COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT- BUILDING A FRAMEWORK TO ENSURE LOCAL ENGAGEMENT AND REPRESENTATION IN EXPEDITION CRUISE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Press release AECO Social Media AECO & The Arctic Sustainability Lab Presentations: AECO Annual meeting, Greenland Cruise Workshop, Balancing Act Kick Off Meeting.

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Through a Community Engagement Program the project aims to implement innovative and collaborative frameworks to engage communities, stakeholders, visitors and tourist operators in Svalbard and across the Arctic, with the common goal of ensuring that expedition cruise tourism is carried out in partnership and dialogue. This project is a significant contribution to renewal and increased value creation for both the expedition cruise industry, local communities and stakeholders, AECO and our members. With an emphasis on community engagement the project will contribute to developing mutual benefits relevant for the three pillars of sustainability: including circular economic development, social responsibility, and sustainability. Decidedly community based and focused, it fosters the triple helix model of innovation where an equality is created through interactions between academia, industry and local communities. Thus, fostering circular economic and social development, as described in concepts such as the knowledge economy and knowledge society, as well as strengthening sustainable business models and management strategies within tourism development -hereby Sustainable / circular business models . “Our CEO believes that this is the ticket to operate. If we neglect the communities, we have no business. We need engagement and mutual benefits. It is built on a self-reflection of our past way of operating and realizing the ways of doing sustainable operations. It needs full support from top to bottom.” Karin Strand, Hurtigruten about community engagement There is a need and a strong wish from both locals, visitors and operators to enhance mutual cultural understanding and respect, create mutual understandings of values creation across cultures and sectors, as well as the innovation and circular opportunities and economies that can be nurtured by knowledge exchange.