Assessing the Role of Tourism for Sustainable Development in Arctic Communities

Dieter K. Müller, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University

Tourism is an important industry in the circumpolar regions and it contributes to regional development in a broad sense. The aim of the project is to analyze the role of tourism in sustainable regional development of Arctic and sub-Arctic communities. An important task within the project is to analyse tourism development through an Arctic tourism innovation systems lens, which aims to interlink the social, economic, institutional, cultural and regulatory settings and consider place specific entities and their communities. The research examines three geographic areas – Sweden, Russia and Canada – and benefits from in-depth individual case study and comparative approaches.

The project is a co-operation between researchers at Umeå University and Dalarna University.

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Documents
Activities 2011 (pdf)

Field trip report, Nenets autonomous okrug (Russia), March 2012

Conference Report, 3rd IPTRN-conference, Nain (Canada), April 2012

Poster presented at IPY conference in Montreal (Canada), April 2012

Links
Albina Pashkevich on a field trip to Russia

About us

I am Dieter K. Müller professor at the Department of Social and economic Geography, Umeå University. My research interests are within the field of tourism and regional development, mobility and tourism in peripheral areas. My research interests include aspects of second homes and second home related mobility, Sami tourism, nature-based tourism, tourism labour markets, regional development and rural change particularly in Northern peripheries and Polar areas. As project leader I will coordinate the work of this research group and I will focus my own research on contributing to a theory on Arctic tourism innovation systems (ATIS) through various methods. I am involved in “Northern Studies”, an area of excellence within Umeå University. I am a board member of International Geographical Union’s Commission on Tourism, Leisure and Global Change and the International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN). Moreover I am a member of the Nordic Society for Tourism and Hospitality Research (NORTHORS).

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Phone: +46 (0)90 786 63 66

My name is Linda Lundmark, PhD., Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the department of Social and economic Geography, Umeå University. Examples of themes that I work with are the relationship between protected areas, tourism employment and local and regional development, and nature tourism’s role in creating sustainable communities outside urban areas. Furthermore, as the basis for economic activity is changing, the link between globalization and regional and local processes of development are important. In recent years the climate has become central to my research since climate change is likely to have consequences for people and communities, also in northern latitudes. In this project I will focus on the Arctic tourism innovation systems (ATIS) and impact assessment through scenario building. I am a member of several tourism networks, including the International Geographical Union – Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change (IGU), Nordic Tourism and Hospitality Research Society (NORTHORS) and the International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN).

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Phone: +46 (0)90 786 63 60

My name is Albina Pashkevich, PhD., Senior Lecture in Human Geography, at the School of Technology and Business Studies, Dalarna University, Borlänge. My research areas lie in the field of regional tourism development of the Russian part of the Arctic. During the year 2011 I conducted my field studies in the Arkhangelsk region and at the heart of the Nenets indigenous people’s living area – Nenets Autonomous Okrug with a capital city of Naryan-Mar (North-Western Russia). I am mostly concerned with the evaluation of the present stage of development of nature-based tourism, ethnic or cultural tourism in these areas. The special attention in my research is also given to the issues concerning the overall tourism and socio-economic development in other Arctic Russia’s regions. I am a member of the International Geographical Union – Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change (IGU).

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Phone: +46 (0)23 77 87 52

I am Susanna Heldt-Cassel PhD., Senior Lecture in Human Geography, at the School of Technology and Business Studies, Dalarna University, Borlänge. My research focus in recent years has centred on mobility, tourism and regional development in which questions about the conditions for development in different locations in the peripheral regions have been in focus. Currently I run a couple of different projects on tourism and employment-related mobility. My main focus within this project is tourism and community development in Arctic Sweden.

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Phone: +46 (0)23 77 85 31

Suzanne de la Barre, PhD. I am a postdoctoral research associate and lecturer in Human Geography at Umeå University. My usual home is in Yukon, northern Canada, and my work focuses on tourism entrepreneurs and organizations and their role in sustaining interest in tourism during mining intense periods (“booms”). My research is concerned with tourism’s contribution to economic diversification, and highlights social and cultural capital as critical features of sustainable development and community well-being. Given the similarities and differences between the areas under study (Norrbotten, Sweden and Yukon, Canada), the projects’ comparative dimension will provide insights useful to circumpolar regions more generally. I have published book chapters and articles in peer review publications, and I am a member of the Canadian Association of Geographers, the Nordic Tourism and Hospitality Research Society (NORTHORS), and the International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN). Applied experience contributes to my research; I am a certified community economic development practitioner.

E-mail:
Phone: +46 (0)90 786 58 96