Linking Culture and the Environment

M.E. Johnston and G.D. Twynam 115
In addition to ensuring involvement of all appropriate parties, initiators of
such projects must be prepared to address issues related to implementation at
the time of principle and code development. The best-outlined and most wellintentioned
codes will not succeed if operators, tourists and communities are
unable to implement them or have no interest in implementing them. The need
for support in implementation was raised throughout this project and was particularly
evident in the pilot projects. Operators, especially the small businesses,
require assistance to be able to put the principles into practice.
It is also advisable that methods of evaluation are considered early on in
the process. This would provide some structure for the users which may
assist in implementation, and it also gives direction for monitoring. Without
adequate and appropriate monitoring mechanisms, it will not be clear how
effective the WWF initiative has been. The case study provides a simple
method of obtaining baseline data that will aid in assessing the effectiveness
of the guidelines for Arctic tourism programme.
Given the development of other more recent initiatives, it would be helpful
to see an exploration and, perhaps, evaluation of sustainable tourism in
the Arctic generally. It remains unclear how healthy the WWF initiative
remains and whether there is broad uptake of its approach and/or the
SMART programmes. How operators, marketing associations, communities
and visitors respond to, and use, these particular initiatives is an important
component of the expression of sustainable tourism. Further, there have been
numerous calls in meetings and in tourism settings for a broad member
organization like IAATO; an understanding of the level of interest in, and the
pursuit of, information about sustainable tourism might renew the impetus
for its development, perhaps through an extension of the existing Association
of Arctic Expedition Cruise Ship Operators.
It seems likely that the principle-based approach to sustainable tourism
will continue to be popular in many parts of the world. This chapter has outlined
the evolution of the WWF initiative and demonstrated some of the experiences
and concerns in the process that may have relevance for other sustainable
tourism efforts. It has noted two other developments and suggested that it is
time for an evaluation of sustainable tourism in the Arctic. The issues raised
here about development and evaluation of sustainability efforts extend beyond
tourism into the wider context of sustainable development generally.
References
Consulting and Audit Canada (1995) What
Tourism Managers Need to Know. A
Practical Guide to the Development and the
Use of Indicators of Sustainable Tourism.
Consulting and Audit Canada, Ottawa,
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Dawson, J., Maher, P. and Slocombe, S.
(2007) Climate change, marine tourism,
and sustainability in the Canadian Arctic:
contributions from systems and complexity
approaches. Tourism in Marine Environments
4(2–3), 69–84.
Enzenbacher, D. (1998) Mechanisms for promoting
and monitoring compliance with
Arctic tourism guidelines. In: Humphreys,
B., Pedersen, A.O., Prokosch, P., Smith, S.