Tourist |
Tourist segments can perform as either a driver or barrier. Three tourist segments are recognized as responsible, common, and irresponsible tourists. |
'Responsible tourists' have serious concerns regarding sustainability, thus they require the company to operate in an eco-friendly manner. 'Irresponsible tourists' are described by Archart as the tourists who are actively seeking to take photos of very rare and endangered birds and animal species. This company tries not to expose these habitats, as it can cause animal and bird disturbance, forcing them to leave their habitats in which they have been living for hundreds of years. Vegex reflects upon 'common tourists' demands, saying that "the RIB boat is not eco-friendly compared to kayaking, but people still ask for such activities, ..., [customers] don't care about CO2 engines produce." |
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Educating and increasing awareness. |
The companies create sustainable value through educating the tourists about nature, animals, and the local community and shaping their behavior through increasing their awareness. In contrast, Vegex, which is not integrating relatively strong sustainability practices into its BM, explicitly mentions that the company does not have intention to educate the tourists. |
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Providing information and knowledge. |
The purpose of the company is limited to keeping the tourists informed of different aspects without any educational purpose in the form of stories behind the places, nature, animals, local culture, the company's sustainable approach, and activities to ensure a more authentic experience. |
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External resources |
The natural environment. |
Purposeful pursuit of practices focusing on nature and animal protection enables a company to present these habitats every year, as quite untouched. "It is a fragile habitat that has a bird life, ..., we have chosen not to tell you about it and having that consciousness about where we advise people to go, that's a huge part of the sustainability." (Archart) |
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The key materials for developing activities and conducting the business in the long run. |
Companies highly depend on establishing long-term relationships with local suppliers to make effective partnerships, although they could have the opportunity to receive the same materials with a higher quality from other suppliers (not local). |
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Make contribution into the scientific knowledge pool. |
Such contribution creates value for both society and environment via either initiating projects or active collaboration within the external research projects. Archart has launched a project focusing on bird conservation through establishing regional bird-ringing stations to both increase awareness across the community and contribute to the scientific knowledge. |
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Actors-stakeholders |
Cooperating with stakeholders to benefit them, engage with them, and encourage them to contribute to the SD of the destination. |
"The sustainability is about how we are setting up the whole tourism scene to benefit the whole local community, and not just economically by supporting one big company." (Archart) Auro also affirms that they follow a strategy in which newly established companies receive support as they have all the settlements and supply chain already in place in order to assist these newcomers in establishing their own networks. |
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Companies are forced to adopt a sustainable orientation as receiving pressure from the partners with strong concerns. |
Company has to adjust its perspective according to those partners to establish a continuous partnership; otherwise, the company might lose those partners. |
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Company might decline some partnerships to maintain its sustainable performance or it may keep such a performance to attract the partners with mutual concerns. |
Hunder and Øya, both have been certified, express the notion of being selective in terms of various stakeholders. |
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Issue or challenge |
Arctic context raises the concern over the possible environmental degradation, harm, disturbance of animal and bird habitats. Solutions that a company figures out to manage the negative impacts can create sustainable value for both the environment and upcoming businesses that may offer the same natural context. |
Archart strives to place the wind shelters at certain locations to guide birdwatchers through specific tracks in nature to make their patterns of moving predictable for birds. Archart also highlights that previously, they withdrew some of their wind shelters at particular locations after assessing the risk and harm. Auro stopped offering an activity that would cause harm: "we had one special product that we haven't started yet and probably will not, ..., and it is ATV tours, ..., doing trips in the nature, ..., but we don't want to use those engines because they are destroying the nature, they make tracks that will not grow." |
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Carbon footprint of some activities and vehicles, thus the company is expected to seek ways to make the least amount of pollution as possible. |
A company might consider replacing the current vehicles and snowmobiles with more eco-friendly engines. (Auro) However, an obstacle hindering the transformation toward applying more eco-friendly engines is transaction costs that may slow down the company's transition. (Auro) |
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A lack of municipality support. |
This challenge is expressed by two cases, as it puts the burden on the actors to enhance the sustainable performance of the destination (Archart). Auro commented that a lack of destination management organization (DMO) in Alta increases the actors' responsibility to collaborate with each other and develop strategies for the region to establish a sustainable destination. |
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A lack of the specific knowledge required in developing an activity |
Auro overcame such a challenge through applying competencies from local partners and artists, because no competitor was willing to share such crucial expertise. Hence, a sustainable solution (social sustainability) to this problem resulted in hiring local artists to generate an authentic experience instead of employing art professionals from other parts of the world. |
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State and regulation |
Regulatory pressure is underlined as a significant driver making the companies align their performance toward sustainability. |
To keep operating, companies are obliged to consider all aspects of their business, as directed by regulations. Auro argues that the State has to approve related supplementary regulations to secure the sustainable performance of the whole supply chain, and the lack of such a regulatory system is thus emphasized. |
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State's role as a motivator or promoter. |
Three cases (Auro, Øya, and Archart) confirm the critical role of government in the SD of various destinations through lunching various projects. |
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Market incentives |
Reaching the market. |
Three cases (Vegex, Auro, and Øya) perceive their sustainable performance as a way of marketing the company and establishing their public image as a sustainable business to increase their reputation. Consequently, such an incentive can be featured as a driver, although the main purpose concentrates on financial rewards. |
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A potentiality closely linked to a destination may encourage companies to exploit that in a sustainable manner to generate profits, and simultaneously offering the activities in terms of tackling the issues related to the context. |
"When I came to Vardø, I was just struck by how incredible the potential here was and how little had been done in nature scene." (Archart) |
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The nature tourism market. |
Such market calls for creating value for nature and more importantly for the local community, as noted by Øya. |
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