Category: Uncategorized

A new book chapter, from Jessica Aquino and Georgette Leah Burns :

Creative tourism destinations offer the potential to enhance the local economy and community livelihoods by producing authentic and creative products for consumption. Over the past few decades the residents of Húnaþing vestra proactively built a creative tourism product as a strategy for enhancing resilience in their small rural community in northwest Iceland. Using a case study analysis approach, coupled with data collected from observations and interviews, we explore creative tourism in Húnaþing vestra, describing the concept behind Selasetur Íslands (the Icelandic Seal Center) and how it continues to play an integral part in maintaining a novel approach to supporting sustainable cultural development.

See the text here:
Aquino, J. F., & Burns, G. L. (2021). Creative Tourism: The Path to a Resilient Rural Icelandic Community. In Creative Tourism in Smaller Communities: Place, Culture, and Local Representation. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113280

A new paper was recently published by Jessica Aquino, Georgette Leah Burns, and Sandra M. Granquist.

The article, A responsible framework for managing wildlife watching tourism: The case of seal watching in Iceland, can be downloaded here for free for the next 50 days. This conceptual paper develops a framework that addresses the need to manage human-wildlife interactions in Arctic settings to ensure positive outcomes for wildlife, local people, and visitors. We argue that managers tasked with meeting these needs should do so in a cultural context where ethical frameworks are guided by sustainable and responsible management practices, however, these strategies are often absent in the literature. By reviewing current literature that investigates theoretical and practical understandings of wildlife watching management we build a methodological foundation for approaching wildlife watching management and identify the need for future management actions that include participation of multiple stakeholder groups. Taking a systems thinking approach we build a case for implementation of our Ethical Management Framework (EMF). Application of the framework is exemplified through a case study of seal watching management in Iceland. Our new framework can be applied in a wider range of wildlife tourism settings worldwide.

The summer opening time 2021 will be every day from 15 May until 15 September, from 10:00 to 17:00.

Páll Línberg Sigurðsson was hired to the position of Director of the Icelandic Seal Center, starting January 1, 2021.