Without Destination

Hafnarhús

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The inspiration for the project Without Destination is the ever-increasing flow of domestic and international tourists through Iceland. Numerous contemporary artists and scholars have studied the complex relationship between humans and the environment in this context, and their research sheds light on the many factors that contribute to the tourist’s experience.

Without Destination offers audiences the opportunity to explore these ideas both through an exhibition where wanderlust, destination and the concept of place play a leading part and through a conference dedicated to nature-based tourism, held on the weekend of 5–6 February. Without Destination - Conference Practicing Nature-Based Tourism 5-6 February 2011, Multipurpose Room, Hafnarhús Practicing Nature-Based Tourism is an international, interdisciplinary conference dedicated to nature-based tourism and Iceland’s role as a tourist destination.

The conference is intended as an opportunity for domestic and foreign researchers from the varied fields of nature-based tourism to present their conclusions to a broader community.

The roster will include tourism specialists, geographers, historians, sociologists, environmentalists, anthropologists, artists, architects, and marketers in the field of tourism. After a packed program of lecture offerings, panel discussions will address the challenges Iceland faces as a travel destination, its current position and future options in an era of increasing tourist volume and impact. Along with practitioners and scholars from the field of tourism, the panel will include leaders of the Icelandic travel industry, to present their close-up view of the problems at hand.

The lectures will be given in English and geared toward a general audience; the panel discussion will be conducted in Icelandic. A special issue of Landabréfið, the journal of the Association of Icelandic Geographers, will be compiled from selected papers given at the conference. The key-note speakers will be Lucy R.

Lippard, of Galisteo, New Mexico, author, curator, and activist; Dr. Tim Edensor, geographer, of Manchester Metropolitan University; and Päivi Lappalainen, programme director for the Tourism and Experience Management Competence Cluster in Southwest Finland..

Without Destination