New turns in arctic winter tourism: Adventuring, romanticising and exoticising, and demasculinising nature?

18 national and international researchers have studied the challenges and potentials of increasing winter tourism to arctic destinations in northern Europe. The goal has been to increase the understanding of tourists' experiences, interactions between tourists, guides and nature-based destinations, as well as local and regional development processes. We have focused on organized winter activities, Finnmarksløpet and Iditarod in Alaska?s significance for tourism and communities, Hurtigruten (Coastal steamer) as central in offering winter experiences and as partner for the tourism industry, and the emerging Northern Lights tourism. Interactions between tourists, guides, nature-based destinations and marketing are central to several studies on winter and northern lights performances. The guide seeks to create a balance of exciting and safe experiences, avoiding experiences that can create discomfort for the tourists. Important is also to create a good social atmosphere, thus helping to reduce conflicts between tourists. Tourists perceive risk differently, have different prerequisites for specific activities, and thus seek a variety of risky experiences. This diversity of human beings challenge the guides and requires individual adaptation in terms of both skill and risk levels, in order to ensure that all tourists get optimal experiences. The guide must handle the entanglement of Arctic winter climate and nature, and the tourists' expectations for meaningful experiences. Important factors are a defined content and space for flexible and improvised performances. This is especially a challenge on organized northern lights tours, where the guide meets tourists with expectations of strong emotional reactions, created through the media's pictures of magnificent northern lights and a lack of focus on the lights? unpredictability. Companies offering northern lights tours prepare tourists for the uncertainty of northern lights through marketing. Here they emphasize the importance of the tour's location, the importance of mobility, the guide's knowledge and enthusiasm, weather and luck. They also focus on the tourists' ability and willingness not to give up the hunt. Finnmarksløpet and Iditarod have positive effects on tourism development. The sled dog races create new meeting places, new knowledge, and new businesses and contribute to positive reputation building in both places. Moreover, the events are role models for how unspoiled natural, by the tourism industry and other events, can be used in new ways. The core of the development of the two races and dog racing as a tourism product are lifestyle entrepreneurs, who focus on sustainability in the broad sense. Money is not the driving force, but passion for dog, dog sledding, snow and arctic surroundings. The core in the races and sled dog tourism is local anchoring and authenticity, adapted to the culture, history, nature and people of the community. The sled dog races attract a special category of tourists, mushers and volunteers. They bring invaluable special expertise that is of major importance to the development of the rural destinations. The events create meeting places for unique networking, which benefit the races, but also others involved. Social and conventional media?s interest in the races has also contributed to positive reputation building. Furthermore, reviews have increased the attractiveness of dog sled tourism, which has been positive for the owners? of the race and others involved. In Norway, especially NRK's broadcasts have been important for the reputation because of the channel's credibility. The research on Hurtigruten focuses on strategy work towards on-shore partners. The cooperation on-shore has strengthened the tourist industry several places along the coast. This increases the work force in several municipalities. In Kjøllefjord, new experiences have been developed through initiative and cooperation with Hurtigruten. The challenge, however, is unbalanced relationships. The small land-based operators are in a dependency relationship with Hurtigruten. The tourism products are only adapted to Hurtigruten's guests and travel patterns. The local businesses are struggling to establish alternative market contacts. Another focus has been the tourists' experiences for Hurtigruten's passengers. These experiences are characterized by scripting, repetitions, mass tourism, little degree of flexibility and a limited amount of learning. This production mode can provide good experiences, but does not awake genuine interest. Learning is limited and it abounds with stereotypical perceptions of the explored landscapes. The tourists are often left with lacking and distorted images of the communities they visit. Hurtigruten should take the knowledge aspect more seriously. Production would improve by facilitating exploration and learning, and through more conscious and knowledge dissemination, both in presentation materials and on board.

This project qualitatively and quantitatively expores winter tourism developments in the Arctic from four thematic angles: 1. Winter tourism activities: soft and hard adventures 2. Finnmarksløpet and the Iditarod of Alaska: event tourism 3. Hurtigruten: potentials and barriers in mass tourism developments 4. Aurora Borealis: tourism performances and symbolic meanings. Winter adventure tourism activities like dog-sledding, off piste skiing and snowmobiling are connected to comprehensive and complex chan ges regarding technology, knowledge, risk assessment and accessibility that condition the development of market oriented core products of arctic winter tourism, thus an important area for research. Dogsledding races constitute relevant cases for exploring issues of product developments and creation of image and symbolism surrounding arctic winter tourism. As one of the strongest actors within tourism in North Norway, the question of how Hurtigruten spurs the recent growth in winter tourism makes up a part icularly relevant area for research. Similarly, Aurora Borealis, as perhaps the most important factor within arctic winter tourism requires attention due to the ways in which it materialises general challenges and possibilities related to product developm ent and issues of story-telling and staging of the North. This regionally situated research, conducted through interdisciplinary theories and strategies, support conceptual and theoretical development which take into consideration the particularity of how tourism evolves within this specific context. The research will also bring together local, regional and international tourism researchers, as well as engage private and public tourism stakeholders, thereby increasing the level of competence at HiF as wel l as provide knowledge which will benefit economic, political and administrative actors who work to develop winter tourism in accordance with values of economic, sociocultural and environmental sustainability.