Tourism, storytelling and coastal communities
From 11 to 22 May, students at the University Centre of the Westfjords took a closer look at tourism, leisure and everyday life in small coastal communities through the course Coastal Communities in an Era of Leisure and Tourism.
The course was taught by Dr. Patrick T. Maher, who returns to Ísafjörður and UW each year to teach in the Westfjords. With a background that spans several countries and academic work in New Zealand, Antarctica and Canada, Patrick brings an international perspective to a topic that is very close to home for many coastal communities: how tourism shapes local life.
In the course, students explored how small coastal communities, particularly in the Arctic, engage with leisure and tourism on social, economic and cultural levels. They examined both the individual encounters between tourists and locals and the larger systems that influence tourism development, second home ownership, resource use and community sustainability.
A key theme of the course was storytelling. Students worked with tourism not only as an industry or academic field, but also as a way of understanding how people experience places, landscapes and communities. Through photo essays, field trips and their own digital stories or short films, students analysed the impact of tourism right at their doorstep.
The course also introduced students to issues such as adventure and expedition tourism, the logistical challenges of operating in remote coastal and marine environments, sovereignty tensions, shared resource management and the shift from extraction-based economies towards service-oriented industries.
Patrick’s own research focuses, among other things, on the meanings visitors take home from expedition experiences and how those experiences shape their lives afterwards. He describes himself as both a researcher and an educator, valuing the way research informs teaching and teaching informs research.
Every year I come back to UW and Ísafjörður to get refreshed and rejuvenated – by the beautiful landscape of the Westfjords and the inspiring students, truly global thinkers, that I get to learn with. Teaching here, in a compressed format, with students from all over the world is pure joy.
By the end of the course, students had strengthened their ability to critically examine tourism in coastal and marine settings, understand its importance for local livelihoods, and communicate their findings through both academic discussion and creative storytelling.