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Home → May, 2011

Monthly Archives: May 2011 − News & Stories


Pro­blems with online boo­king sys­tem

The online boo­king sys­tem of the asso­ciac­tion of local tour ope­ra­tors in Lon­gye­ar­by­en has recent­ly been upgraded, but does not work as expec­ted. As a result, espe­ci­al­ly small com­pa­nies have expe­ri­en­ced los­ses of 60-70%, in one case up to 95%. Some are afraid of serious con­se­quen­ces for the future of their com­pa­nies, often run by only one per­son, who­se eco­no­mic­al sur­vi­val in some cases depen­ded on taking exter­nal paid jobs.

Major sup­pli­ers, who enjoy bet­ter visi­bi­li­ty on the mar­ket also through other chan­nels, are faced with com­pa­ra­tively minor pro­blems.

The tour operator’s socie­ty, lead by the direc­tor of the lar­gest local play­er, rejects cri­ti­cism and makes the sup­pli­er of the soft­ware respon­si­ble. It is also said that not all of the smal­ler com­pa­nies have made their home­work during the pro­cess.

Big­ger ope­ra­tors who own hotels in Lon­gye­ar­by­en may bene­fit from the pro­blems with the online boo­king sys­tem.

Problems with online booking system - Polar Hostel

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten 6/2011

Huge demand for Lon­gye­ar­by­en-coal

The annu­al coal pro­duc­tion in mine 7 near Lon­gye­ar­by­en is near 75,000 tons, of which 50,000 are expor­ted, main­ly to the Ger­man mar­ket. The qua­li­ty of the coal makes it a sought-after resour­ce in the metall­ur­gic indus­try. In May, Ger­man com­pa­nies even char­te­red an addi­tio­nal coal freigh­ter and time-con­sum­ing ship­ping ope­ra­ti­ons despi­te of a pier and coal cra­ne that were dama­ged during a win­ter storm, to get in extra coal.

Mine chef Håvard Dyr­kol­botn was quo­ted say­ing „wit­hout coal from mine 7, no Mer­ce­des on the mar­ket.“

Equip­ment near mine 7.

Huge demand for Longyearbyen-coal - Gruve 7

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten 6/2011

Polar bear den­ning sites on Kong Karls Land

During 4 weeks of field work on the island of Kong­søya that belongs to Kong Karls Land in the far east of Spits­ber­gen, field workers coun­ted at least 13 dens whe­re fema­le polar bears had given birth to their off­spring a few months ear­lier. In 2009, at least 25 dens were found. The lower num­bers of 2011 were expec­ted and are explai­ned with the ice-free waters that sur­roun­ded Kong Karls Land in late 2010, making the litt­le archi­pe­la­go more dif­fi­cult to reach for the bears. It is not known if the pregnant bears went to alter­na­ti­ve sites else­whe­re.

Kong Karls Land is one of the most important den­ning are­as for polar bears in the who­le arc­tic and may only be visi­ted with spe­cial per­mis­si­on.

Kong Karls Land in drift ice.

Polar bear denning sites on Kong Karls Land

Source: Nor­we­gi­an polar insti­tu­te

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