Ferðaþjónusta og virkjanir til bjargar byggðum?
Opportunities in the tourism industry along with the harnessing of energy resources are commonly referred to as means of dealing with changes in employment structure, to counteract depopulation in rural areas, and as a way to create capital. Both fields utilize nature as a resource, but can they coexist or are conflicts foreseeable? In order to find out whether the tourist industry consider that proposed power plant developments will diminish the possibilities of the tourism sector to strengthen local settlements semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 tourist service providers in six different parts of Iceland. In the opinion of the interviewees the tourism sector is the industry that offers the best long-term possibilities to strengthen the economy in rural areas and most of them had seen clear indications of this in recent years. Many interviewees felt that energy production and tourism do not concur because the negative effects energy production can have on nature, the core resource for the tourist industry. Uncertainty over where power developments will be located was thought to have delayed investment and marketing efforts in certain areas. A few of the interviewees mentioned examples of successful cohabitation of energy production and tourism and it was pointed out that favourable collaboration between the two industries could diminish their conflict of interest. Moreover, it was stated that the income from both industries could reach the areas where it was generated more effectively.