How should cruise tourism be governed? A study into the Governance of Cruise Tourism in Greenland

Eskildsen, Heidi Aardrup

4. term

Tourism, Master

2022

2022-05-31

78 pages

The cruise industry is the fastest growing component of tourism in Greenland. Cruise passengers constituted close to half of all tourists visiting Greenland in 2019 and have experience a dramatic growth of 86% between 2015 and 2019. However, despite the growth of cruise tourism and its potential positive and negative impacts, it is a policy area that has received little attention. This thesis examines the current governance structures of cruise tourism and how it should be governed from the perspective of relevant stakeholders. The primary data for this inquiry were gathered through 10 semi-structured interviews, one e-mail interview and one phone interview with cruise tourism stakeholders. A literature review of Arctic cruise tourism and Greenlandic cruise tourism was conducted as a theoretical basis in other to better understand the topic. A theoretical framework was built upon the concept of the marine community (Van Bets et al., 2017a) and a typology of governance (Hall, 2011) for the analysis of the current governance structures and the relationships of actors within the marine community of Greenland. Research on policy instruments was similarly brought into the theoretical framework to better understand the impact of governance on policy instruments and perspectives on policy problems related to cruise tourism. The findings from the preliminary analysis disclosed that both hierarchy, market, network- and community-based governance structures were encompassed in cruise governance, however, the four types of governance were exerted within distinct policy areas. It exposed the disparity between the governance structures expedition and conventional cruises operate under. A concern for the impacts of conventional cruises was likewise a returning theme in the interviews, which was reflected in the perspectives on policy problems related to cruise tourism. Conventional cruises were thus seen as the primary reason for negative impacts of cruise tourism by the interviewed participants. This led to a final discussion of the challenges of the existing governance structures. The significance of this thesis is that it extends our understanding of the role of governance structures on cruise tourism and highlights the policy problems and tensions in cruise governance. Specifically, it draws our attention to the crossroad cruise tourism governance stands before and leads us to consider the current governance structures of cruise tourism. The thesis concludes that policymakers need to take a stance on the future direction of cruise tourism and the governance hereof. 

Krydstogtturisme ; Grønland ; Turisme

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