COVID-19 has made the population more positive towards tourists

If there are sufficient health-related restrictions, a majority of Greenland's population would like to have tourists back, despite COVID-19.

Published on May 27, 2021

Press release

The Greenlandic population has in general become more positive towards tourists. This is according to a new report made by Visit Greenland. The report is based on two surveys that were sent out in November 2019 and February 2021, to towns and villages with considerable tourism activity.

In the report, you can read that 91.5 percent of respondents in November 2019 had a positive

or predominantly positive attitude towards tourists in their town or village, if one ignores the “Do not know” and “Neither agree nor disagree” answers. This figure was 93.4 percent in February 2021. According to Visit Greenland’s Acting Director, Mads Skifte, there is a connection between the positive perception of tourists and COVID-19.

“In general, Greenlanders are happy about international tourists; we saw this even before COVID-19 hit. Now that we have experienced a whole year largely without tourists, it has become clear how much influence guests actually have in the local community. Therefore, residents seem excited to get them back, when this can be done responsibly for both guests and locals,” he says.

Confidence in tourists

Although Greenland is still closed to all international tourism, a majority of the respondents are comfortable with the current COVID-19 restrictions and they trust that tourists comply with them, according to figures from the report.

A majority of 55.3 percent respond that they would like to welcome tourists if they are tested before departure, go into five-day quarantine and are subsequently re-tested. Only 19 percent answer that they do not want tourists at all. As many as 62.9 percent believe that tourists comply with the relevant restrictions.

Respectful behaviour

When it comes to the behaviour of tourists, a large majority believe that tourists largely exhibit good behaviour. On the question of whether land-based tourists (i.e. all tourists except cruise guests) behave respectfully towards the population and culture, as many as 74 percent of respondents in 2021 answer fully or partially “yes”. This is an increase of three percentage points compared to 2019.

As many as 71.9 percent of respondents in 2021 also believe that cruise tourists make a positive contribution to the local community, which is an increase of 11.5 percentage points.

“The figures emphasise that there is a good relationship between locals and tourists, and we are of course very happy about this. It simply confirms that our work on sustainability, in the social context – both nationally and in our regional tourism organisations – has borne fruit,” explains Mads Skifte.

How the report is made:

• The survey was conducted via random sampling through telephone interviews, in both Greenlandic and Danish, via HS Analyse.
• In November 2019, Visit Greenland conducted the first resident survey, to find out about residents’ attitudes towards tourism in the country. At this time there were 831 respondents.
• In February 2021, Visit Greenland conducted a new survey to examine the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced residents’ attitudes towards tourism. 700 residents participated in this survey.

For more information:

Mads Skifte

Mobile: (+299) 55 82 78
Email: mads@visitgreenland.com

Mads Lumholt

Mobile: (+45) 31 22 11 71
Email: lumholt@visitgreenland.com