, harbors and tour operators, and will be shared between communities.

With this project, we contribute to sustainable development of coastal communities in the Arctic through qualitative case studies of cruise tourism development in six cruise communities across the European Arctic. Because of climate change and an increased international interest to experience the nature and societies of the Arctic, cruise activities are increasing in the Arctic region and this calls for experience-sharing and cooperation in pursuit of best practices. Sustainable tourism development is necessary for the region to prevent negative impacts from a growing tourism industry and protect local natural, social and cultural resources. Cruise communities in Russia,Iceland, Greenland and Norway face similar challenges when it comes to safeguarding their natural environments and welfare of their societies. Cruise research in the Arctic is a field that is relatively under-researched and there is a need for understanding practices, management and governance of cruise activities. Our ambitions are to connect cruise communities in the European Arctic through our case studies and to provide them with ideas for sustainable development through an overview of research-based best practices. By identifying challenges, practices and governance for sustainability, we contribute to knowledge sharing and capacity building in the sense that communities can build upon experiences from others. There is novelty in a cross-Arctic comparative approach as the majority of Arctic cruise tourism research has been conducted as single case studies. To advance the knowledge of sustainable cruise development in the Arctic we take stance in the innovative research position of Haraway´s (2016) 'staying with the trouble'. This stance offers a valuable lesson on how we might engage with co-creating tourism knowledge. A practice-based approach further enables us to contribute to collective and sustainable governance of cruise tourism in the Arctic.