This week we had the pleasure to welcome two visiting researchers from the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre in Akureyri. Both of which are working on research projects that have to do with Ísafjörður and the Westfjords. Ása Marta Sveinsdóttir is working on a research project on cruise ship tourism in arctic communities and Alina Bavykina is working on a master’s thesis on Aldrei fór ég suður music festival.

Ása Marta is involved in a multinational research project on cruise tourism in arctic communities, Sustainable Arctic Cruise Communities: From Practice to Governance. The aim of the research is to explore regional practices and management of cruise tourism and develop a toolkit for arctic cruise communities based on research-based best practices. The area of research is Norway, Russia, Svalbard, Greenland, and Iceland, where Ísafjörður will be used as a case.

The project is currently in its starting phase, but Ása will be back in this summer to do some more work. “I'm now in Ísafjörður doing a preliminary study, just to get to know the place and talk to people involved in the cruise ship industry.  I'm excited to be here and would like to thank the University Centre of the Westfjords for the warm welcome!”

Alina Bavykina is a student in Sustainable Destination Development at Uppsala University Campus Gotland (Sweden).  “I am currently writing my master ‘s thesis on the case of Aldrei fór ég suður festival as part of the internship at Icelandic Tourism Research Centre (ITRC).” The aim of the research project is to define the festival’s impact on tourism entrepreneurial network in Ísafjörður and to investigate opportunities the festival can provide for sustainable development of the area. “I’m staying here in Isafjordur for three weeks in order to do field work and arrange interviews with both private and public stakeholders to define their views and perspectives on Aldrei fór ég suður and identify relationships between them.”

We encourage everyone that both Ása Marta and Alina call upon for interviews to welcome them and donate some time for these exciting research projects.