Combining polar cruise tourism and science practices

Polar tourism is continuously diversifying in order to provide unique experiences to travellers. One of the ways in which this currently happens is by increasingly integrating scientific activities into tourism expedition cruises. While there are mutual benefits of combining science and tourism, this does not mean that the production of joint expeditions is seamless and unproblematic. We apply a practice theory approach to analyse the practical and organisational implications of combining tourism and science practices during two enactments, with a seven-year's interval, of the unique Scientific Expedition Edgeøya Svalbard (SEES), organised by The Netherlands. Our results demonstrate that irregularly organised combinations of different sets of practices require higher levels of adaptivity, communicability and reflectivity to be reproduced successfully.