Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - 09:13 by ce-press
Longyearbyen has published a set of community guidelines which it hopes will help visitors become better tourists, and its citizens to become better hosts.
With Arctic wildlife on its doorstep and cultural heritage sites around town, its inhabitants are trying to live ordinary lives in an extraordinary place. This is why Svalbard Cruise Network (SCN) and Visit Svalbard have engaged the locals to tell them what are the do’s and don’ts of this small community.
Eva-Britt Kornfeldt, manager SCN, explained: “We have had workshops and meetings. We have studied the reactions on the local Facebook sites when cruiseships call and we have asked our guests about their experience of Longyearbyen. From all the feedback we got, we have extracted 11 points which we hope will guide our visitors through our town and make their stay in Longyearbyen even better.”
These include: not leaving town without polar bear protection; Svalbard being exempt from VAT and tax-free; walking on the left side of the road when there are no pavements; not picking the flowers and not using drones within 5km of Longyearbyen airport.
The guidelines are inspired by the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators which has developed an extensive set of guidelines for expedition cruising in Arctic waters. “The governor of Svalbard has a set of safety rules but Longyearbyen needs more specific guidelines for exploring the town,” explained Kornfeldt.
“Our goal is that the Longyearbyen community guidelines will reach all visitors to Svalbard whether it be on tours, in the staterooms of the cruise vessels calling or on board the regular and charter flights to Longyearbyen. Local tour operators, hotels, restaurants and activity providers are welcome to use these on web sites and in communication with guests.”
