Adventure Tourism

Adventure Tourism was the second course I took during my exchange. It featured a lot of theory about tourism itself, adventure tourism, arctic tourism and much more. Furthermore, some fieldtrips were made with the classes. Below, I posted the most interesting parts of the course. Other parts consist of regular lectures or workshops. Furthermore, I posted my home exam below, to show what it looked like. 

August 22 – 27, 2017 - The first official week of school. It surprised me how relaxed it is. Whereas Stenden is really focused on quality and we have a lot of lectures during a week, UIT does not have this. They focus on quality, however, they are less strict in a way. Less homework, less workload. The classes that I take are also very different than what we are used to. More lectures, some workshops, no PBL. More outside. I love it here.

September 4 – 10, 2017– the first days of the week we had a fieldtrip with Artic Adventure Tourism. We went by bus from Alta to Kirkenes, to stay in the Kirkenes Snowhotel for a few days. School organized everything, from meals to sleeping places. During the bus ride we stopped at the Sami parliament, to learn more about their culture, and indigenous people. Very interesting. When we arrived at the hotel, they showed us around and we got more presentations during the days about their company, their marketing department, how they operate in summer versus the winter and what they offer. At the end we had to come up with new marketing products and strategies for them and pitch them to the management. New connections were made for in the future. We went back by boat to Vardo, a small fishers town. There we got a company presentation from Biotope. A guy who made his dream into a job. He builds all kind of artwork for birdwatchers, to sit in for weather protection. It is truly magnificent. And very inspiring to see how someone made all of this possible just from a dream. 

October 16 – 23, 2017 – on Monday we had a presentation for Artic Adventure Tourism. This presentation was about marketing, products, and tourism. We took a product from Alta and one from our home countries, reviewed and argued them, and in the end compared them. Very interesting, learned a lot.

October 24, 2017 – had my last class of Artic Adventure Tourism today. During the week I will get my exam. A big difference with the Netherlands is that they have home exams here. Which means that we need to write a paper and hand it in. Not like the written exams we have at the end of each module at Stenden.

Assignment 1 (once during class, pass or not pass)

What is the tourism destination Finnmark?

1          Introduction

This a paper is on Finnmark as a destination for Tourism. Finnmark is a county in Norway above the arctic circle. Many people come here in both the winter and the summer, to experience the arctic and connect with nature. There are several exiting things to do here, like dogsledding in the winter and King-Crab fishing in the summer, including many more. Finnmark is also the home to the Sami, which is the indigenous people in Norway. They herd Reindeer, as they are the only ones in Norway who can own them. Some tourist destinations in Finnmark, for example Kirkenes Hotel has Reindeer, but this is because they have an agreement with the Sami who owns them. (Samer, store norske leksikon, 2017)                             We were given an assignment on the topic, and three questions. The first one was to characterize Finnmark as a tourism destination. Here we want to focus on activities in the winter since Finnmark is known to be a polar (snow/winter) destination. The second one was to find the main tourism segments today. The last question was about developing and making Kirkenes Snowhotel and/or Finnmark a more attractive and sustainable tourist destination. We are focusing on Kirkenes Snowhotel, since this is more connected to the assignment we had, when we were there.

2          Methods

We have read several articles for this assignment, but for our literature review we have focused on the two we were given. The paper is arranged so that after this introduction you will get to know some of the articles we have read. After that you will be presented with our answer and discussion to the questions we were given. Then the summary and the references we used for information and data concerning the paper.                                                                  The information and ideas in the paper are important for people to get a sustainable future, not only in tourism, but all over the world .

3          Literature review:

3.1        Arctic Tourism and Sustainable Adaptation:

This is an article written by Eva Kajan in 2014. It is about the rapidly changing Arctic because of the climate changes that are occurring. It offers alternatives and solutions to problems we have today and problems we might have in the future. The Data collected have been taken from the change in climate, and non-climate drivers (Pearce et al., 2010 ).“This paper has attempted to contribute to our knowledge of how tourism-dependent communities experience and perceive climate change, external and internal influences, and how climate change affects their main source of livelihood”. The paper concludes that “increasing sustainable adaptation and development” is reachable. Basing this on that“diversifying into other types of economic activities”, based on your job skills/requirements, is possible. As our climate begins to slowly wear down, we need to work together to understand and adapt so that we don’t destroy it and eventually lose the arctic.

3.2        Polar Tourism Destinations and Dimensions:

This is an article about the polar tourism, which is growing every day. It was written by C. Michael Hall and Jarkko Saarinen in 2010. The Polar regions have in the later years gotten more attention than before. As destinations,  the poles (polar regions) are very sought after because they are so remote. This makes the destination a once in a lifetime experience. This is concerning considering that the increased activity might cause changes in the arctic and can damage it. “Both the Arctic and Nordic Councils, as well as member governments, have expressed concerns about the potential changes that may occur as a result of energy exploration and extraction and climate change”. This a debating theme and the “answer” is not clear because there really is non. There are both pros and cons to this increased activity, the data provided shows this. The paper concludes that we simply don’t know enough about it yet, but that by ourselves we can open our minds and see the concern.

4          Findings/Questions:

4.1        The Characterization of Finnmark as a Tourist destination:

Finnmark is one of the places in the arctic and northern place in Europe. There are some characteristics in the arctic tourism. High-latitude northern environment, this cause cold weather and grow coniferous forest. extreme nature and landscapes such as fjord, canyon and mountain. In addition, vegetation and wildlife. People visit this place to experience nature and to relax. (Kajan, 2014) Besides, we can experience midnight sun and polar night in this place. Looking to cultural aspect, there are sami people who are indigenous in Lapland and their ancestor made famous rock carvings in 4200 B.C. to 500 B.C.  that was registered to UNESCO World Heritage. (文化遺産オンラインガイド, n.d.)                              While people visit there to enjoy nature, some people do dark tourism. It is focus on negative side such as Auschwitz Camp. They travel to see arctic ice because arctic ice melts with global warming. (親泊素子, 2011) Because environmental destruction is happening all over the world, people is focusing on natural environment more and more. Nature based tourism are paid attention to spend leisure time in natural environment. Ecotourism or sustainable­­­ tourism are also paid attention to keep our planet sustainable. In this situation, Finnmark is becoming more important tourism place to do those tourism and Finnmark has enough natural resources. ­­­­(S.Shibasaki, 2005)                                                                             In winter, there are much snow, dark because of polar nights and temperature is low in Finnmark.  Tourist can do many things in different places. For example, go hunting northern lights, play dogsledding, fishing king crab and ride snowmobile in winter. Besides, In Kirkenes, there is snow hotel that made by ice and snow. they go hiking and cycling in summer. And, they can go canoeing in Alta, bird watching in Valdo. In Kirkenes, birdwatching is popular. Sauna is also the culture of Scandinavian culture to be warm in cold weather. ‘Thon Hotel Kautokeino offers guest snow cinema, crazy golf and a naturally chilled ice bar in the heat of the Finnmarksvidda plateau’. (Northern Norway, n.d.) They do different activities in different season but most of these are nature based activities. Normally, high season is November to April in winter to experience arctic unique activities. (Northern Norway, n.d.)

4.2        Tourism segments today

Tourism is a concept that is known worldwide. As described above, tourism has to adapt to the different seasons of the year and it needs to specify and market its products in a way to attract different market segments. Woodside & Martin (2008) found in a recent study, that some tourists are similar in some way, but there are differences. Therefore, market segmentation is needed. Market segmentation involves cutting a market into smaller pieces, called segments. These segments consist of people/travelers with their own distinctive needs, characteristics, and or behaviours that require different marketing strategies or mixes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016).                                                                                                                          This paper stresses Arctic Tourism, more specific, the tourism in Finnmark. Arctic tourism can be defined as any tourism-relevant activities that can be related to businesses, communities, organizations or other stakeholders in the Arctic environment, including the areas and regions that are relevant to the Arctic by phytogeographic (e.g. the regions that are located above the tree line), climatic (e.g. the areas where in July the average of the long-term isotherm is below 10 degrees), geomorphology (the presence of permafrost), latitudinal (e.g. the regions that are located north of the Arctic Circle) and geopolitical criteria (Lee, Weaver & Prebensen, 2017). Finnmark is located in the Arctic, and therefore Arctic Tourism is applicable.                                                                                                                                According to Cohen (1972), tourists can be put in a typology, which consists of a four-fold classification. The first groups are the organized mass tourists, those are the tourists who travel together in groups. They usually take a packaged holiday (including the place to stay and all activities). The second group is the individual mass tourists group, those are the tourists whom have the same facilities as the organized mass tourists, but they make more individual based decisions about their activities as a tourist. The next group are the explorers, these tourists arrange their own visit. They rather take their own path, they wish to meet locals. However, they still tend to use the same facilities as the mass tourists. The last group are the drifters, this group has different facilities than the other groups, this group tends to stay with the locals. They usually stay longer than the other tourists, and don’t regard themselves as a tourist.                                                                                                                         Lee, Weaver & Prebensen (2017) have created 4 market segments as well, but more general. Concentrating on the type of activity the tourist will be performing, rather than facilities and the length of stay. The first group is the recreational group, the group that comes for holidays, to have fun and perform many adventurous activities. The next group is the business group, the group that manly visits because of the business appointments or opportunities. The third group is the social group, which consist of the people who visit a country for the culture, therefore they can be seen as indigenous tourists. The last group is the activity group, the group that visits the Arctic for e.g. for scientific research, the military, resource workers or local residents.                                                                                                   With all the literature given above. The conclusion can be drawn that the Arctic area is big, consisting of a lot of areas. Finnmark is one of those areas in the Arctic, and therefore, Arctic tourism is applicable. When dividing the Arctic tourism into main segments, different viewpoints can be taken. The facilities and length of stay can be taken as a basis, however, the base can be the type of activities during the stay as well. In the Arctic, many of activities are provided, people travel here for the experience, to see the culture, for business or even for research. Therefore, the market segments of Lee, Weaver & Prebensen (2017), are more accurate and easier applicable. Therefore, whenever trying to make your hotel or touristic bureau more attractive, these segments must be taken into consideration. Different segments require different marketing techniques.

4.3        Kirkenes Snowhotel, sustainable?

Kirkenes Snowhotel is a tourist destination in Finnmark. There are several activities and experiences available both in the summer time and winter. We were on an excursion to this facility and where allowed to experience some of these activities. After said activities we were assigned with a task where we would come up with ideas that would make the destination more sought after. The assignment is on the other hand more about making it sustainable. We focused on Kirkenes Snowhotel, this way there is not an overflow of information, but rather important information.                                                                               Kirkenes Snowhotel is on its own a very sustainable tourist destinatiob=b , but also very exclusive. This in a way that they don’t want anyone to come to their destination. This way they use less recourses and the nature around is less disturbed. We on the other hand had a few ideas that are sustainable and can at the same time make it more attractive.                                Sauna, in the wintertime, a tradition is to take a dive in the lake; and then warm up in the sauna. Therefore, it would be convenient for those people to have a small sauna nearby with changing rooms, to prevent hypothermia. Bathing is something you do wherever you are in the world, and this doesn’t cost or use more than it takes to build them. Same is therefore with swimming pools and jacuzzies. In Kirkenes hotels, or overall in Finnmark and above the arctic circle a phenomenon to see is the northern lights. Just imagine yourself sitting in a swimming pool looking out into the night, magical.                                                                                 More things to make the destination more attractive is some sort of festival. We had several plans regarding the ice. Because every year they use tons of ice to make their ice/Snowhotel sculptures and insides of the caves. This could be made into a festival where people all over the world could come to compete. This would aware more people about the destination and make it more popular.

Finnmark has a lot of tourist destinations, and all for the most part is sustainable. It is for the most part the travel her that is not sustainable. Travel through airplanes has never been sustainable, but it is an easy transportation. In Norway, there is possible to either drive all the way to Finnmark. There is possible to use train as a transportation but not for the entire way.  The ways for getting energy/electricity as well can be changed. Windmills (windmills, wikipeda, 2017) and solar panels are green energy, meaning they do not destroy our planet when we use them.                                                           

5          Summary

This assignment is about the tourist destination Finnmark. We used several articles and theories based on our own knowledge from time spent in the arctic, and Kirkenes Snowhotel. This we applied to the questions we were assigned and answered them. Our text is split up in the introduction, literary review, where we focused on the two we were assigned, and then our questions. Our questions where about Finnmark as a tourist destination, segments today and how to make it a more attractive, and more sustainable, tourist destination. One after one we addressed them, discussed them, and then ended with a conclusion/answer in the text.

Home exam

Tourism destination Finnmark

1          Introduction

This paper will stress Finnmark as a tourism destination. Finnmark is the northern most region in Norway. What makes Finnmark interesting is the fact that Arctic tourism is possible, the products advertised in Finnmark are very culture related, they are unique, different. Several theories are reviewed and argued, later they are applied to Finnmark. The tourism products, seasonality, infrastructure, tourism segments and the tourism impacts in Finnmark will be explained. Furthermore, the Finnmarksløypet as tourism product in Finnmark will be elaborated, the different characterizations of the product and the importance for the future traveler will be stressed.

2          Methods

This paper was written to explain and review Finnmark as a tourism destination. Secondary data like, Google Scholar, and the Library web Oria, were used to collect publications, reports and journals written in English. Even though the research is mainly consisting of secondary information, some information in the paper was found being local, from company visits to Kirkenes Snowhotel, Biotope and Hurtigruten in 2017, therefore this information cannot be verified via the internet. The limitation when writing this paper was the word count and it was a challenge to fully elaborate on all topics.

3          Theoretical background

3.1        Tourism

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The World Tourism Organization (WTO, 2014), indicated that in 2012 there were more than one billion international travelers for the first time in history. Whereas, in the recent 1960’s, only a few participated regularly. Traveling was considered as something for the wealthy, it was considered dangerous, difficult, uncomfortable and expensive, according to Williams (1998). Tourism can be defined as movement, a non-permanent stay, experiences and activities during the stay and travel, facilities and resources required and the impacts caused by the travel and stay (Prosser, 1998: 374).

People have different motives and reasons why they participate in tourism and traveling. It is all based on “push” and “pull” factors. Are they escaping from something, or are they drawn to a country for another reason? Mannell & Kleiber (1997: 190) describe this with the following example. People travel because they have a strong need or desire to be with others (motive), they may engage in leisure activities, to benefit and increase social interactions with others (behavior), in hopes to develop more friendships (goal and satisfaction). Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that people travel with a motive, which suits their behavior during their travel, to complete a goal and gain satisfaction in the end.

3.2        Arctic Tourism

In the Artic, all tourism-relevant activities associated with businesses, communities, organizations or other stakeholders in the Artic region is considered as tourism. The Arctic region consists of all areas/regions that are fitting to certain criteria connected to phytogeography (e.g. regions located above the treelines), climate (e.g. where the long term average isotherm in July is below 10 degrees), geomorphology (presence of permanent frost) or latitude (e.g. regions north of the Arctic Circle) (Lee et all., 2017: 2). Since Finnmark is located in the Arctic region, this paper will focus on Arctic tourism and the Arctic as a tourism destination.

3.3        Tourism Destinations

“Tourism destination” is an important term, according to Mason (2015). This, since it does not only describe the location where the services and facilities are located, but it is also where the tourists are found, and often they are in large numbers. However, there is also a problem with the term tourism destination. The problem is the scale of the destination. Ritchie and Crouch (2003) provide a six-fold classification to solve this definition problem. It starts with the largest geographical area at the top:

•           A macro-region containing several countries (e.g. Europe) or a region crossing several countries (e.g. the Alps).

•           A nation or state.

•           A state or province within a country (e.g. California in Amerika).

•           A localized region within a country (e.g. southwest England).

•           A city or town.

•           A unique setting, such as a national park, memorial, heritage site, or monument, significant enough to attract visitors (e.g. Yellowstone park in Canada).

3.4        Indigenous Tourism

Indigenous tourism is also present in Finnmark. The term “indigenous” is constructed to describe the people who are not organized into self-determined national states, they represent distinguishable groups based on culture or ethnicity – normal minorities – within a state dominated by a majority. Since they have a cultural uniqueness, indigenous groups tend to be very interesting to tourists and the tourist companies (Müller & Viken, 2017: 43-45). Uniqueness means difference. Therefore, tourists will want to see this, experience their culture and learn from it.

3.5        Market Segmentation

Woodside & Martin (2008) found that tourists are somehow similar, however, there are differences. Therefore, with all the different products and tourism in the Arctic, market segmentation should be applied. Market segmentation involves cutting a market into smaller pieces, each representing its own group (target groups), with distinctive needs, characteristics, and or behaviors, that require different types or marketing strategies (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016). They also found that segmentation can be done on different bases, in this paper, demographical (segmentation based on demographics as age, income and occupation) and psychographic (segmentation based on lifestyle and characteristics) segmentation are used.     

3.6        Tourism Impacts & Sustainability

Tourism generates local development, combined with globalization and climate change. Which causes both opportunities as threats for the Arctic. The impacts of the climate change are felt more intensely in the regions that are basing their products on natural resources, according to Kaján (2014). However, according to Gjerald (2008: 36-58), tourism affects the society and culture as well as the environment and the economy. Cohen (1984: 373-392) states that the sociology of tourism can be classified into four different issue areas: tourists themselves, interaction between the tourists and the locals, the tourism system, and tourism impacts. According to Sharpley (1994), social impacts of tourism have a more immediate and visible effect on destination communities.

With all the climate changes in the world, sustainability has become a frequently used term in the tourism industry. Sustainability consists of acting in an ecofriendly way, trying to preserve the world for the future generations. Bartelmus (1994) states that there are two different views on sustainability. A technology driven view (dominant world-view) and a ecocentric view (deep ecology). In short, the model explains the differences between both views. The dominant world-view bases sustainability on technology, they believe that problems can be quantified and solved largely through the use of technology. Whereas, the deep ecology viewpoint argues that more natural resources should be use, rather than technology. Figure 1 in the appendix contains the full model with all the differences.

3.7        The Future Traveler

Tourism is changing. With the rapidly changing and innovative world, the tourism industry should adapt to this. Northern Norway (2017), made an indication of what the interests and characterizations of the future traveler are. The future traveler wants to be active, or wants to cultivate a passion, the pursuit of a meaningful experience. Healthy is trendy, a shift in food patterns during the vacation can be seen, more healthy food is consumed. Traveling will be used as personal image building. The destination is getting less important, what is important is what the destination can offer, it needs to be stroking with the dreams, motivations, passions, and interests.

4          Discussion

4.1        Tourism in Finnmark

Since Finnmark is the most northern region of Norway, it has a lot to offer. As described above, Finnmark is part of the Arctic and therefore Arctic tourism is applicable. Especially the events in the winter attract a lot of tourists. The winter tourism in Finnmark consists mainly of northern lights hunting, reindeer husbandry, snowmobile tourism and dogsledding (Viken & Granås, 2016: 144). In the winter, some skiing is done as well, but it attracts less tourists than the other activities. This because there are less ski areas in Norway and they are less longer than the ski slopes in, for example France. In the summer, a lot of hiking, mountain biking, canoeing and fishing can be done.

In all seasons, indigenous tourism is an important branch in tourism as well. Next to being located in the Arctic, Finnmark has another unique selling point, the Sami people. As Müller & Viken (2017: 43-45) state, uniqueness means difference. Often during traveling, people will search for something different, so they experience something new.

The conclusion can be drawn that tourism in Finnmark is majorly based on seasonal products, and traditional activities. Tourists will visit this region to experience something different, something new, perhaps something unique (Kirkenes Snowhotel, 2017).

4.2        Finnmark as a Tourism Destination

Finnmark as a tourism destination is very diverse, as described above. Finnmark is a state/province in Norway, therefore it can be considered as a tourism destination. However, to make tourism in the Arctic possible, good infrastructure is needed. In Finnmark, a lot of busses are present, for short and long distances. There are ferries as well and road connections between cities and villages. No trains on the other hand, however, the infrastructure provided is enough to travel fast and safely from point A to B. Therefore, tourism can be practiced relatively easy in Finnmark.

4.3        Market Segments in Finnmark

As described above, tourists come to Finnmark to search for something unique, a new experience. Therefore, when applying market segmentation, this should be taken into consideration. As described by Viken & Granås (2016: 8) and told by Kirkenes Snowhotel (2017), the focus should not only be on the tourists coming in mass groups, buying packaged deals. It should rather be on the tourists that are willing to pay for the small, different, more exclusive. When constructing a market segmentation, there can be said that Finnmark mostly attracts leisure guests. This can again be divided into smaller segments, called target groups. Based on the literature from the previous chapters, and the fieldtrips to Kirkenes Snowhotel (2017), Biotope (2017) and Hurtigruten (2017), the following target groups have been created: Family Getaway, The Adventurous, Slow Tourists and Boxed Groups. All are included in figure 2 in the appendix. Family Getaway is the group that consists of families, they are looking for a relaxed holiday with the kids. The Adventurous are looking for adventure, activities, adrenaline. Slow Tourists are those tourists searching for a more relaxed holiday. Boxed Groups are those groups booking a packaged deal, looking for unique and different experiences. The detailed description of all target groups can be found in figure 3 in the appendix.

4.4        Impacts of Tourism

As Gjerald (1994: 36-58) described, tourism has different impacts, on economy, environment, society and culture. Furthermore, there are four different issue areas: the tourists themselves, tourists communicating with locals, the tourism industry itself, and tourism impacts. When applying those issue areas onto the different impact areas, there can be seen that there are both positive and negative outcomes. Tourists will for example benefit the economy, by spending their money in local companies. The culture of the Sami people in Finnmark will be passed on via tourism, tourists will get to know more about them and take this knowledge home with them. The tourism industry is not ecofriendly, and it will never be. It can be as sustainable as possible, however, the traveling from point A to point B will never be good for the environment. When tourists are not communicating well with locals, societies can get ruined in the worst case over time. With all statements above, the conclusion can be drawn that tourism has both opportunities as threats to different variables.

4.5        Finnmarksløypet as Tourism Product

The Finnmarksløypet is the longest dogsledding race in Europe. It is held in Alta each year. Mushers from all over the world will come and compete. For the mushers, it is a vacation, however, it is an experience to be able to compete in this sort of race as well. Just like it is a vacation for the tourists, who come to watch it, they want to be part of this sort of event. A growth pattern in number of tourists coming to experience the Finnmarksløypet can be seen. It is becoming more and more popular. Not only locals will come and watch, people from all over the world want to experience this.

However, the event is strongly dependent on the season. Finnmarksløypet needs the snow and the correct weather to be held. Tourists and mushers come to the event because of this. Thus, Finnmarksløypet is the perfect example of an arctic product with its own attractiveness for travelers. It is something that is not common in Europe, so for many travelers it will be a new experience. However, there are more dogsledding races being held, for example in Russia. Therefore, this event is not completely unique, but Finnmarksløypet is one of the most well-known races. Travelers will visit Finnmarksløypet for its authenticity, it has the same concept each year, the routes may change a bit, but the concept stays the same.

Finnmarksløypet is a race that is part of local anchoring. It will show the tourists the old ways of traveling, mainly performed by the Sami people back in the days. Thus, the Finnmarksløypet is not only a race, it also enhances culture. Since they use the old ways of dogsledding, and dogsledding is a very ecofriendly way of traveling. There can be said that Finnmarksløypet is sustainable. It will benefit the local economy and people, but in the same way it will not harm the environment based on toxic gasses, like the gasses from the use of cars.

When connecting the event to the future traveler, there can be said that it is suitable in a way. If the traveler is passionate about dogs, this is the perfect event to visit. Furthermore, if the tourist is a dog musher, it can compete in the race and therefore fulfill the active and dream part of the future traveler. However, it all depends per person, if this event is suitable for them or not.

5          Summary

The conclusion can be drawn that Finnmark has a lot of activities and experiences to offer, thus winter tourism is more popular, the Finnmarksløypet is the most popular event. People can visit Finnmark for many different reasons, from experiences to indigenous people. Finnmark has good infrastructure to comply with this. Furthermore, there are four main target groups/segments that can be seen in the tourism in Finnmark. The families, adventure seekers, slow tourists and the groups. All seeking for different and unique experiences. However, with the tourism increasing in Finnmark, the impacts of the tourism increase as well. Different impacts on economy, environment, society and culture can be seen. Some are positive, others negative.

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