The pandemic has also put a stop to many workshops and seminars, which are normally a strong driver of development and cooperation within an industry. And in these times, dialogue and cooperation is more important than ever in order to handle the crisis and plan for the period after COVID-19. Therefore, a digital workshop about the cruise industry was well received by the tourism industry.
The 2020 cruise workshop was arranged by Visit Greenland and AECO – The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators – and was held on the 19th and 20th May over Zoom. Programme participants included presenters from the industry, the Greenlandic Government, destination management organisations and cruise operators, among others. With over 50 participants from the cruise industry and from across the country, the workshop was a success, according to the organisers.
“Right now, the thing that is most important is to find a safe and effective way to restart tourism, so that the industry can come through the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, it is also important to keep the focus on the long term development of sustainable tourism. It is our belief that things are done best in close cooperation between cruise operators, authorities, tourism development companies and local operators. It has added a lot of value for our members and AECO to be on board,” explains Anders la Cour, Assistant Director of AECO.
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During the workshop, it quickly became clear that there are not very big expectations for the 2020 season – and the main focus, therefore, was on how cruise tourism can be restarted in a safe way. The participants discussed, among other things, suggestions for alternative cruise products, and solutions for the period until the situation can be normalised again.
The second part of the workshop focused on how we can secure that the development of the cruise tourism industry takes into consideration both the capacity of Greenland and Greenland’s wishes about tourism growth.
“Visit Greenland wants a responsible development of cruise tourism, and, therefore, we arranged the workshop in cooperation with AECO, which represents many small and medium cruise operators, and which makes many demands of their members around sustainable cruise operations in the Arctic. We look forward to continuing the dialogue between all stakeholders, and the cooperation with AECO,” says Julia Pars, Director of Visit Greenland.
The following persons can be contacted:
Anders U. la Cour Vahl
Assistant Director | AECO – Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators
Email: anders@aeco.no | Cell: +299 55 25 34
