The Nordic Journey

In our 16th episode of The Nordic Journey, we talk to Dr. Carina Ren from Aalborg University. Carina is joining us from Sisimiut in West-Greenland and will be telling us about her research on climate change, sustainable tourism development and the Arctic - and how coastal communities are adapting. Her current research project is Regenerative Economies in Arctic Coastal Communities. Here are some blogs and articles from Carina Ren for further reading: On Greenlandic tourism and the road to indpendence: https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/tourism-greenland-expanding-runway-towards-independence/ On Arctic Tourism: https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/arctic-tourism-industry/ From more tourism to better tourism: https://traveltrade.visitgreenland.com/latest-news/switching-focus-from-more-tourism-to-better-tourism/ Sustainability and tourism management in Svalbard and Greenland: Reference: Sveinsdóttir, A. G., Ren, C. B., Olsen, J., Hovelsrud, G. K., Dannevig, H., Bjørst, L. R., & Freng Dale, R. (2025). Navigating a changing Arctic: toward adaptive governance in Greenland and Svalbard. Tourism Geographies, 27(5), 1057-1077. Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2025.2515098#abstract And finally if you want to learn more about Haraway's Worlding, you can check out this blog: https://thearchaic.nl/the-world-as-a-verb-on-harawayan-worlding-the-many-worlds-of-the-anthropocene/ or her book: Haraway, Donna J. (2016) Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Iran is making headlines all over the world at the moment - and yet we are getting very little news from inside the country. What is happening, how are people coping, what is the impact on tourism?   There is of course no international tourism there due to the war, but the tourism operators are still there, trying to figure out what comes next. In this episode which was recorded on Friday March 27th, I spoke to Dr. Azam Bahrami, who teaches sustainability and regenerative tourism at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili in Iran, when there is not war, but is currently living in the Netherlands. Azam gave us a little insight into her work for ecotourism in the Middle East and the resilience of the Iranian people and the tourism industry there.

Can you use tourism for a rewilding biology project? In this episode we talk to Kim Worrmann Jensen, a former rock star and current sustainability champion from Destination Trekantsomådet in Denmark. He is the head of sustainability and has been developing products that are based on regenerative tourism concepts. One interesting project he has been working on and developing is the rewilding of Møllebækken, a small creek that had been put into underground pibes to make way for a new highway - killing all wildlife in it at the same time. Kim and his biology friends came to the rescue activating tourists from Germany and the Netherlands. Learn more about how he designed the project and the lessons learned which you can apply to your next regenerative tourism project.

High in the Himalayas, locked between the giant countries of India and China, is a small Kingdom that somehow has evaded colonialism and western influence for hundreds of years. This is Drug Yul, the Kingdom of the Thundering Dragon, better known as Bhutan. In this show we have as a special guest the former head of the national tourism board in Bhutan, Dorji Dhradhul, who is sharing with us his culture and perspectives. In Bhutan the government follows Gross National Happiness, where everything is measured on the impact it has on environment, community and governance. Dorji shares how they work with that, his two new books, a new City of Mindfulness that is under construction and the upcoming TedX-Thimpu. A different of looking at how we do things - and why we do them. Here are the titles of his books: Creativity - Time to Crown Again Bhutan - Kingdom of Mindfulness More information on the books can be found here: https://dojidhratyul.com/my-books/

The antithesis to bullying, which we see too much of in the media nowadays, is to live decently - says Geoffrey Lipman, co-founder of SunX Malta, former Executive Director of IATA, former president of WTTC and former Assistant Secretary General at UNWTO. Together with Dr. Hans Friederich, a nature and conservation specialist with vast experience from Africa, Asia and Europe they are running Sun X Malta and the Climate Friendly Travel portal, a global initiative backed by the Maltese government that is aiming at promoting and educating tour companies around the world in sustainable thinking and climate action. (Something you might want to look into joining.) With their impressive resumes and experience they share their perspectives on the state of the travel industry, the challenges of sustainable tourism today and their concerns for tomorrow. An episode dedicated to the generation that is being born today.

A twenty year old Japanese girl falls in love with sea kayaking - which leads her to one of the northern most villages of the world, Qaanaaq in North Greenland. Today we hear from Sakiko Daorana, one marriage, three children and twenty something years later, where she operates expeditions in this extremely remote corner of the world. Greenland has been getting a lot of attention recently and the village of Qaanaaq has in some ways, despite its extreme remoteness, been at the centre of both the cold war, and now the threats of taking Greenland. We are not going to discuss defence and geopolitics in this episode but rather learn more about this tiny little village at the top of the world, and the remarkable people that live there. This is the story of Sakiko-san and the Inuit of Qaanaaq.

We head back to Norway in this episode, one of the leading countries when it comes to sustainable tourism. There we speak to a serial entrepreneur, Håvard Utheim, who has founded several companies with different angles and approaches to sustainable tourism, an adventure travel company, gear rental, travel tech company, accommodation company and a company focused on transparency in travel. Listen to his journey to where he is today and what he has learned along the way. In the podcast we talk about a practical book for companies who want to become more sustainable. The link to the book is here: https://www.transparency.travel Happy listening!

In a World full of bad news, let's start 2026 with some inspiring, positive news. I have gathered a selection of news, mostly related to conservation and tourism and a couple outside of that. Reminders of what we can achieve when we really put our minds to it. How are we exactly doing? Where are we heading? Is tourism a contributor? When we read general news it feels like everything is going downhill but we are actually improving our situation. For the most parts at least. Listen to this episode of The Nordic Journey podcast and start the year on a positive note. Wishing you a happy and prosperous new year!

Petter Gulli worked for 30 years in the advertising industry until he flipped the table in 2018. With 12 years to go according the new ICPP report he started his new company 12 Years, promoting hope and inspiring people not be discouraged by doomsday news. It was not a denial but a smart approach to moving people and companies into the right transformative process. In this podcast we go wide, talking about the challenges of transforming industries, consumer patterns and even politics. Tourism is definitely part of it, but since this is published just before Christmas, we will talk about our modern economy of overconsumption a bit as well. The books and websites mentioned at the end of the podcast are the following: Positive.news Humanprogress.org Reasonstobecheerful.world GoodGoodGood.co Not the End of the World - Hannah Ritchie Clearing the Air - Hannah Ritchie Human kind - Rutger Bregman The World is full of good people and good things happening :)

In this episode we talk with Donna Isabella Caroline Sundbo, a scholar that has written about tourism, sustainability and food culture. In the episode we talk about anthropology and local cultures, the importance of the food scene and the three most common mistakes destinations do when it comes to food culture.

Closed for Maintenance is a project that has gained international attention and put the Faroe Islands on the map as one of the most innovative tourism destinations when it comes to sustainable tourism. But Closed for Maintenance is far from the only cool thing the Faroe Islands have done, so we got Jóhan Pauli Helgason, Development Manager at Visit Faroe Islands to join us on The Nordic Journey talking about his destination, regenerative tourism, their new strategy and even the complexity of dealing with their traditional whale hunting.

In this episode of The Nordic Journey podcast we talk to Anu Nylund from Mood of Finland. Anu has been working for decades on the education of responsible tourism and now regenerative tourism, helping small companies find their way. She has also her own project called Love Forest Finland which is a fantastic example of how you can take a common problem and turn it into a regenerative project, spreading love while gaining back forests. Anu Nylund has gotten her inspiration from the Chilean school of regenerative tourism (Iniciativa Global Turismo Regenerativo), Daniel Wahl and Anna Pollock, whom we are actually getting as our next interviewee on The Nordic Journey Podcast.

In our fourth episode on sustainable tourism development we meet Raj Gyawali, founder of Social Tours in Kathmandu in Nepal. Raj is one of the sharpest minds I know in the industry and started working with regenerative tourism long before the concept was invented. Our paths crossed long ago for a totally different reason, but it has been very inspiring to follow his journey. He is still twenty years ahead of the curve, so you really might want to listen to what he is experimenting with these days - and what effect increased transparency has had in those experiments. Share and subscribe, but most importantly, enjoy the show!

Who are the key stakeholders of tourism development and how do you engage them? In this episode of The Nordic Journey we talk to Ásta Kristín Sigurjónsdóttir, CEO of the Iceland Tourism Cluster, about the role of the tourism cluster in building a more inclusive, sustainable tourism industry in Iceland. The cluster is built on three pillars, sustainability, digitalisation and innovation with active participation from not only tourism companies, but also banks, insurance companies, law firms and other side industries.

An interview with Alex Farlander, AI Director, Journey Designer and Future Navigator in Estonia - where we talk about the battle for sustainability in tourism, ethical principles in tourism, threats in the current environment, AI and what potential solutions we may see in the future. Enjoy!

Welcome to the first episode of The Nordic Journey podcast, where I introduce the concept, why we are focusing on sustainable tourism and some of the challenges that come with it.