Greenland is on the brink of a tourism boom, as its capital Nuuk awaits the opening of a new international airport in November 2024, with two others to follow in quick succession.
“Colourful Nuuk” becomes an international gateway
International visitors wishing to fly to “Colourful Nuuk”, with its fishing cottages, modern apartments, stunning fjord system, impressive Sermitsiaq mountain sunsets, and unbeatable access to the pristine snowy backcountry, must currently commute over 300 km by 35-seat propeller aircraft to a former military airbase built by the US in Kangerlussuaq, before transferring to a bigger jet. And of course, that applies just the same to Nuuk residents wishing to see the rest of the world.
But from 28 November 2024, a new international airport will begin five commercial flights per week between Nuuk and Copenhagen, increasing to six and adding a New York route to the schedule in summer 2025. Other international hubs, such as London Heathrow are likely to follow. Positioned halfway between North America and Europe, Nuuk is in an ideal position to take advantage of curious tourists from both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.
Big interest from all major carriers
“A flight from Europe to Nuuk is a little more than four hours,” Jens Lauridsen, the chief executive of operator Greenland Airports told the BBC. “From the US East Coast is also four hours. So we’re placed right in the middle. There is a very, very big interest from all major carriers in Europe.” Many of the airline’s new international flights will be via partner airlines, Simple Flying suggests, noting that Air Greenland has plans to increase collaboration and already codeshares with Icelandair, SAS and Canadian North.
Noting how isolated Greenland has been, Lauridsen added: “I think it will be a big impact. I’m sure we will see a lot of tourism, and we’ll see a lot of change.”
Profound impact and risk of overdevelopment
Like many destinations in the post-Covid era, Greenland has already seen tourism grow significantly, with foreign visitor numbers up by 36.5% from 2022 to 2023, reaching more than 140,000. “We are already in a tourist boom, and feeling how tourism can affect smaller places in a good way, but also negatively,” Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s Minister of Business, Trade and Mineral Resources, has said.
Acknowledging that the impact of the three new airports will be “profound”, she is keen “to welcome the tourists in the bigger cities, but we also want to spread them out more.” Part of the aim is to avoid a phenomenon where Greenlanders “develop tourism too fast… that happened in Iceland, so I think we have a lot of things we can learn from them,” she said, adding, “I sense that it’s going to really change the map of Greenland. This will bring a lot of good, but also some changes we’ll probably need to adjust to.”
