Green ice? Tourism ecologies in the high north

Abstract

Tourism has been expanding rapidly in the European Arctic alongside growing international interest in the Arctic as a site of extreme, palpable climate change. This chapter explores the idea of tourism ecologies, tracing the development of tourism in the European High North in its colonial contexts, and highlighting the tourism narratives that help to sustain Arctic ecotourism. We ask what entices people to travel from afar to experience something called ‘the Arctic’, what they might be expecting, and how it is promoted and performed in practice. What idea of Nature is it that sustains this tourism, and how are the people of the European Arctic imagined, from inside and out? The chapter outlines the ecologies of this tourism, looking beyond the notion of a natural Arctic, and considering the many people, places and things that come together to make Arctic tourism possible. In the current forms of tourism development in the European High North, we see echoes of earlier colonial images and practices, but we also see attempts to learn from past mistakes that may help to redefine tourism development and reinvent tourism for an ecological future. The chapter thus situates the current growth in Arctic ecotourism in relation to postcolonial European narratives, introducing the chapters that follow.