Developing ‘Unused Resources’ for Tourism: Cases of Drift Ice in Hokkaido and ICEHOTEL in Lapland

Abstract

The characteristics of the North tend to be described negatively, such as sparsely populated, peripheral, and disadvantageous due to coldness, darkness, or heavy snowfall. This is true both for Japan and for the Nordic countries. In northern history, the relationship between humans and nature, snow and ice, has gradually changed as humans began to take advantage of their environment. Nature used to be a place to live; however, it is now used for experiences, especially in snow and ice tourism. This study examines the process of developing unused community resources in the North by using theoretical ‘resource studies’ through a comparative case study between Drift Ice in Japan and icehotel in Sweden with the distinct aim of clarifying a mechanism of resource utilisation and its associated issues. Local endeavours seen in both processes are chronologically divided into 4 phases: the periods of Dawn, Establishment, Growth, and Maturity. Then, synchronically, the mechanism of promoting these utilisations can be illustrated in four quadrants, namely ‘cultural branding,’ ‘cultural marketing,’ ‘scientific branding,’ and ‘scientific marketing.’ Furthermore, it can be considered that the role of snow and ice tourism development is cultivating peoples’ awareness of nature preservation during climate change, based on the integrated analysis of both Japanese and Northern European approaches. Thus, this study shows the significance of enhancing the value of snow and ice and the potential of them in the north. Keywords: resource studies, unused community resources, process of utilisation, snow and ice tourism innovations, Japan and Sweden