Community care for cruises

Abstract

Cruise tourism played an important role in the development of the tourism industry of Magerøya, with the port of Honningsvåg the focal point for the distribution of cruise passengers towards a main attraction of the island—North Cape. However, the rapid development of tourism flows and increased attention to destinations from several large cruise providers have resulted in public and political debates, not least in relation to the uneven distribution of economic benefits. This case report is a result of a combined analysis of several sources of documentation—desk research, participant observations in the field and personal interviews dealing with the main issues in relation to cruise tourism development. The goal is to summarize some of the insights to help inform the future sustainable development of Honningsvåg as a destination. The report shows that Honningsvåg has been left out in its development as a tourism destination due to the overemphasis on visits to the iconic North Cape, one of the most significant attractions in the territory of Northern Europe. The predominant number of cruise tourists is similar to that of land-based tourists willing to focus their attention only on this geographical point. Thus, the problems related to the challenges of the limited economic impact on the surrounding communities on the island, and increased pressures on environmental sustainability resulted in debates about the possible future of this development. The key issues identified by this report related to the development of cruise tourism are the following: overcrowding resulting from the use of common resources and infrastructure by a few major tourism industry stakeholders; heavy reliance on foreign labour to meet the demands of growing volumes of cruise passenger traffic creating challenges related to quality-of-service delivery to heterogeneous cruise segment; a lack of clear organizational structure in relation to long-term planning and coordination in hosting cruise tourists resulting in inefficiencies and challenges in managing arrival, transportation, and activities at the destination; and an absence of coherent master plans accepted and supported by different stakeholders working together to provide sustainable futures for destination development. Currently, this absence of a common agenda and vision for future development creates more imbalances in the development of the tourism industry, where actors are interested in short-term economic gains. Thus, achieving consensus on the strict regulations applied to cruise tourism is difficult given the few actors deriving the most economic profit from it. The responsibility for decision-making is shifting between the harbour leadership, municipal politicians, and, not surprisingly, the local destination management organization. Nevertheless, there seems to be a lack of engagement in finding common solutions and responsibilities for moving towards stricter regulation of cruise tourism. The need for close collaboration and long-term commitment to planning and managing more sustainable futures is a core of the approach for future destination development in Magerøya.