“Situation critical in the North” – Arctic Tourism & and the Pandemic Podcast: Ep 1
Prior to the pandemic, Arctic regions and chambers of commerce around the world had increasingly touted tourism as a key economic tool.
It’s an industry that provides jobs for a variety of education levels, promotes small-scale entrepreneurship and creates sustainable development lacking in many of the expensive and hard-to-get-to regions of the North.
Prior to 2020, the industry was on the upswing across Canada’s North, and it’s hard to overstate how hard the pandemic has hit the tourism industry in the territories.
In this ongoing series, Eye on the Arctic speaks to business experts, community members and policy makers on how the tourism shutdown is affecting northern communities, their economies and industry workers, and the strategies being put in place to respond.
In today’s episode, we speak with Keith Henry, president & CEO of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, on why northern Indigenous tourism businesses have been hit so hard by the pandemic and what it’s going to take to build back:
To subscribe to the podcast, visit Radio Canada International’s site here.
Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Chamber of Commerce in Canada’s Northwest Territories says tourism threatened by COVID-19 border restrictions, CBC News
Finland: How not to promote Arctic tourism, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Norwegian Arctic wilderness tourism hit particularly hard by coronavirus, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: All Russia’s North Pole cruises rescheduled to 2021, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Summer tourism recovery is slow going in Sweden, Yle News
United States: Airline shutdown creates new challenges for rural Alaska, The Associated Press
