Arctic cruise ship operators have faced headwinds in Greenland this summer, but AECO, an organization representing the interests of expedition cruise ships, hopes that a three-day visit last week will be the start of a needed dialogue.
In Greenland, some locals are losing patience with the increasing number of cruise ship tourists that visit the country. In small settlements along the coasts, the tourists sometimes outnumber locals by a lot, and although they are meant to be a boon to local economies, locals are starting to believe that is not always the case.
As a consequence, the Greenland government is working on new legislation; legislation that could end up barring cruise ships from visiting large areas of the country. And recently, in a separate case, local tourism operators demonstrated against foreign cruise ships and even prevented a large cruise ship from docking in Greenland’s tourist center of Ilulissat.
It was in response to the latter case that AECO, an organization representing Arctic expedition cruise ship operators from a number of different countries, visited Ilulissat last week.
“The background for our visit was both a general interest in the development of tourism in Greenland but especially the recent unrest in Ilulissat and the demonstrations aimed at expedition tourism,” said Frigg Jørgensen, Executive Director of AECO, told Polar Journal AG.
Tried to influence the tourists
On July 24th, at the height of the protests, local tour operator Lars Erik Gabrielsen gave an interview to KNR, Greenlandic public television. In it, he explained that the large, foreign cruise ships demanded too large a piece of the pie, when tourists paid for tours around Ilulissat.
A sailing trip around the Ilulissat Icefjord cost around 1100 DKK (147 euro), but sometimes local operators will only receive 400 DKK (54 euro) per tourist, he claimed. The rest would go to intermediaries – so-called ‘tour agents’ – hired by the cruise ships; an arrangement that he and other local operators found unfair.
“This is a last resort since we haven’t been able to get [the cruise ship operators] to speak in any other way,” he said on July 24th.
“Now we are trying to influence the tourists. Because, unlike the greedy cruise ship operators, they do want to support the local community,” Lars Erik Gabrielsen said.
Since then, tensions have eased. On July 29th, after cruise ship dinghies had been prevented from bringing tourists back to the ships, Lars Erik Gabrielsen announced that the conflict had been ‘put on hold’.
Met with local stakeholders
It was these chaotic scenes that brought AECO to Ilulissat and during their three-day visit, they did meet directly with organizers of the protest. Ilulissat Excursions, which is a consortium of nine local tourism operators, including Lars Erik Gabrielsen, was among the stakeholders that Frigg Jørgensen and her colleagues met with.
“We wanted to start a dialogue with local stakeholders and to understand the situation there better,” Frigg Jørgensen said.
AECO also met with other local operators and stakeholders. These included representatives from the local municipality Avannaata Kommunia, representatives of the Ilulissat UNESCO World Heritage site, and from Visit Greenland; all of whom were invited for lunch on the cruise ship Sylvia Earle.
“We had some productive meetings, which gave us great insights into local conditions and presented opportunities for collaboration and continued dialogue with local stakeholders,” Frigg Jørgensen said.
The meetings even resulted in concrete initiatives, initiatives that Frigg Jørgensen said it was too early to announce publicly.
Concerns about tourism law
The demonstrations in Ilulissat followed political discussions in Nuuk about a new tourism law earlier in the summer. But the two discussions, while both of concern, should be kept separate, Frigg Jørgensen emphasized.
“The tourism law is a different discussion which in its most extreme consequence can lead to Greenland not being an attractive country for expedition cruise ships to visit. But we have a firm belief that it will not come to that,” she said.
If, however, conditions become too difficult for operators, the cruise ships may have to explore other parts of the Arctic instead. Specifically, she lists three concerns:
“If large areas get closed down, if the operators will not be allowed to land in Greenland or if they will not be allowed to perform normal operational activities in nature areas,” Frigg Jørgensen said.
AECO represents Arctic cruise ship operators the US, Germany, Switzerland, France, Canada, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, and Monaco, as well as a number of provisional and associate members.
So, when Frigg Jørgensen speaks, she speaks for many. So far, despite protests and tourism laws, the Arctic cruise ship operators she represents are still keen on the largest island in the world.
“Greenland is a very attractive place for our members to visit, so if the limitations from the new law are not too big, it will continue to be an attractive destination for cruise ship tourism,” Frigg Jørgensen said.
Ole Ellekrog, Polar Journal AG
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