This year the cruise ship tourists has been a big topic, after Greenland and the rest of the world opened up again this summer. AECO and Destination Diskobay has worked together with local citizens and tourist operators about making new guidelines for the tourists. They are now officially approved and for the first time the guidelines are also in the language of the destination – Greenlandic. 

In October 2022, AECO (Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) brought the expedition cruise ships together at their yearly conference in Norway. This year, Greenland was one of the topics, since three community specific guidelines for cities in Disko Bay Region were to be approved. 

The information in the new guidelines is collected at AECO-workshops in collaboration with Destination Diskobay, the destination management organization of Qeqertalik. The content of the guidelines comes from the citizens and local tourist operators in the towns of Aasiaat, Qasigiannguit and Qeqertarsuaq. The project is supported by the NORA-foundation. Read more here. 

First time in the local language 

Destination Diskobay is proud to have the new guidelines approved by AECO, destination manager Linda Kleist tells: 

“The expedition cruise ships are from now on obligated to hand out the guidelines to their guests before the ships call our towns. This will help to ensure that the guests know more about the town and the culture and people of this country, which can help them act more sustainable when visiting our towns.” 

The new Disko Bay-guidelines are also officially published in Greenlandic. This is new, since AECO’s guidelines usually only are published in English. The official translation to Greenlandic are to ensure a mutual understanding between locals and guests, which hopefully leads to a good experience with the increasing number of cruise ships in Greenland. 

New connections to cruise operators 

Participating at the AECO-conference in October did also lead Destination Diskobay to new connections with the cruise ship operators. 

“This has given us a better understanding of the perspective of the operators, which will be important in our future collaboration,” Linda Kleist says. She continues: 

“Especially, I was happy to learn, that the smaller operators are very attentive about their footprints in society and environment. This is definitely something that we can use when we work to attract more tourists to our region. We look forward to continue the dialogue with AECO and the ship operators. Together we can create a great experience for both tourists and locals, when the ships visit the towns of Qeqertalik.” 

Find the community specific guidelines for Aasiaat, Qasigiannguit and Qeqertarsuaq here.