Tourism responses to climate change: a social network approach

1. Tourism responses to climate change: a social network approach • Marta Bystrowska (Specialist at the Ministry of Regional Development, Poland / Ma political sciences and regional development) – marta.bystrowska@gmail.com • Hin Hoarau-Heemstra (PhD student/ research fellow University of Nordland) – hin.hoarau.heemstra@uin.no • Karin Wigger (Managing director at Magic Ice AS; Student of Circumpolar studies at the University of Nordland) – karin.wigger@gmail.com

2. Outline presentation Introduction Theoretical frame Methodology Findings Discussion

3. Introduction Climate change in the Arctic & consequences for tourism on Svalbard Innovation as tool for adaptation to changes in the social and natural environment Network & system approach to innovation in tourism

4. Research question How is climatechangeperceived in Svalbard´stourismnetwork and how do experience-basedcompaniesadapttheirproducts, processes or organizationaccordingly?

5. Contribution Arctic cases function as ´canary in the coalmine´ for understanding the impact of climate change on tourism destinations Empirical evidence of how network characteristics influence innovation processes in order to adapt to external uncertainties like climate change Understanding the impacts of climate on innovative behavior of the tourism industry is relevant for other destinations as well

6. Theoretical framework TF 2 TF 1 TF 3

7. TF1: Climate change & tourism Climate sensitive & weather dependent tourism Mitigation & Adaptation

8. TF2: innovation Innovation as the process of making changes, large and small, radical and incremental, to products, processes, and services that results in the introduction of something new for the organization that adds value to customers and contributes to the knowledge store of the organization. Innovation types: product, process, organizational and marketing Innovation as strategic reflexive response to the environment  interpretation and sense-making occur before action & behaviour

9. TF3: Innovation as responsive initiative • Bansal & Roth (2000): model of ecological responsiveness • Contextual factors & motivations for change • Ecological context • Organizational field context • Individual context

10. A circular understanding of responsive innovativeness

11. TF4: Tourism innovation & networks relation between cooperation in networks and innovation Sharing of knowledge between actors in a network seems to be the main link between network cooperation and innovation. network structure influences knowledge sharing between actors

12. Network elements

13. Methodology • Socialnetworkanalysis • Survey • Quantitativenetworkanalysis • SNA software UCINET 6 version 6.375. • Qualitative case studytourismdestination Svalbard • Semistructuredinterviews (6 recorded & transcribed) • Informalmeetings • ParticipantobservationsMarch/April 2012 • Documentanalysis

14. Findings & discussion • Case description Svalbard • Svalbard´s tourism destination network • Attitudes towards climate change • Climate change responsiveness • We understand responses with the impacts the different contexts have on tourism actors.

15. Network architecture Dense, coherent and homogeneous network

16. Conclusions Tourism actors on Svalbard know, depend on and trust each other but new, external knowledge is hardly absorbed The ecological and organizational field context of Svalbard do not seem to favor a response to CC Accurate knowledge about Arctic CC & adaptive innovations are mainly lacking Organize tourism destination actors in formal networks to increase their resilience to climate change

17. The End…. Thank you for your attention! Questions & suggestions are welcome Marta, Karin & Hin