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With towering icebergs, unspoiled tundra, and unbeatable views of the aurora borealis, Greenland has all the makings of a tourist hot spot—not unlike where Iceland was a decade ago. In the following years, Iceland marketed its raw, pristine beauty, and tourism numbers spiked from 460,000 to over 2 million between 2010 and 2018, effectively turning the destination into the poster child of overtourism.
Greenland, a fragile Danish territory with one of the world’s two permanent ice sheets, wants tourists, but it has no desire to become Iceland 2.0. It’s been taking notes to ensure its own travel push yields sustainable results by prioritizing local jobs and protecting its ecosystems.
“Doing this [planning] before it becomes a crisis is always a good thing,” says Tracy Michaud, a hospitality and tourism professor at the University of Southern Maine. Michaud is part of the new Arctic Education Alliance, a partnership between the U.S. and Greenland that supports the island’s sustainable tourism and hospitality industries.
“It’s unique to still have this whole land mass that’s [nearly] 90 percent Indigenous,” says Michaud. “That’s really valuable to this world, so how do you preserve and maintain it while building in a way that allows visitors to enjoy and be part of it, too?”
New attractions dedicated to culture and climate
The first lesson in combating overtourism: Move travelers beyond the main sights—advice we’ve heard from Iceland’s own tourism leaders before. Greenland’s tackling this with a host of strategically dispersed attractions located beyond top sights like Kangerlussuaq, the most easily accessed international travel hub, where visitors can enjoy attractions like walking on the island’s headliner ice cap before jet-setting straight home.
“Each region will have its own visitor center and a specific regional theme, promoting the variability of cultural, geological, culinary, and historical elements each place has to offer,” says Visit Greenland Senior Manager Idrissia Thestrup.
In Ilulissat, a coastal town with colorful houses flanked by icebergs the size of skyscrapers, it’s all about the ice. The town, accessible via seasonal flight, ferry, or cruise, will soon open the Ilulissat Icefjord Center, a sleek new visitor center overlooking the Ilulissat Icefjord, one of few destinations where Greenland’s ice cap meets the sea. This venue, the first of Greenland’s new visitor-center offerings, is projected to open in summer 2021. It will pair iceberg views with educational exhibits that highlight Greenland’s cultural connection with ice while illustrating the stark reality of climate change.
Themed visitors centers across the territory will follow Ilulissat’s lead, as will local-led experiences like the highly anticipated Qaqortoq Arctic Culture Center, a reindeer reserve and cultural hub with overnight accommodations, set to open as soon as fall 2022.
Thestrup says new hotels are also in the works, while more than 100 existing tourist accommodations stand ready to welcome travelers, from farm stays and hostels to Ilulissat’s four-star Hotel Arctic, an ocean-view getaway with rooms and isolated igloos overlooking the nearby icefjord.
Enhancing transportation will improve the Greenland experience
Greenland’s 836,300-square-mile island, slightly larger than the size of Mexico, has 56,000 people, only 100 miles of roads, and no railways. The ice sheet covers the majority of inland Greenland; its towns and settlements dot the coasts. Locals rely on the Sarfaq Ittuk ferry to move up and down the iceberg-laden western coast. This 12-town, often multi-day ferry ride does welcome tourists, but most travelers prefer the ease of visiting Greenland via organized cruise ships.
Thestrup says the territory hopes its towns will welcome more expedition cruises as its tourism grows. “[Expedition-cruise passengers] stay longer in the destination, they spend more in the destination, and they’re more aware about sustainability issues,” she says.
Attracting travelers who arrive on their own is another goal for Greenland tourism. That’s where new aviation investments come into play.
The territory’s existing air-travel options are limited, with overseas routes from Copenhagen and Reykjavik. Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq, the territory’s main international hub, is the dominant route. Intermittent and seasonal flight options exist between Reykjavik and Nuuk or Ilulissat, and within Greenland, but small runways and low passenger numbers have made inter-island travel more difficult.
New international airports in Nuuk, Ilulissat, and Qaqortoq should change that. Airport construction was delayed due to COVID-19, but some aviation experts anticipate Nuuk and Ilulissat’s international airports could still open as early as 2023.
Keeping the kroner in local pockets
Another pillar of Greenland’s tourism plan is prioritizing local businesses. In Greenland, where the population is nearly 90 percent Inuit and millennia-old industries such as fishing and mushing are changing with the climate, this local-first approach is essential.
“Traditional livelihoods are disappearing, and it’s not a country where you have a lot of industry that allows locals to go from traditional livelihoods to new industries,” Thestrup says. “It’s either tourism or mining, and the locals are very much aware that tourism will have a less negative impact on their country and culture than mining would.”
What’s more, tourism provides a way to keep Greenland’s nearly 4,500-year-old Inuit culture alive. Some Greenlanders now mix traditional work like fishing with part-time tourism jobs to make ends meet.
“Tourism, when it's developed right and done sustainably, can be a really powerful tool for the economy and communities,” says Michaud. “There’s a lot of [economic] opportunity that doesn’t necessarily involve exploitation of resources. Greenland cares about and understands that, and they’re trying to develop from this perspective.”