Zsuzsa Deli-Gray (ed.)

Cases in Tourism Marketing III

Rethinking the Strategies and Strategic Decisions of Tourism Service Providers. Where ice is still king – Air Greenland, the gateway to the North

László Józsa

Air Greenland is the national airline of the world's largest island, Greenland. Since its founding in 1960, it has considered connecting the settlements of the far north and establishing contact with the native country, Denmark, to be its fundamental task. Its current CEO, Nils Hansen, is Danish, but one of his grandmothers was an Eskimo, so he considers promoting the development of both the airline and Greenland to be even more important.

Every day, tourism business players encounter problems that are closely related to changes in the external environment, as well as to defining target markets and developing the 4Ps of marketing. ( Józsa, 2005 , Ferrell et al, 2021 , Blythe and Megicks, 2010 ) Most of the work of company managers consists of overcoming internal and external obstacles. These problems are seldom entirely separate, as will be shown below. The interconnection of finance, marketing, information systems, social relations, and other areas ( Kotler et al, 2021 ) is the reality, of which Air Greenland is a specific, perhaps exotic example.

Nils Hansen is not in an easy position, because the rapidly changing natural environment, global warming, increasingly intensive tourism, and the expectations of the growing local population pose many challenges for the company. The following main decision-making questions have arisen during his management work:

Is it worth developing the size of the airline's fleet by opening new airports?
Should it be involved in international air cooperation?
Would it be advisable to participate more strongly in the hotel and travel market, offering packages to those wishing to travel?

He would like to have university students prepare a marketing plan for his work, whose fresh thinking and creativity could significantly improve the answers to the questions posed. However, in the first round, he gave them the task of summarising all relevant information about Greenland, on which they could compile the plan. The following material was sent to him by the assigned team of fifteen people.

Greenland is the world's largest "country" with an area of approximately 2,166,000 km2.

a) Greenland's distinctive features

The country's specific features can be summarised in several ways.

The country has a population of approximately 56,000, mostly living in the southwestern part of the territory, one third of whom live in Nuuk, the capital. Its official languages are Inuit and Danish, although the latter is only spoken by a third of the population.
Three-quarters of its territory is covered in snow and ice, mainly glaciers. Its climate is clearly harsh, with summer temperatures rarely exceeding 15 degrees Celsius for one or two days.
Most of its inhabitants are Inuit (i.e., Eskimos), whose ancestors settled here thousands of years ago and have ensured their modest livelihood through hunting and fishing marine mammals (whales, seals, walruses) for generations.
The territory is part of Denmark but is not a member of the European Union. The main reason for the 1985 withdrawal was the negative EU opinion on seal hunting, which was followed by a successful local referendum on withdrawal. It is currently independent in its internal affairs. A High Commissioner represents the Danish monarch, and the affairs of the territory are managed by its own government, headed by a prime minister. Its parliament has 31 members, but it can also send two representatives to the Danish parliament.
It currently has one World Heritage site: the Ilulissat Icefjord, listed in 2004, which quickly became a popular travel destination due to its easy access.
The capital of the territory is Nuuk, founded in 1721 by the Danish Evangelical missionary Hans Egede under the name Godthåb ("good hope"), and received its current, Inuit name in 1979. This city is also home to the headquarters of Air Greenland. The capital, like all Greenlandic settlements, can only be reached by water and air. Roads end at the city limits. The capital is home to the local parliament as well as the National Museum, which presents the history of the area. The latter's exhibitions provide a thorough summary of the natural environment of the area as well as the Viking Age, the settlement of Erik "the Red" and his followers around 1000, the prosperity and then the collapse of their culture, and the ethnography of the Inuit.

b) Greenland's economy

More than half of Greenland's national income is provided by the Danish central government in the form of subsidies, and the local government is also the largest employer, as 43% of the employed are employees of local government offices. The other local business organisations are: The Great Greenland Furhouse, which plays a prominent role in business, mainly dealing in seal skins; Pilersuisog, which provides retail supplies to the small and remote settlements; and Air Greenland itself, which also receives significant state subsidies. Traditional lands, hunting, and fishing continue to play a key role in the country's economy, while the vulnerability of the natural environment and the lack of infrastructure prevent the exploitation of its natural resources. Among terrestrial mammals, the northern version of the reindeer, the caribou, the musk ox, and the polar bear are the most important; their hunting is heavily regulated for environmental reasons.

The role of tourism in the economy has increased in the last decade. The harsh climate and the lack of travel and hotel capacity prevented the arrival of tourists for a long time, but around 2015 a local boom began for several reasons:

Global warming has driven many people wishing to travel north. They now prefer cold, wind and rain rather than 35-40 Co heat and are happy to take longer or shorter hikes among the barren Greenland mountains.
The destruction of glaciers and the consequences of global warming encourage many people to visit Greenland "while there’s still time". By the 2010s, even those who had previously unaware of the Ilulissat Icefjord, but were interested in World Heritage sites, became aware of its existence. A significant influx of tourists began to flow into the region at that time.
The large shipping companies also recognised the opportunities and included some Greenlandic settlements, primarily Nuuk, in their circulation. Their appearance was also significant because their passengers spent the night on the ships, alleviating the shortage of hotel capacity.
Research or otherwise professional tourism also revived. A number of climate experts, meteorologists, and geologists choose climate change as a research and PhD topic, and want to conduct their field studies in Greenland.
Finally, politics also generates travel demand. Although the northernmost part of the island has long been home to a military base, first called Thule and then Pituffik Space Base, US President Donald Trump's comments in 2025 about the annexation of Greenland have drawn many people's attention to the area.

In 2015, about 77,000 people visited the island, and 4 years later, in 2019, 105,000 people visited it. Although tourism – as everywhere else – has been significantly reduced by the Covid pandemic, we can witness a recovery from 2023. At the same time, booking.com offers only 45 rooms of accommodation in total, and their total capacity is exceedingly small, not exceeding 500 people per day. Ninety percent of them are in three settlements: Nuuk, Ilulisat and Sisimuit. A few hotels are currently under construction, but due to the short summer construction period, development takes a long time. As a result, hotel prices and even restaurant prices are high. Tourists visiting the country must dig deep into their pockets when they want to go beyond dreaming about Greenland.

Nils Hansen, after reading the compilation, invited the students to his office. He wanted them to get to know the company better before starting to work on the marketing plan. As soon as the students arrived, he told them the following about the company.

Air Greenland – not yet under that name – was founded in 1960 primarily to reach isolated settlements and to maintain contact with Denmark. The latter goal was only achieved in the late 1990s, first by purchasing a Boeing and then an Airbus. It started with aircraft that could withstand the harsh climate, and in a distinct way, helicopters were and still are an important part of its fleet, which can be used for special destinations and for medical and rescue purposes.

For a long time, Air Greenland had three owners. The Greenlandic government and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) both owned 37.5% of the shares each, while the Danish government held the remaining 25%. However, in 2019, the Greenlandic government took the bold step of buying the shares of SAS and the Danish government for 462 million Danish kroner, becoming the sole owner of the company. With 745 people in 2025, it employs more than 1% of Greenland's population, making it clearly of strategic importance to the government. Therefore, the current Greenlandic government keeps the company under close supervision, which the management often faces daily.

From the beginning, the poor technical equipment of Greenland's airports and the short and inadequate quality of their runways posed a serious challenge. Much has been improved in recent years. The company’s base airport, Nuuk, was renovated by 2025, but other airports also underwent significant transformation.

“These created the basis for me to start thinking about large-scale developments as soon as I took office in 2023,” the CEO indicated.

The company reached 60,000 passengers in the late 1970s, then 100,000 by 1989, 282,000 by 1999, 399,000 by 2009, and 438,000 in the last “peace year” before Covid, 2019. The post-Covid recovery was rapid. By 2023, the number of passengers of the company exceeded 459,000, and since then it has been growing slowly but steadily.

The company's financial situation is stable. It is as if a mercantilist economic policy is being revived during the company's operations. Investments have been covered by their own profits for the last 10 years, but in the past few years, the demand for dividend payments has also been expressed several times. Since the economic data is good, the company's development is unbroken, and its debt is minimal, the company's reputation in financial markets is particularly good, which means that it can get loans with similarly as low interest rates as Scandinavian Airlines.

"It is important to note that the Danish government is also helping with its network, as they believe that the size of the annual subsidy to Greenland can be reduced with the successful operation of the company," added Nils Hansen.

The number of destinations is also increasing. Flights have been launched to Iceland, Canada and the United States of America, and the number of Danish destinations has also increased with the connection of Aalborg and Billund to the network. Air Greenland does not participate in global airline alliances such as One World but has recently launched a codeshare with Icelandair.

The current fleet (2025) consists of the following aircraft:

1 Airbus A330-800 with a capacity of 305 passengers
1 Beechcraft B200 King Air for medical purposes
8 De Havilland Canada Dash B200 with a capacity of 37 passengers each
The fleet is supplemented by 18 Airbus helicopters, of which 2 are primarily used for search and rescue purposes, the rest are operated on a scheduled or charter basis.

Air Greenland has a particularly good relationship with Scandinavian Airlines for historical reasons, and has interest in the local hotel and ferry business in Greenland.

“These businesses help me to better understand the new challenges of tourism and the changing needs of the local population. Travel has become important for everyone. It is not only foreigners who are discovering Greenland, but also locals, and more of them are visiting abroad,” Nils Hansen summed up.

After the students had said their goodbyes, the CEO closed the door behind him. He recalled that when he applied for the CEO position, he had clearly stated that his goal was to provide a clear and concise vision for Air Greenland. It was clear that the company had an area that could never be neglected and had low profitability and was unprofitable: connecting the isolated settlements of Greenland. Here, the quality of services can and must be improved, but “money” cannot be made. The small, isolated Inuit communities must be served, and they must be ensured that they can be in continuous contact with the national community as a whole.

Nils Hansen is assisted in his management duties by a small circle of deputies. In his application, he asked for a free hand in choosing this circle, and in the end, he decided to appoint two other managers in addition to the financial director. One of them is responsible for operations and schedules, the other for marketing and ticket sales. He took on strategic issues but chose a press spokesperson who maintains good relations with the local government and its leader, who is therefore also responsible for public relations. This is necessary, because the Greenlandic Prime Minister, whose deputy is the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Air Greenland, attends the company's board meetings monthly. Hansen's soaring ideas are sometimes limited by the government, and thus the owner's "groundedness".

At the same time, the appreciation of the wildly romantic North makes it possible to further develop international tourism. The only question is at what pace and with what content this should be implemented.

Nils Hansen was confident that the student group would produce a fantastic plan. To help them, he formulated a few questions that he expected to be answered in the marketing plan.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 217 4

Marketing Turizmus

The publication of the third volume of Cases in Tourism Marketing is truly welcome news from both an educational and a professional perspective. Through real-world, timely, and thought-provoking cases, this collection helps readers – students and practitioners alike – gain a deeper understanding of the complex world of decision-making in tourism marketing. The case studies not only convey professional knowledge but also develop analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking. One of the volume’s key strengths is its focus on issues that define contemporary tourism, including the role of digitalization, artificial intelligence, destination branding, and stakeholder collaboration in tourism marketing. Long-awaited and highly relevant, this third volume is a worthy continuation of the previous collections and will undoubtedly serve as a valuable resource in higher education in tourism, while also being highly recommended to professionals who enjoy reflecting on challenges and opportunities beyond their own immediate field of expertise.

Tamara Ratz PhD

Director, Centre for International Relations, Kodolányi János University

Head of Tourism Department, Professor of Tourism

It is an honor for me to recommend this volume to everyone who wishes to understand tourism marketing not only in theory, but also through its real business and human dimensions. The worlds of tourism and hospitality have undergone fundamental changes in recent years, which makes case studies based on real market situations, decision-making dilemmas and current challenges especially valuable in supporting both learning and critical thinking. This book provides not only professional knowledge, but also encourages a complex mindset, creative problem-solving and the ability to think in connections — exactly the skills today’s tourism professionals need most. I wholeheartedly recommend this volume to students, educators and tourism professionals alike.

Judit Fodor (Liptai)

Group Director of Sales and Marketing, Danubius Hotels

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/deli-gray-cases-in-toursim-marketing-iii//

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