The Decline of the Traditional North Atlantic Fisheries and Tourism's Response: The Cases of Iceland and Newfoundland

The role of tourism, in the context of the economic regeneration of communities and regions, is a theme which has received increasing attention from policy makers, planners and academics in recent years. This is particularly true in urban environments or situations where a major industry has declined, leaving high levels of unemployment and other forms of socioeconomic deprivation. However, the restructuring of rural economies, has stimulated similar discussion and a range of economic diversification measures within which tourism has featured strongly. This paper looks at the problems faced by the North Atlantic fishery with specific reference to two island communities - Iceland and Newfoundland. The late 1980s and early 1990s were a period of major decline in traditional white fish landings in the North Atlantic and, although some communities coped with this change rather better than others, the impact continues to be felt across both islands under discussion. Diversification became a necessity which the four islands have faced with varying degrees of success. Tourism was identified as one major strand and the paper considers the extent to which policy to develop it been successful.