Godfrey Baldacchino

Canada Research Chair (Island Studies)

University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

Extreme Tourism – Lessons from the World’s Cold Water Islands

Assumptions about Island Tourist

Paradises:

Warm Water

Tropical Climate

Exotic/Erotic Sites

Is Cold Water & Challenging Weather an Obstacle to Tourism?

Do Islands add a Particular Twist to Tourism Policy & Practice?

Key Questions (1)

Is there a Specific Island ‘Lure’? What exactly attracts tourists to (small) islands? (slower tempo; physical remove; taking it all in)

Is bad weather less of a bother in cold areas, since it is expected and indeed critical to special interest travellers?

Key Questions (2)

Is there a cold water tourist type? Is extreme location and insularity a blessing: –

regulating flow; protecting environment; preserving difference; preventing lapse into mass tourism?

Expensive, hazardous, irregular, unreliable access: all part of the cold water tourist experience?

Key Questions (3)

Rapid, deep and intense impact of tourism on small islands – high level of openness – is tourism hazardous?

Are cold water islands the ultimate raw outposts of civilisation – destined to enjoy the latest and final boom? Or should islands remain foreboding and forbidden?

Key Questions (4)

Inaccessibility is part of Competitive Asset -but easier to maintain where there is no population. Are land use and access conflicts likely?

Political peripherality may spawn bold (alien) tourist elite – Dangerous?

Lessons

A new category of destinations A re-interpretation of the island ‘draw’ Bad weather as ally – no seasonality paradigm Difficult access as ally – no mass potential A specific combination of services – based on

small numbers.