Nunavut Tourism to make new rules for tour operators

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – Visitors and tour operators in the Arctic must take part in future conservation efforts if Arctic tourism is to develop as a sustainable industry, a leading environmental organization says.

Better planning, greater emphasis on education and an abiding respect for local people will help preserve intact the Arctic’s pristine environment – the polar region’s principal attraction – according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

The environmental group believes everyone can benefit from careful management of the Arctic tour industry’s growth, including Nunavut, where plans to develop and establish a set of community standards may begin early this year.

A set of WWF guidelines describing ecologically responsible tourism in the Arctic was recently mailed to tour operators and government officials.

Principles for Arctic tourism and codes of conduct for Arctic tourists and tour operators were developed by the WWF in consultation with representatives from industry, conservation groups, researchers and aboriginal communities.

Visitors are urged to plan their trips north carefully, choosing reputable conservation-minded tour operators, limiting their use of motorized transportation and minimizing waste.

Co-ordinate with communities

Tour operators are urged to co-ordinate their tours with local communities and ensure that their clients obey conservation laws.

“They’re not just wildlife conservation guidelines, they’re more eco-systemic guidelines, specifically for these two groups – tour operators and the actual tourists,” Peter Ewins, director of WWF’s endangered species program in Canada said.

The principles and codes of conduct for tourists and tour operators also appear in the latest issue of the WWF’s Arctic Bulletin, a publication of the enviornmental group’s Arctic program.

Interest in the Arctic as a tourist destination has grown steadily in recent years, its impact and opportunities perhaps felt most dramatically in communities visited by cruise ship operators.

Missed opportunities

Accounts of missed opportunities and bungled encounters with tourists inevitably find their way to Cheri Kemp-Kinnear, the executive director of Nunavut Tourism, and a participant in several international conferences that culminated in the WWF guidelines for Arctic tourists and tour operators.

It was the arrival of cruise ships in the Arctic a decade or so ago and the hard lessons learned from ship-based tourism since then, she says, that inspired much of the guidelines’ substance.

In Grise Fiord, for example, which has a total population of less than 200 residents, the sudden arrival of 100 ocean-liner passengers without advance warning has been extremely disruptive in the past.

Planning, communication needed

On the other hand, given proper planning and prior communication with affected communities, such visits can be rewarding for residents and tourists alike.

“Now we have to get communities involved,” said Kemp-Kinnear, who, along with her counterparts from Greenland, has insisted that a set of community-based tourism standards be developed to complement the WWF’s principles and codes of conduct.

While the WWF guidelines encourage tour operators and tourists to distribute the economic benefits of Arctic tourism by supporting local businesses and buying locally made products whenever possible, residents must also be prepared to adapt, Kemp-Kinnear says.

“If they want to benefit they have to provide some services. When a cruise ship arrives, for instance, they have to have arts and crafts for sale. They can’t all leave for holiday.”

It’s also possible that the tourism guidelines will eventually form the basis of an international treaty, such as the one that regulates the activities of tour operators in the Antarctic.

And though its hoped that the principles and codes of conduct will contribute to the planning and development of Arctic tourism, the guidelines are no substitute for creative marketing.

“They’re not definitive anwers as to what’s going to make Nunavut, for example, more attractive and more functional as a major tourist destination,” the WWF’s Ewins said.
Guidelines for tour operators

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – Here are highlights of the World Wildlife Fund’s code of conduct for Arctic tour operators:

* Make tourism and conservation compatible;
* Support the preservation of wilderness and biodiversity;
* Use natural resources in a sustainable way;
* Minimize consumption, waste and pollution;
* Respect local culture;
* Respect historic and scientific sites;
* Arctic communities should benefit from tourism;
* Educate staff;
* Make the tour an opportunity to learn about the Arctic environment and Arctic conservation;
* Follow safety rules.