The theme for the 8th IPTRN conference and community tour is Making Polar Areas, addressing the various ways in which polar areas are undergoing change (spatially, environmentally, politically, etc.).
Important Dates
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January 2024: Program and registration fee announced
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15th February 2024: Abstract submission deadline
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10th March 2024: Notification of abstract acceptance
Theme
Polar areas have previously been mainly understood as physically homogenous regions delimited by biogeographical, climatological, or astronomical factors. Nevertheless, tourism challenges such definitions, which suggest stability but also marginalize the presence of humans and their agency. Indeed, tourism is a force that shapes and alters polar areas, their environment, communities, and their embeddedness in global networks and flows. Hence, we hope that through this conference we can address how tourism relates to the social construction and change of polar areas.
In recent years, a series of events has disrupted tourism-related activities in polar areas. The rapid tourism growth of the last two decades was followed by the COVID-19-triggered crisis, only to return once more to increasing visitation records. At the same time, events such as climate change, global heat waves, geopolitical distress, and a renewed interest in polar resources and transportation routes have fueled an increased interest in polar areas.
In this context, being or becoming ‘polar’ can be an identity marker and a strategic argument for being special in a global competition for attention, in ways that even extend beyond the realm of tourism. In an Arctic context, such attention seeking has led to an “Arctification” of northern tourism, trying to gain advantage from the current attention for polar issues. The aforementioned context leads us to call for abstracts addressing this ‘making of polar areas’. These abstracts may cover topics related to changes of polar environment, society, and economy on various geographical scales.
Practicalities
The 8th conference, organized by the International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN) and facilitated by the Department of Geography, Umeå University and the European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), Mid-Sweden University, invites polar tourism scholars to northern Sweden. Following the tradition of previous IPTRN-meetings, this conference will be in the form of a mobile event, through which we aim to provide a creative blend of academic sessions and geographical excursions, but also include encounters with tourism entrepreneurs and destination representatives. The conference will begin on June 5th in Luleå, the capital of Sweden’s northernmost province Norrbotten, and lead northbound to the eastern part of the region and the Torne River Valley. The conference will eventually make its way back to Luleå, where it will end on June 9th.
Program
A more detailed program, as well the conference fee, will be announced in late January and further information will be provided through the conference webpage. Currently, various attempts to secure sponsorship are underway to ensure an affordable conference. The setup of the conference as well as the accommodation capacity in the north implies that the total number of participants needs to be limited to 35 people. If some persons are willing to share rooms, it might be possible to accommodate a higher number of participants.
Abstracts
Abstracts should be not more than 300 words and contain title, author names and affiliations as well as up to five keywords. Please make sure that abstracts provide information regarding the problems addressed, the theoretical and methodological underpinnings, and the results. Please do avoid references. Abstracts will be reviewed by the organizer and selected abstracts will be invited to the conference.
Abstract Submission
Dieter Müller: dieter.muller@umu.se &
Dimitri Ioannides: dimitri.ioannides@miun.se
For more information
Twitter: @PolarTourism
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iptrn/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPTRN