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Contested Development Paths and Rural communities: Sustainable Energy or Sustainable Tourism in Iceland?

Author

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  • Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir

    (Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • C. Michael Hall

    (Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140 2, New Zealand)

Abstract

The Icelandic economy has transitioned from being dependent on fishing and agriculture to having tourism and refined aluminum as its main exports. Nevertheless, the new main industries still rely on the country’s natural resources, as the power intensive industry uses energy from rivers and geothermal areas whereas tourism uses the natural landscape, where geysers, waterfalls and thermal pools are part of the attraction to visitors. Although both industries claim to contribute to sustainability they utilize the same resources, and land-use conflicts can be expected, illustrating the contestation that can occur between different visions and understandings of sustainability. This paper focuses on the attitudes of Icelandic tourism operators towards power production and proposed power plants using data from questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Results show that the majority of Icelandic tourism operators assume further power utilization would be in conflict with nature-based tourism, and they are generally negative towards all types of renewable energy development and power plant infrastructure. Respondents are most negative towards transmission lines, reservoirs and hydro power plants in the country’s interior Highlands. About 40% of the respondents perceive that existing power plants have negatively affected tourism, while a similar proportion think they had no impact. According to the respondents, the two industries could co-exist with improved spatial planning, management and inter-sectoral cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir & C. Michael Hall, 2019. "Contested Development Paths and Rural communities: Sustainable Energy or Sustainable Tourism in Iceland?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-27, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3642-:d:245090
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    1. Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir & Margrét Wendt & Edita Tverijonaite, 2021. "Wealth of Wind and Visitors: Tourist Industry Attitudes towards Wind Energy Development in Iceland," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, June.
    2. David Cook & Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir & Ingunn Gunnarsdóttir, 2022. "A Conceptual Exploration of How the Pursuit of Sustainable Energy Development Is Implicit in the Genuine Progress Indicator," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir & C. Michael Hall & Margrét Wendt, 2020. "Overtourism in Iceland: Fantasy or Reality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-25, September.
    4. Ólafsdóttir, Rannveig & Sæþórsdóttir, Anna Dóra, 2019. "Wind farms in the Icelandic highlands: Attitudes of local residents and tourism service providers," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Bin Tang & Zhenjian Zeng & Zhenhua Xi, 2022. "Research on the Symbiosis Model of the Core Interest Subjects of Chinese Ancient Village Tourism Sites in the Context of Rural Revitalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-24, September.
    6. Cook, David & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur, 2021. "An estimate of the Genuine Progress Indicator for Iceland, 2000–2019," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).

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