Travel is more than just visiting places
Ides of March edition
Greetings, readers, thank you for being here!
I am just launching right into the articles this week and I don’t have an academic article for you because I have two topics that deserve a good bit of attention.
Greenland tourism
Right after finishing up the last issue, I saw this article from the New York Times about Greenland’s tourism industry. I was annoyed that I had not seen it earlier, however, I was not about to change my entire newsletter for one article so I saved it for this edition.
Greenland is such a special place. I have not been there yet but I still think it is okay to make that statement. It is on my list but I want to do it right. I have toyed with the idea of holding my next yoga retreat there in 2024 but I don’t think I have the experience to pull that off yet. I interviewed one of Innovation South Greenland’s employees for a project about sustainable tourism during my master’s program and we’ve stayed connected because we are both knitters and we like to talk about tourism and outdoor adventures too.
Many of you may or may not know that Greenland is still part of the kingdom of Denmark. The current prime minister and from what I have understood, most Greenlanders, support full independence from Denmark. The Greenland’s government is semi-autonomous now and governs most domestic affairs. The NYT article explains most of this for context but what Greenlanders seem to be invested in is growth that supports independence but doesn’t turn them into Iceland 2.0.
Iceland is beautiful, unique, and an incredible place to visit, but it is also busy. It exploded in popularity in the last 10 years due to cheap flights from North America and good marketing. It is experiencing over-tourism though in 2023 and before that. Iceland is not suffering, the explosion in tourism helped the country recover from the 2008 economic crisis, but tourism officials and responsible tour operators encourage tourists visiting Iceland to go off-season and seek out less-visited spots. You can read a bit more about Iceland’s tourism economy here.
Greenland is hoping its tourism plan will encourage sustainable tourism. It is investing in transportation infrastructure to be able to welcome tourists since getting to and around the giant island isn’t a simple feat. There are no inland roads connecting cities and towns. Because of the rugged terrain, travel between cities is done by air or sea. The roads within most Greenlandic cities stop at the edges of most of those cities and towns.
Greenland is also not that easy to travel to from North America at the moment, and airport expansion on the world’s largest island is probably going to change that. That is what Greenland’s tourism board hopes! Currently, the world’s largest island can only be reached by air or sea from Denmark or Iceland. In certain cases, there are charter flights from parts of Canada, but this is done in conjunction with cruises through Adventure Canada and other North Atlantic cruise and tour operators.
Greenland’s landmass is larger that Iceland but with a smaller population of about 57,000 compared to Iceland’s 372,000. Greenlandic communities are more spread out and travel between them is a lot less accessible whereas one can rent a car and drive around the entire country of Iceland. Naturally, Greenland has a smaller population available for the tourism economy and because tourism is newer there, the education and training for the tourism industry is newer. So, while Visit Greenland can look to Iceland for some assistance on planning for more tourists so not to be overrun, its challenges are different. Iceland’s tourism board and government put together a system of checks and balances to regulate overtourism and check in with communities, infrastructure, and the environment to make sure that areas are not being overstressed and to divert some of the benefits (tourism revenue) to areas that are not overtouristed. I’ll talk more about this in the next edition.
Greenland’s tourism leaders hope to grow sustainably and preserve the wild and untouched areas that make it special for Greenlandic citizens and residents as well as tourists. I am excited to see what they can do to grow slowly and encourage tourism. Another example for the country to look toward is Bhutan.
Cruise around the world?
Life at Sea cruises is launching an around-the-world, 3-year-long cruise that will visit 7 continents. The title of this article is a bit clickbaity because my first thought was “ick!” But, when you read about it, it sounds like a luxury version of Semester at Sea or Remote Year for the wealthy. The ship has various amenities like a full hospital, business resources, a gym, and educational classes, and there are volunteer opportunities at various ports of call. It seems like they’re targeting remote workers and the wealthy since the price starts at USD 30k per year with another option to rent for USD 2400/month.
The monthly option is not that bad since it includes meals. Am I crazy for saying that? Of course, flying to and from the ship is an added cost but USD 2400 is not out of the question for rent for many parts of North America. I posted this article in my Instagram stories asking for opinions and whether would people do this cruise if they could afford it and am excited to share some of the reactions. I didn’t even expect to add this to my newsletter but the responses were so good I had to include it. I asked for permission first, here are my favorites.
“Have we learned NOTHING from the pandemic about cruises and what a dystopian virus-carrying hellhole they can be? - Nassim, Washington DC, USA
“I always wonder how people remember/distinguish places they’ve visited when they go through them so quickly and close together.” - Carla, Chicago, USA
“No, because I would barf the whole way.” - Tharani, Victoria, Canada
“If I were old and rich, hell yeah!” and when asked for further elaboration…”I’ve never been on a cruise, so there’s a chance I could hate it? But I think it would be so fun to have someone tote me around to all the different locations and feed me.” Lindsey, Los Angeles, USA
Another comment that I saw from someone else who shared this article was that if there’s wifi, she’s interested because it’s cheaper than living in Seattle.
I’ve got international and bi-coastal opinions there, and there are two yes answers. All of the women who answered are well-travelled too. So my question for you, readers, is would you go on this cruise? If you want to read more about it before voting in my two polls, click to visit the Life at Sea Cruises website. Or, maybe one of you is also a hell yeah and you can connect with Lindsey. I’ll report the results in the next edition!
If you poke around on their website and find the destinations page, you can flip through a short digital magazine that shows the itinerary in map format. To be honest, I think it could be more creative and easier to read and find on the website. But, I also think it is probably difficult to present that much content in a concise and interesting way.
What are your thoughts on cruises in general? Be as honest as you’d like. I have only ever been on one cruise so I don’t have strong opinions on them. However, the idea of being on a boat for 3 years does not appeal to me. I like to have a home base for my routine, seeing friends, doing hobbies that I like. I think the novelty of travel would wear off for me after 5-6 months and I would be homesick and want to get off of the boat.
So that’s it for this edition. Thank you for reading, for subscribing, share this with a friend if you’d like.
See you in your inbox again on March 31st! I’ll be in Chile then so I am curious how that is all going to pan out with writing and leading a retreat. :)
Sonya