18 January 2011 Adapting to climate change in the arctic

Over the years, Lincoln University has been involved with tourism related projects for many private, public and not for profit organisations through the Tourism Recreation Research and Education Centre (TRREC).  The aims of such projects are to provide enhanced understanding of the tourism industry, develop resources for use by agencies in planning, and deliver strategic and business planning to improve analysis and performance.

Dr Emma Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Parks, is involved in one of the University’s most significant international joint research projects to date. This three-year study aims to clarify and expand strategies for managing tourism change and its interaction with climate change in several Arctic Canadian communities.

Tourism is heavily reliant on the climate, and any changes in the climate system not only impact directly and indirectly on the land upon which that tourism is based, they also affect the people who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. This is particularly so in Arctic Canada where the climate is warming at twice the global average rate.

Since 1984, cruise travel to the region has been growing steadily thanks to increasing tourist interest in natural and cultural polar landscapes. While the Inuit are renowned for their ability to adapt to changing conditions, one of many questions Emma Stewart is seeking to answer is: how will they cope with climate change?

In previous research, Dr Stewart and her colleagues revealed that climate warming is altering the character and distribution of sea ice and increasing the likelihood of hull-penetrating, multi-year ice that could cause major headaches for future navigation in some parts of Arctic Canada. The team surmised these changes could also have negative implications for cruise tourism in the Canadian Arctic and, in particular, for tourist transits through the Northwest Passage and High Arctic regions.
It was these findings and this hypothesis that led to the joint research project now underway between Lincoln University and Lakehead, Guelph and Calgary Universities in Canada.

This project will help the team to better understand how climate change is transforming the landscape of Arctic Canada and the effects of these changes on the tourism industry. It will also help assess which factors may enable or constrain community-level adaptation as the region transitions to an ice-free summer.

Using case studies in Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, the research will explore how changes in expedition cruising and terrestrial wildlife tourism will affect communities. Dr Stewart is taking the lead on fieldwork in two communities involved in the cruise tourism aspect of the project, at Pond Inlet and Gjoa Haven in Nunavut.

The goal is to identify appropriate community-level adaptation strategies – by focusing on changes in visitor numbers, expectations, experiences and impacts – that local stakeholders and decision-makers can use to take advantage of the opportunities and minimise the negative outcomes of a warming Arctic.

This research is the first to undertake an empirical assessment of the interactions of climate change and tourism in Arctic communities. It is also critical for understanding how climate-related change will affect destinations across the globe, including New Zealand, which will need to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of a warming climate.

Project: Climate Change and Tourism Change in Arctic Communities: A Resilience Assessment
Researchers: Dr Emma Stewart , Dr Margaret Johnston, 
Dr Jackie Dawson, Dr Dianne Draper, Dr Harvey Lemelin
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada