The Domestic Turn in Postpandemic Indigenous Arctic Tourism: Emerging Stories of Self and Other

Abstract

In this article, we explore how the lockdowns followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent rise in domestic tourism impacted the ways in which Arctic tourism businesses sold and shared their experiences and stories to the domestic tourist–for many, a new and unusual guest. In exploring cases from Greenland and Northern Norway, we are interested in describing tourism marketing and product innovation in times of crisis, using this disruption into the usual market dynamics of Arctic tourism to reflect on postpandemic tourism opportunities. As we argue, tourism marketing and development may serve as a lens to shed new light on the often turbulent relationships between tourism actors in Arctic communities. As we show, this was the case in the summer of 2020, where increasing concerns, as well as new insights and experiences, surfaced in the emerging domestic tourism encounters. We argued that these exemplify potential new ways for more reciprocal encounters in Indigenous and Arctic tourism.