Sustainable Tourism Transport and the Economic Crisis in Iceland –
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Source flag of Iceland: Wikipedia, 2012 Source cover photo: Author 2 Kemst þó hægt fari (You will reach your destination even though you travel slowly) (Icelandic proverb) (Landsbókasafn Íslands, 1980: 71) Sustainable Tourism Transport and the Economic Crisis in Iceland – A Critical Discourse Analysis MSc Thesis Leisure, Tourism and Environment Wageningen University and Research Centre Department of Environmental Sciences Cultural Geography Chairgroup Course Code: SAL-80433 Student: Jaap Sytsma Registration No: 880206-762110 Supervisors: Dr. Machiel Lamers (ENP) & Dr. Martijn Duineveld (GEO) Wageningen, 1 October 2012 3 Foreword This master thesis is the result of more than 20 years of education. After primary school and secondary school, my BSc in human geography and urban planning in Utrecht shaped my interests in regional development issues at Europe’s peripheries as well as the tourism sector. During the first year of my MSc I became more aware of environmental issues. Together with my pre-existing interest in policy issues and transport, these interests have led me to write this thesis on sustainable tourism transport in Iceland. Doing research on this topic was tough sometimes. However, other times it brought a lot fun as well. Often I had the feeling that the research was going very slowly but now I have reached the destination, a finished MSc thesis. After researching for more than one year, I have some mixed feelings about being finished with it. I am glad that I made it to the end, but I will miss discussing all kinds of problems encountered with my fellow students. Also, the many lunches we had together, as well as chats on Facebook I will miss. Hermineke, Swen, Lusine, Charlotte, Nowella and many more, you helped me a lot during several stages of the research. That said, I want to thank my supervisors as well. Machiel and Martijn, thank you for your critical questions and inspiration! Moreover, this research would not have been possible without the great help of Edward H. Huijbens from the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre. Although I spent only one instead of six months in Akureyri, it was an interesting experience and your contacts were crucial to find the necessary participants needed for the empirical part of this research. I hope my work helps you in the job you are doing at the ITRC. I would like to thank the interview participants as well. Doing interviews by Skype was not always easy but thank you for the information you gave! I want to thank Jennifer for the spelling and grammar check. Further, I really want to thank my family. Their support was crucial at moments when I was fed up with the research. You brought me inspiration and energy to keep on going and finish my thesis. Thank you dad and mom, my sister Rienette and my brother Erik-Jan. My brother deserves special thanks for the cover page he designed. The last person I want to thank is my lovely girlfriend Marjan, who has been of great help in the whole thesis-writing process from the very beginning when we got to know each other. Without you, writing this thesis would have been much harder. You supported me in working on and finishing the research and stayed interested in the research, although it was not always clear for you what it exactly was I was working on. Thanks a lot! My research has come to an end after more than a year of reading, thinking, writing and learning about sustainable tourism transport in Iceland. I (sincerely) hope that by a gradual process the country will reach it goals to make (tourism) transport more sustainable. In addition I hope this research will serve as a starting point for others interested in this continuously changing topic, whether their interest goes out to the Icelandic context or to a place somewhere else. Let’s make holidays, one of the most pleasure-giving activities in modern life, more sustainable and let’s start with transport! Jaap Sytsma Ede, October 2012 4 Index Foreword ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Index........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Abbreviations, Tables and Figures........................................................................................................... 7 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Sustainability and the Economy.................................................................................................. 9 1.2 Tourism in Iceland..................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 TransTourism ............................................................................................................................ 11 1.4 Problem Statement................................................................................................................... 11 1.5 Research Objectives.................................................................................................................. 12 1.6 Research Questions .................................................................................................................. 13 1.7 Structure of the thesis .............................................................................................................. 13 2. Setting the Scene............................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Sustainability............................................................................................................................. 15 2.2 Sustainable Tourism.................................................................................................................. 17 2.2.1 Defining Sustainable Tourism.......................................................................................... 17 2.2.2 Using Sustainability in the Development of Tourism...................................................... 18 2.2.3 New Forms of Tourism .................................................................................................... 19 2.3 Sustainability, Tourism and Transport...................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Cars, Coaches and Airplanes ........................................................................................... 20 2.3.2 Managing Tourism Transport.......................................................................................... 21 2.4 Tourism, Economy and Sustainability....................................................................................... 22 2.5 Iceland, Sustainability, Tourism, Transport and the Economy ................................................. 24 2.5.1 Influence of Transport on the Environment.................................................................... 25 2.5.2 Assessing Public Transport and Reducing Car Dependency............................................ 25 2.5.3 Examples from Abroad.................................................................................................... 26 2.5.4 The Icelandic Economy, Tourism and the Environment.................................................. 27 3. Critical Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................. 28 3.1 Social Constructivism and the Second Level Order Perspective............................................... 28 3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis......................................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 Discourse Analysis ........................................................................................................... 29 3.2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis and Environmental Politics................................................... 32 4. Methodology and Methods............................................................................................................... 35 4.1 Operationalisation .................................................................................................................... 35 4.2 Conceptual Model..................................................................................................................... 36 4.3 Methods.................................................................................................................................... 37 4.3.1 Scientific Literature ......................................................................................................... 38 4.3.2 Semi-structured Interviews............................................................................................. 38 4.3.3 Website Analysis ............................................................................................................. 39 4.3.4 Newspaper Articles Analysis ........................................................................................... 39 4.4 Data Analysis............................................................................................................................. 40 5 4.5 Research Area and Time Frame...............................................................................................