Suzanne de la Barre

Wilderness and cultural tour guides, place identity and sustainable tourism in remote areas

This paper is concerned with understanding the relationship between place identity and sustainable tourism in remote areas. It examines wilderness and cultural tourism guides’ place identity and how those identities are deployed in designing and delivering their activities, then evaluates how these activities engage with the goals of sustainable tourism. A mixed-method approach collected data from textual documents, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. A literature review and early document analysis identified three exemplary Yukon place identity narrative themes: (1) Masculinist Narratives, (2) Narratives of the New Sublime and (3) Narratives of Loss. A narrative framework emerged from initial findings and was refined on an on-going basis throughout the research process, and used iteratively as an analytical tool. Sustainable tourism is understood in relation to geotourism and place-based approaches. Instrumentally, the study provides insight into strategies used by guides to engage wi...This paper is concerned with understanding the relationship between place identity and sustainable tourism in remote areas. It examines wilderness and cultural tourism guides’ place identity and how those identities are deployed in designing and delivering their activities, then evaluates how these activities engage with the goals of sustainable tourism. A mixed-method approach collected data from textual documents, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. A literature review and early document analysis identified three exemplary Yukon place identity narrative themes: (1) Masculinist Narratives, (2) Narratives of the New Sublime and (3) Narratives of Loss. A narrative framework emerged from initial findings and was refined on an on-going basis throughout the research process, and used iteratively as an analytical tool. Sustainable tourism is understood in relation to geotourism and place-based approaches. Instrumentally, the study provides insight into strategies used by guides to engage with, enhance and broaden goals for and understandings of sustainable tourism. It considers the role of infrastructure and the significance of lifestyle entrepreneurs. Authenticity is engaged to examine how it is operationalized as a crucial dimension of sustainable tourism in remote areas and is used to examine instrumental considerations, as well as a potential tool to “liberate place”.

Consuming stories: placing food in the Arctic tourism experience

The Circumpolar North holds an increasing allure for travellers, combining romantic perceptions of ‘wilderness’ with a nostalgia for a frontier land far removed from ‘civilization’ and the maladies of modernity. Following global food tourism trends, the unique attributes of the circumpolar cupboard are being recognized, thus enhancing the appeal of northern destinations. Arctic food tourism is embracing the rich storytelling traditions of circumpolar peoples, both the indigenous people who have always lived with the land and more recent newcomers who have made ‘the North’ their home. The slow and local food movements are also impacting how Arctic foods are presented within tourism. This article examines emerging food tourism trends in the Circumpolar North. The growing importance of food and its relationship to land-based traditions and tourism activities in northern Canada and Sweden is evaluated. How northern foods and food-related traditions are used to position polar tourism in the marketplace is explored through textual analysis. There are unique challenges posed by this complex development environment including challenges encountered in developing tourism in peripheral areas generally, as well as specific food-related matters. Results underline impacts of food tourism trends and highlight how, in the North, consuming food is also about consuming stories.

Tourism and Arctic Observation Systems: exploring the relationships

The Arctic is affected by global environmental change and also by diverse interests from many economic sectors and industries. Over the last decade, various actors have attempted to explore the options for setting up integrated and comprehensive trans-boundary systems for monitoring and observing these impacts. These Arctic Observation Systems (AOS) contribute to the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of environmental change and responsible social and economic development in the Arctic. The aim of this article is to identify the two-way relationship between AOS and tourism. On the one hand, tourism activities account for diverse changes across a broad spectrum of impact fields. On the other hand, due to its multiple and diverse agents and far-reaching activities, tourism is also well-positioned to collect observational data and participate as an actor in monitoring activities. To accomplish our goals, we provide an inventory of tourism-embedded issues and concerns of interest to AOS from a range of destinations in the circumpolar Arctic region, including Alaska, Arctic Canada, Iceland, Svalbard, the mainland European Arctic and Russia. The article also draws comparisons with the situation in Antarctica. On the basis of a collective analysis provided by members of the International Polar Tourism Research Network from across the polar regions, we conclude that the potential role for tourism in the development and implementation of AOS is significant and has been overlooked.

Creativity in Peripheral Places: Redefining the Creative Industries

This concise and inspiring little volume was originally published as a special issue of the Australian Geographer (Gibson, 2010), with eleven articles now serving as book chapters. Using a case study approach, each chapter examines a significant dimension of creativity in remote, rural or peripheral Australia, including some surprising insights drawn from an outer-suburban location. Readers interested in tourism, place-making and place marketing will find they are aspects interwoven into many of the chapters. At the heart of the volume is an effort to redress urban bias, respond to the need to “look elsewhere,” and answer the question:

New mobilities – new economies? Temporary populations and local innovation capacity in sparsely populated areas

Temporary population mobilities – including short-term labour, residential and recreational mobilities – have long been a prominent feature of human geography in sparsely populated areas. Such mobi ...

Festival places: revitalising rural Australia

flirting to mateship, from political bodies to ‘enacted geographies of connection and disconnection’ (p. 143) of the ‘sexed, sexy and sensual body at the beach’ (p. 143). The conclusion provides an overview of what has gone on, however it is a little disappointing in that it does not provide a trajectory to where we are now – the comprehensive insights offered in the six chapters before are drawn together well but leave us with no links to the beach today. For example, issues such as the recent violent and racially charged eruption at Cronulla beach, Sydney, the murder of Leigh Leigh at Stockton Beach, Newcastle, NSW, have links to the establishment of the beach culture in the earlier period represented by this book. As it stands the book is an insightful contribution to this area and the authors are to be congratulated on the informed research and analysis this book makes to the study of leisure, tourism and geography.