The Real Arctic:Truly Wild, Wonderfully Retro : Imaginaries and tourism in Svalbard

Abstract: This essay analyses the use of media as an instigator of tourism as it creates perceptions of Svalbard in the minds of prospective and former tourists. It explores what these created imaginations about Svalbard as a destination and experience mean for individuals who have been submitted by a curated image in media, made for the profit of the tourism industry. The essay uses accounts from three different informants who all belong to different categories; one has been there several times, another has been there once, and the third not at all. The analysis of their experiences and expected experiences is made through the theoretical framework posed by Noel B. Salazar theory of imaginaries and Arjun Appadurai’s mediascape, ethnoscape, and imaginative worlds and communities. This study means to show that the individual experience is necessarily impacted by their preemptive expectations, which is strongly, almost entirely, influenced by the image and idea of “otherness” which media has projected.