Abstract
Coastal communities are among the most rapidly changing, institutionally complex, and culturally diverse in the world, and they are among the most vulnerable to anthropogenic change. While being a driver of anthropogenic change, tourism can also provide socio-economic alternatives to declining natural resource-based livelihoods for coastal residents. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of small-scale cruise tourism on coastal community resiliency in Petersburg, Alaska. Exploring these impacts through resiliency theory’s lens of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, we employed ethnographic research methods that emphasize emic viewpoints to determine how residents see this form of tourism affecting the resiliency of valued community culture, institutions, and traditional livelihoods. Findings indicate that with purposeful engagement in niche cruise tourism involving boats with 250 passengers or less, and an active rejection of the large cruise ship industry, Petersburg exhibits increased adaptive capacity to promote the resilience of valued community institutions and heritage. This work draws needed recognition to the diversity of activities that fall under the label of cruise tourism, including the distinct implications of smaller-scale, niche cruise tourism for the resilience of coastal communities. It also highlights the need to capture emic perspectives to understand the politics of community resiliency.
Highlights
Coastal communities will experience a disproportionate amount of biophysical change driven by both anthropogenically induced climate change and growth-driven economic activity, for which coastal governance must ensure that the new forms of economy are compatible with existing human activities [1]
Little has been written about how the cruise tourism sector affects diverse and cherished values within communities, local-level governance and decision-making, and control over natural resources upon which livelihoods are inextricably linked in coastal contexts
With purposeful engagement in niche cruise tourism and the active rejection of the larger-scale cruise ship industry, Petersburg is exhibiting the increased adaptive capacity necessary to sustain the resilience of valued community institutions and heritage [23,30]
Summary
Coastal communities will experience a disproportionate amount of biophysical change driven by both anthropogenically induced climate change and growth-driven economic activity, for which coastal governance must ensure that the new forms of economy are compatible with existing human activities [1]. Tourism is a hallmark characteristic of the “Great Acceleration” of anthropogenic impact across the planet [2], and its influence as a driver of social and environmental disturbance in coastal regions is only growing as natural resource-based livelihoods decline [3,4,5]. Little has been written about how the cruise tourism sector affects diverse and cherished values within communities, local-level governance and decision-making, and control over natural resources upon which livelihoods are inextricably linked in coastal contexts. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, tourism influences communities, their forms of social organization, and their adaptive capacity necessary to maintain social and economic wellbeing, including resilience, in the face of anthropogenic climate and ecosystem disturbance [11,12]. The nature of a community’s relation to tourism is likely dependent on the form of tourism that is dominant in a region and the type of engagement opportunities tourism provides for residents
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