Polar Tourism: A Tool for Regional Development

Chapter 3. Meditative Thinking for Polar Tourism Research and Codes of Ethics

1. Introduction Polar region travel is not a new phenomenon. Historic examples are found among the nomadic routes of Inuit and Sami, or the polar expeditions of Nansen, Rasmussen, Scott, Shackleton, and Mawson (Aporta 2009; Mazzullo and Ingold 2008; Snyder 2007a). The scholarly and commercial enterprises of polar tourism, however, are arguably fresh, and constitute another type of tourism among a growing list of alternatives (Grenier 2004). In applied terms, tourism is routinely prescribed and adopted as an economic stimulus for polar periphery regions and Arctic communities, and as an alternative or supplement to extractive resource developments such as mining, oil and gas, forestry, or hydro-­ electricity (Hall et al. 2009; Richard 2007). Bryan S.R. Grimwood Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada David A. Fennell Tourism and Environment, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada CHAPTER 3 Meditative Thinking for Polar Tourism Research and Codes of Ethics 24303.indb 87 11-10-12 10:49 AM 88 Polar Tourism: A Tool for Regional Development As the subject of academic inquiry, polar tourism appears to be converging on many points of interest, perhaps in response to previous concerns about the scattered research community (Stewart et al. 2005). Recent collaborations have resulted in various book-length publications (Grenier 2004; Hall and Boyd 2005; Hall and Johnston 1995; Hall et al. 2009; Müller and Jansson 2007; Snyder and Stonehouse 2007a; Stonehouse and Snyder 2010), special-issue publications (Grenier 2009; Maher 2007), and the establishment of the Polar Tourism Network (). Such initiatives point to the maturation of polar tourism scholarship, a process that this paper intends to contribute to further. The objective of this chapter is to introduce some theoretical tools for polar tourism researchers, thereby responding further to observations made by Stewart and colleagues (2005: 389) that polar tourism research reflects a “lack of theoretical foundations.” Theoretical deficiency has functioned as a blueprint for much tourism research (Franklin and Crang 2001), particularly when measured by its interdisciplinary appeal (Fennell 2006a). As such, this chapter attempts to draw interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks into polar tourism discourse. The theme that orients these broader objectives is tourism ethics and, more precisely, Arctic tourism codes of ethics and codes of conduct (hereafter simply referred to as “codes”). It is important to make clear from the outset that this chapter does not report on an empirical investigation (e.g. the content analysis of codes applicable to polar tourism), though certain crucial efforts, such as those of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF 2009) and the Sustainable Model for Arctic Regional Tourism (SMART 2006), provide some grounding to this analysis. Our intentions are of a different order. Informed by Heidegger (1966), the chapter infuses meditative thinking into polar tourism discourses (see Table 3.1). In contrast to outcome-driven or calculative thinking, which Heidegger argues dominates most intellectual and cultural fields, thinking meditatively enables access to how polar tourism codes express deeper meanings and possibilities for human behaviour, perception, and dwelling . In this way, meditative thinking can help researchers and practitioners gain insight into the social-ecological complexity that characterizes polar region tourism, livelihoods, and change, and use this to inform responsible decision-making, management, and policy. The chapter begins by situating codes within tourism ethics and polar and Arctic tourism research. The subsequent body of the paper is framed around two challenges implicated in Arctic tourism codes and highlighted in the literature: self-regulation and cultural relativism. In both sections, we review features of these challenges and specify some theoretical bearings that may be used to reframe or better understand 24303.indb 88 11-10-12 10:49 AM Meditative Thinking for Polar Tourism Research and Codes of Ethics 89 them. At the risk of being redundant, our intentions are not to resolve each of the identified challenges but to use these as stepping stones to wade into a meditative discussion of polar tourism ethics. 2. Tourism Ethics and Arctic Tourism Codes Tourism research has been characterized as a reactive enterprise in so far as it focuses on industry-led priorities, such as mitigating impacts (Fennell and Malloy 2007; Hardy et al. 2002) and designing authentic travel experiences (Conran 2006). Ironically, the growing attention to the study of tourism ethics (Fennell 2006c, 2006a; Hultsman 1995; MacBeth 2005; Smith and Duffy 2003) may be viewed on the one hand as illustrative of such reactionary investigations and, on the other hand, as an...