03.11.2019 · The Government

Tourism is forming the bases for new jobs and opportunities all across the Faroe Islands.

Tourism is forming the bases for new jobs and opportunities all across the Faroe Islands.

Last week the Minister of Finance opened the Conference "Northern Periphery and the Arctic Programme" in Tórshavn.

In his address, the Faroese Finance Minister declared that tourism has become a significant part of the Faroese economy. He further stated that it is forming the bases for new jobs and opportunities all across the Faroe Islands:

"Areas outside of Tórshavn have become hotspots for tourists and locals alike. Instead of places you leave owing to economic decline. In these places tourism is now appreciated as an alternative way to make a living and people take pride in settling down in their local community as an alternative to departure. We experience landscapes and townscapes that are thriving with a much larger choice of cultural offerings and where new concepts and interpretations of good old customs have been transformed into unique attractions. Attractions which give tourists and locals new incentives to discover the Faroe Islands in a new light"

Mr. Jørgen Niclasen also acknowledged the growing number of tourists is also a challenge:

"We need to ask ourselves how do you stay “sustainable?” Because ultimately that is our single greastest ambition. Unless we manage tourism sustainably, we will gradually undermine its growth. Nature is our primary trademark and we must ensure that doesn’t change. That is why we must strive to strike the right balance between the biological limits of nature. And our rights and duties to use our natural resources sustainably. And the need to create economic development. Getting this balance right will make us all much better prepared to cope with the inevitable ongoing changes."

Read the speech here

(Photo credit: Northern pheriphery and the Arctic Programme)