Abstract
The Lofoten Islands in northern Norway face challenges from increasing visitor numbers, congestion, environmental impacts, and growing host-visitor tensions. Benefits include increased local employment and growing revenues. Future tourism policy requires better documentation of the non-economic benefits and values associated with tourism in Lofoten; this information is important to the development of policy and management processes. We conducted 45 in-depth interviews with domestic and international visitors, using the cultural ecosystem services (ES) framework to ascertain the core elements of the tourism experience, as well as views on management needs and development. We probed reflections on place, aesthetics, recreational opportunities, inspiration, social relations, cultural heritage, knowledge, spirituality, and identity by offering a combination of statements and questions. All these categories of cultural ES were important to most visitors. However, the importance of the landscape was paramount. Policy implications include the need to include landscape in ES assessments, to map places of especially high scenic value, and to use the ES framework more extensively to identify and compare non-economic and economic tourism values and benefits.
Highlights
The Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway is a worldclass nature tourism destination experiencing increasing attention and visitors
The tourism sector in Lofoten has undergone important changes in recent years, with rapid growth in visitor numbers, extending seasons into almost continuous year-round cycles, growing infrastructure and logistical problems, congestion, increasing host community – visitor tensions, and indications of visitor numbers approaching unacceptable levels. These changes put demands on the management system to engage in policy discussions on how to preserve the unique character of the Lofoten environment to avoid degrading the very assets that make up this particular destination, and to develop forms of tourism that are acceptable to resident communities
A comprehensive debate about development paths that goes beyond merely calculating revenue potential needs to take into account and deliberate on the non-economic assets of tourism values and benefits
Summary
The Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway is a worldclass nature tourism destination experiencing increasing attention and visitors. The islands have a long tourism history (Mehmetoglu et al, 2001; Steen Jacobsen and Dann, 2003) and a well-established position in both the domestic and international markets, their popularity seems to be increasing. Recent years have seen a marked increase in the number of visitors, revenue generation, and marketing (Fabritius and Sandberg, 2012; Kristoffersen and Midtgard, 2016). The tourism industry has largely succeeded in prolonging the season for what had been a summer destination; tourists come almost year-round, not least because of a new focus on winter attractions such as northern lights, Arctic weather, and the cod fishery. Lofoten offers a more or less complete nature tourism destination in terms of attractiveness and opportunities for activities and experiences.
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