Emergent vikings: The social ordering of tourism innovation

During the last three decades, Iceland has experienced a rapid growth of tourism, both in regard to international tourist arrivals and in domestic terms. Tourism has increasingly been taken up as an option for economic development not least at regional levels where innovation in the area has been promoted by public actors. This article focuses on the accomplishment of a particular tourism innovation project, the Gísla Saga project, in the small fishing village of fiingeyri. The article follows how the project emerges through the networking practices of key actors. Particular emphasis is put on exploring how the local village festival, Dýrafjardardagar, has been related to the innovation project and how that connection plays a part for its accomplishment. Inspired by relational materialism in the form of Actor-Network Theory, the article argues that it is important to follow the enactment of diverse styles of ordering for gaining insight into the emergent cultural economy of tourism. By tracing the practices through which the project is established, the article illustrates some of the ways in which tourism innovation relates to the social ordering of local communities.