Wednesday February 2. 2011
Is EarthCheck community standard an effective sustainable tourism marketing tool?
Lindsay Church will present her master's thesis in Coastal and Marine Management on Thursday February 3.
Lindsay's thesis advisor is Kjartan Bollason, lector in tourism studies at Hólar University College, Iceland and the external reader is Dr. Rannveig Ólafsdóttir, associate professor in tourism studies at the University of Iceland.
The presentation will take place in room 1-2 at the University Centre, and begins at 15.15 and will be followed by a public question and answer period. The presentation will also be sent out via video conference at the University of Iceland in room O-027 in the Oddi building and via webcast on the following website http://media.netsel.is/hsvest.
Abstract
The Westfjords Tourism Board decided to work towards gaining EarthCheck community standard in the Westfjords, Iceland in 2010. The research goals determined if gaining EarthCheck community certification improved the environmental, economic and social well-being in Snæfellsnes; if EarthCheck certification was an effective sustainable tourism marketing tool; and, how the Westfjords could learn from the Snæfellsnes case with respect to applying for EarthCheck community certification. This single explanatory-exploratory case study revealed through two site visits, seven EarthCheck documents and thirteen semi-structured interviews resulted in a number of interesting outcomes analyzed using a SWOT analysis. The research conclude the environmental impacts in Snæfellsnes were overall positive and an overall change in environmental thinking among residents did occur which is believed to be in response to the EarthCheck programme. The local Snæfellsnes economy was not enhanced because of EarthCheck however; improving the local economy is not a main goal of the EarthCheck programme. Currently the EarthCheck certification has yet to be used as a marketing tool to draw tourists to the region so it was not possible to successfully address the second research goal. Lastly, a number of recommendations were devised for both Snæfellsnes and the Westfjords with the intent of providing useful suggestions on how to manage a tourist destination.
Lindsay Church has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Planning from Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is originally from New Brunswick, Canada and resides in Isafjordur.
