Issues to be dealt with include tourist and host encounters, and cultural and environmental change and the role of northern landscapes in tourist experiences. Instruction is based on research grounded in different theoretical approaches and presenting diverse cases.

At the end of the course the students will be able to

  • Describe the main characteristics of tourism in the Circumpolar North
  • Compare tourism in the Circumpolar North and in other regions
  • Apply theoretical concepts to describe tourist's experiences and analyze their performances
  • Apply relevant theoretical concepts to analyze tourist's performances
  • Assess and critically discuss tourism development in different regions in the Circumpolar North in relation to different groups of tourists and modes of travel

Time and location: Spring 2020 (March 3 – May 5). This online course is provided via the Moodle learning environment of University of Iceland.

Admission requirements: Applicants must have a Bachelor's degree in tourism, social science, humanities, or business administration. Admission to the course by students from universities which do not participate in this course may be restricted. For more information, please contact the course coordinator (hwelling@hi.is).

Applying for the course: The coordinators of the participating universities should nominate their students for this course by email to Sigríður Sif Magnúsdóttir (siggasif@hi.is). Last nomination day is February 3, 2020.

Together with nominations the following information needs to be provided by the home department/student:

1. Confirmation from home department of registration in MS studies
2. Confirmation from home department that the credits will be evaluated
3. Scanned copy of passport of student
4. Scanned certificate of a completed undergraduate degree

Course coordinators of participating universities:

Nipissing University - Patrick Maher (patmaher@nipissingu.ca)
UiT the Arctic University of Norway - Bente Heimtun (bente.heimtun@uit.no)
Umeå University - Doris Carson (doris.carson@umu.se)
University of Oulu – Kaarina Tervo-Kankare (kaarina.tervo-kankare@oulu.fi)
University of Lapland - Outi Rantala (outi.rantala@ulapland.fi)
University of Iceland – Hans Welling (hwelling@hi.is)
Vancouver Island University – Suzanne de la Barre (suzanne.delabarre@viu.ca)

Further information about this course is available here.

The course is part of the UArctic Master's focus on Northern Tourism, a sequence of three interdisciplinary courses related to the Arctic undertaken in an existing Master's degree.