UC Berkeley Tourism Studies Working Group

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Abstract
Cruise tourism has rebounded since its COVID downturn, and Alaskan cruises are at an all-time high. Visitors are excited to see whales, eagles, bears and the majestic landscapes of this northern state. But what does the arrival of a cruise ship look like from the other side, from the towns that are flooded with visitors? Cruise Boom is a portrait of a community bracing for a rapid expansion of cruise ship tourism and the count down to the arrival of thousands of people each day to the small streets of this rural island. Set in Sitka, Alaska, the 55-minute film weaves together scenes from a rural community changing and adapting and highlights diverse voices that show the interconnectedness of social, political, and economic issues.

Sitka is not alone. The film is intended to provoke conversation on the impacts and benefits of tourism. From Rome to Yosemite to other places, “post” Covid tourism is in full force and many places can’t handle the influx in crowds, either infrastructurally, health wise, or economically. Faced by special places everywhere, on and off the UNESCO heritage site list. What does preservation look like that also encourages economic growth and tourism? Is there a way to grow slowly? Is there a way to show the real costs of losing monuments/regions/areas of the world vulnerable to over-tourism? How do we preserve places, help them retain their character and beauty, while also sharing them with the world? How can communities shape tourism? How do the benefits of tourism get shared and how can tourism work for visitors and locals alike?

Created by Ellen Frankenstein and Atman Mehta.
www.cruiseboomfilm.com

Speaker Bio
Ellen Frankenstein is an independent director, producer and director of Artchange, Inc, an Alaskan based non-profit focused on educational media and community art (www.artchangeinc.org) Frankenstein's directing credits include the documentaries Tracing Roots, Eating Alaska, No Loitering and Carved from the Heart, broadcast nationally on public television and used in campuses and communities. She created a series called 14 Miles, made up of 37 short films set in one place, hosts a live storytelling series, available via podcast, called Sitka Tell Tales and produces and collaborates on "Haa Léelk’u Hás Haa Éet Aawlitoo.át, Our Grandparents Teachings,” a radio/podcast series, with KCAW, the local public radio station and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Ellen’s work has been supported by awards, including a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship and grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Independent Television Service, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She has a Masters in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California.

Discussant
Alexis Bunten, (Aleut/Yup’ik) has served as a manager, consultant and applied researcher for Indigenous, social and environmental programming for over 15 years. After receiving a BA in Art History at Dartmouth College, Alexis returned to Alaska, where she worked at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center in programming. Subsequently, Alexis earned a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at UCLA, and has served as the Project Ethnographer for the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project, and as a Senior Researcher at the FrameWorks Institute.

Alexis is an accomplished researcher, writer, media-maker, and curriculum developer. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, with articles in American Indian Quarterly, the Journal of Museum Education and American Ethnologist. Her 2015 book, “So, how long have you been Native?” Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide” won the Alaska Library Association Award for its originality, and depth. In addition to writing, Alexis has contributed to several Indigenous-themed productions, including co-producing and writing the script for a documentary nominated for the Native American Film Awards. Alexis has developed educational material for both formal and informal learning environments including university level-courses as well as lifelong learner curriculum.

Read Articles by Alexis Bunten here: https://bioneers.org/author/alexis/