| Alternative forms of sustainable tourism it is argued can counter the negative cultural and environmental impact of mass tourism on host destination areas. To assess the applicability of such practices to a specific destination it is necessary to understand what motivates tourists to go there. This thesis examines the ways in which these two discussions intersect in the context of Nunavut as a tourist destination.; Using participant observation as a methodological approach, I conducted fieldwork in Nunavut in the summer of 2001 for five weeks. My research focused on two themes: what draws tourists to the territory, and to what degree have sustainable tourism practices been implemented. I framed my exploration of why tourists travel to Nunavut in the context of a "quest for authenticity", an idea originally posited by Dean MacCannell in 1976, and is a discourse abundantly clear in the majority of the tourism promotion literature which I examined for Nunavut. Despite this representation, I concluded that tourists I traveled with and those I interviewed demonstrated a complexity of motivations for their trip to Nunavut, reaching beyond notions of authenticity. In my analysis I draw on literature which presents new models of thinking about understanding tourists, their motivations, and ultimately their effect on the places they visit. Equally complex are the practical realities of implementing sustainable tourism practices in the new territory. I argue that touristic promotion for the region, to be even minimally successful must attempt to re-orient touristic expectation to allow the local Inuit population to be understood as both a people with a long history in the Arctic and a promising future into the 21st century. |
