Greenland's new airport: Gateway to tourism boom or eco risk?

A new international airport has opened in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and it is expected to play a key role in the island's tourism development. This investment, valued at $800 million, is expected to facilitate direct flights from Europe and North America, thereby attracting more tourists.

According to the PAP, the first plane to land on the new runway, about 1.4 miles long, arrived from Copenhagen, carrying officials, including Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

The new airport in Nuuk is designed to accommodate 800 passengers per hour. Flights to Canada and the USA are expected to commence next year. Jens Lauridsen, the president of Greenland's Airports, emphasizes that this project is intended to increase the number of tourists and foster the development of other sectors of the economy.

Greenland is known for its unspoiled nature. In 2023 alone, the island was visited by over 130,000 tourists, marking a 46 percent increase compared to 2019. The government of Greenland aims for tourism to account for 40 percent of export value by 2035, a sector currently dominated by fishing. Achieving this will require doubling the number of tourists visiting the island.

Investments in tourism, however, have sparked concerns among experts. They point to Iceland as an example, where a surge in tourist numbers necessitated infrastructure expansion, unfortunately at the expense of nature.

Will tourism in Greenland go overboard like it did in Iceland? asks Prof. Carina Ren from Aalborg University, as quoted by the Polish Press Agency.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, is becoming more accessible due to climate change and melting glaciers. The government has introduced regulations to prevent the export of tourism profits abroad, requiring that 65 percent of shares in tourism companies be owned by local residents. This measure is intended to ensure that the benefits of tourism development remain on the island.