6/28 Sustainability is Cool in Arctic Tourism

The first international conference on Arctic tourism in Japan “Sustainability is Cool in Arctic Tourism” was held successfully at Hokkaido University, Sapporo on June 28, 2018 with close to 100 participants, sponsored by Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland. The theme was “To be a sustainable Arctic tourism”, and eight experts who are active in Japan and Finland were invited as guest speakers and introduced various examples regarding key issues that were examined including such as “How do arctic fragile environment, indigenous cultures, changing seasons and sparsely located population affect in tourism companies both in Japan and in Finland?”, “ What kind of solutions and problems companies have had in combining profitable business and sustainability in the arctic region?”, “How to best combine indigenous cultures and tourism?” and “Opening arctic tourism markets from Japanese perspectives: possibilities and challenges”. This seminar was organized in cooperation with Hokkaido University, Hokkaido Government, Hokkaido Committee for Economic Development, Team Finland, Business Finland, Visit Finland and Embassy of Finland in Tokyo.