The project will develop graduate-level tourism curriculum specific to the Circumpolar North, although it will be applicable also to other rural and peripheral destinations. 

The three-year funding (2015-2018) was awarded through SIU’s High North Programme, which aims to expand, strengthen and disseminate Arctic knowledge.

This project is linked to the UArctic’s Thematic Network on Northern Tourism. Pat Maher has been leading the network for the past four years. The network provides multidisciplinary research and education on sustainable Arctic tourism and its impacts on the surrounding society, cultures and nature, as well as on the development possibilities offered by sustainable tourism.

In this project Pat Maher and Outi Rantala are collaborating with colleagues from the University of Iceland, Umeå University, the University of Lapland, the University of Oulu and Vancouver Island University.