Emotions and affects at work on Northern Lights tours

Abstract

Abstract In this article I explore the complexities of emotions and affects imbuing Northern Lights tourism and how this informs the host/guest transactions performed in this context. I do this by focusing on how Northern Lights tour guides – through emotional labour and hospitality – engage with tourists’ emotional expectations and experiences and an atmospheric landscape comprising discursive imaginings of the lights, the elusive and unpredictable aurora, darkness, weather and the arctic landscapes. Data were collected through interviews with both guides and tourists, through written documents (TripAdvisor) and through fieldwork. The findings demonstrated that the guides enacted emotional labour in six, partly overlapping, ways: stepping back, knowledge and expectation clarification, the hunt, entertainment, hostessing and unawareness. They also showed that, regardless of sightings, most tourists were satisfied with their tours. Only a few tourists were really discontented, not because of no-show, but because of the guide’s inability to cater to their different needs in a dark and cold environment.