Tourism actors’ engagement and logics of whale protection and conservation in Norway

Abstract

The perception of activities that may harm whales and their co-existence with whale tourism can be problematic for a destination’s attractiveness and its potential role in setting good standards for the sector and educating tourists. This research note investigates the online debate about the legitimacy of a research project on wild whales in Norway. In particular, it investigates the local tourism actors’ engagement in such debate, and how the two sides of the debate argue for the legitimacy of different logics of whale protection and conservation. The findings derived from a thematic and discourse analysis show that the local tourism sector and academia minimally engage in the debate and that the debate presents elements of different logics relating to the traditional and compassionate conservation paradigms. This note considers the tourism actors’ non-engagement in the aforementioned debate as a missed opportunity, and concludes by inviting the reader to reflect on the collaboration between the tourism sector and academia, in particular its desirability, motivations and consequences.