During AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 an amendment to further strengthen AECO guidelines regarding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) was approved: “AECO has banned a general use of UAV by revenue passengers in the Arctic. Use of UAV’s for special purposes may be decided by the operators within limits of regulations and AECO guidelines. UAVs should not […]

AECO in cooperation with IAATO is planning a fourth Polar Field Staff Conference in the second half of 2017. The event and agenda will include presentations and work related to environmental and safety challenges in polar tourism. The conference is scheduled to take place late September or early October.

During the past operational year, AECO’s secretariat has given out 134 Puffins. Again, this year the proud winner of the prestigious Puffin Award was Quark Expeditions with a total of 21 Puffins. Background At AECO’s Annual Meeting 2014, the Puffin Award and traveling trophy was established. The trophy consists of a bronze statue of a […]

AECO is pleased to welcome Ponant as a Provisional member of the association. Ponant is a French company that will be operating the vessels Le Boreal and Le Soleal in the Arctic in 2017. Furthermore, AECO is pleased to welcome Cruise Iceland as an Affiliate member. At AECO’s Annual Meeting 2016 in Oslo last month, […]

Arctic Expedition cruise industry efforts and positions related to safety, Search & rescue, and contigency planning was on the agenda when the International R&D partnership on maritime safety and security in the high north” met onboard the Hurtigruten vessel “Nordlys” this week. Coffee break discussions with Head of police Tromsø Police District, Ole Sæverud and […]

AECO’s 13th Arctic Cruise Conference brought together almost 100 participants in Oslo last month – among these were most of the international Arctic expedition cruise industry as well as government officials and other stakeholder connected to Arctic cruise tourism. A comprehensive program including issues such as cruise tourism updates on the different regions, industry issues, […]

AECO received 250.000 NOK (approximately 30.000 USD) in funding from Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund to develop an online assessment for field staff. Improved, ongoing education of expedition leaders and guides is an area of strong interest for AECO, and the aim is to get the project started this summer and have the assessment in place […]

Following dialogue in connection with the preparation of the SAR TTX, AECO’s executive director has been invited to the next Arctic Council Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group (EPPR) meeting to present on behalf of AECO. The workshop will take place in Montreal this month.

AECO, in cooperation with Visit Svalbard, Svalbard Business Council and the University in Svalbard – with funding from Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund – will organize a tourism conference in Longyearbyen, September 5-7, 2016. The conference will deal with tourism development in Svalbard with special focus on use versus protection. The conference language will be Norwegian […]

AECO, Visit Svalbard, Svalbard Business Council, Spitsbergen Travel and Basecamp Spitsbergen today had the privilege of meeting the Norwegian Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anders Anundsen, director general, Øystein Mortensen from the Norwegian Ministry of Justice – Department of Polar Affairs, and Governor of Svalbard, Kjerstin Askholt, to discuss potentials and challenges in future […]