Social Licence to Operate (SLO) – can it help communities receiving cruise tourism in the Arctic? ⚓️

Whilst conducting research around the land and sea use conflicts between competing sectors in the Arctic, the ArcticHubs project has been looking closely at how a suite of alternative tools may be utilised to bring co-designed solutions to those challenges in the region.

What is Social Licence to Operate (SLO)?

Amongst these tools, Touch TD have been particularly interested in considering how the concept of SLO might be adapted across a wider variety of industrial sectors. Emerging from tense and conflictual settings around the mining sector, the concept of SLO has evolved as an informal way to build a ‘social licence’ between local communities and new or expanding industry activities in their locality. Building from the precursor to ArcticHubs project, BUSK, in its 2018 report ‘LOCAL ACCEPTANCE OF INDUSTRIAL OPERATIONS WITHIN MINING, FORESTRY, FISH FARMING AND TOURISM IN LAPLAND AND TROMS/FINNMARK’ (Pettersson et al.), outlined how SLO is understood to consolidate around three elements,

• social legitimacy related to openness, honesty and respecting local social norms
• credibility
• trust, which is negotiated in an ongoing basis, achieved over time through shared experiences and collaboration

Arctic cruise tourism

One corner of industry where substantial increases in volume and rapid expansion in its reach has occurred, is in Arctic cruise tourism. With challenges around the more traditional livelihoods of fishing and agriculture, the arrival of cruise tourism was initially seen be the often-remote coastal communities as a way to offset those economic struggles and out-migration pressures. However, in recent years there has been a growing debate and rising concerns about the more negative environmental and social impacts occurring in ports and destinations across the Arctic visited by the burgeoning cruise sector. Nonetheless, exchanges relating to trust or degrees in social acceptance for cruise tourism have not yet matured or been given an opportunity to evolve. Equally, the more participatory and inclusive elements of the SLO process have also not yet been tested out as a possible answer to tensions around unchecked cruise tourism growth in the Arctic. 

Exploring SLO around cruise tourism

In response to the absence of such interactions or a greater pooling of perspectives, ArcticHubs researchers have begun to explore whether the ‘code of conduct’ expressions of SLO sometimes found where the extractive industries are active, might find a way of being applied in the as yet untested sphere of tourism. More specifically across the more easily bounded sub-sector that is cruise tourism.

Our colleagues in the coastal hub locations of Suðeroy, FAROE ISLANDS and Westfjords, ICELAND, sought out a range of voices across local stakeholders and their varying reflections concerning the interactions around fjords and coastal where aquaculture and tourism businesses are active. When approached to consider and discuss more closely the issues and challenges now faced by the further changes brought through visitation from international cruise ships and their passengers, there was considerable interest in coming together again with the ArcticHubs research teams.

Collaboration and Dialogue

Through the posing of questions on whether or how greater acceptance and trust in cruise tourism might be enhanced, there was also an opportunity to move beyond the gathering of pure numbers or polarised oppositional stances. Instead, ArcticHubs research has more crucially sought to look at the diverse interactions that are taking place between a destination and a visiting cruise business.

Uniquely during the summer season, ArcticHubs has also been able to look at the angle seen onboard a cruise ship arriving at an Arctic port to hear how the tourist and the cruise business are informed and perceive a destination. This was achieved through participant observation with cruise tourists whilst visiting Arctic destinations, the delivery of presentations and discussions onboard the cruise vessel, alongside an online survey accessible whilst the ship was navigating its route around the North Atlantic.

At the same time, we approached from the side of the port and destination communities looking back at that docking ship, to understand how they experienced or understood that arrival. Through separate focus group meetings in Ísafjörður and Tórshavn, ArcticHubs listened to the positions of local stakeholders (both those that benefit directly and have generally positive views on tourism, and those who are not involved and view cruise tourism growth and development as it stands as being problematic) and those involved in the management or governance of how the cruise sector develops around a destination.

To read about this research in greater detail, please download our paper here;

If you are also interested in the topic of Arctic cruise tourism and SLO research, please don’t hesitate to email jonathan@touchtd.com OR julie@touchtd.com