Røða á enskum, sum Bjørt Samuelsen, landsstýriskvinna við Vinnumálum helt á FlyFaroe 2008
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
I wish you a warm welcome to the Faroe Islands. As the minister of Trade and Industry I find this event – the FlyFaroe 2008 Tourism Convention – a very exciting and important event in regard to our fast-growing tourism industry on the Faroe Islands. I greatly appreciate so many of you having decided to participate.
The influences from globalization penetrate everyday life in the Faroe Islands just the same as everywhere else. This particular event is just one example of how much closer the Faroe Islands are to the rest of the world today because of the growing traffic by air, sea and the internet.
The fact that the world becomes smaller poses many challenges to our community. One of them being the fact that women and intellectuals are typically drawn away from the outskirts to the metro poles. And in this regard most people think of the Faroe Islands as a periphery, including the islanders themselves. If we don’t deal with these challenges the right way, we risk falling behind and losing those people who may be the most productive and reproductive people – those who are supposed to be securing our future.
That’s why we have started thinking bigger. To think of ourselves as – not outskirts – but a center, a center of pulsating activity which acts like a magnet for businesses and creative people. The hub of the universe.
Fortunately, a trend also goes away from the metro poles – towards places like the Faroe Islands. One of the major problems with modern life, as experienced in big cities around the world, is the eradication of cultural differences. The lack of diversity undermines people’s sense of uniqueness and distinction. In this context, the Faroe Islands are attractive because of our special combination, somehow representing the opposite of what many city dwellers are growing weary of, and yet exciting at the same time.
There are strong currents driving opportunities in our direction. Foreigners see something new, different and unspoiled in our culture. At the same time, we have up-and-coming Faroese music artists gaining audiences around the world, and the same goes for several clothing designers. Because of this and many special events that have taken place since last summer, we have experienced a great deal of attention from the outside world lately – for instance the Bill Clinton visit in October and Al Gore’s visit earlier this month.
Our status as the number one island destination, selected by a large number of the National Geographic experts on sustainable tourism, has also drawn the world media’s attention to this latitude.
So while Internet technology and universal awareness of global issues are placing these islands firmly on the world map, the Faroese themselves are keen on keeping their cultural balance intact –as well as the ecological one – and learning to capitalize on it. Otherwise, a community entirely dependent on the sustainable harvesting of its marine resources would neither survive nor prosper. Clearly, whereas mass tourism is not what we’re looking for – business travel and ecotourism definitely are.
We must respond to the changes we have seen in the global and local tourism marketplace over the past few years, where we see a growing global awareness of environmental issues. We are at the moment making a tourism strategy for the Faroe Islands for the next five years – with SamVit, Faroe Islands Enterprise, as the driving force. When carrying out such work, many important issues must be taken in consideration. The goal is to set a clear path to make sure that the Faroe Islands gets best possible value from the changes that we anticipate in the future.
We have indeed been discussing how to capitalise on our status as number one island destination in the world.
What we can do is to do our utmost to ensure that our environment will continue to be enjoyed by future generations of inhabitants and visitors. We can try to understand more clearly the expectations of our visitors and be able to easily identify and create great products that deliver a good environmental performance. We can politically encourage the tourism sector to be a leader in protecting and enhancing the environment and conservation values. We can introduce initiatives to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.
We want the tourism industry in the Faroe Islands to be an example to follow.
Ladies and gentlemen
This is a special day for the Faroese people. The annual celebration of the day of the Faroese Flag, Merkið as we call it, is a proud and happy event and it has a central importance for the identity of the Faroese people.
I’m happy to share the day with you.
I wish you a successful and fruitful convention and I hope and trust that you will enjoy the rest of your stay here in the Faroe Islands – also called the playground for the weather-gods.
Thank you for your attention.
Bjørt Samuelsen
Minister of Trade and Industry