## 4 Expedition Cruising in Svalbard and the Application of ICT
### ICT Tools Developed by AECO to Perform Collective Action
#### 4.1.1 The AECO Cruise Database  
The AECO cruise database assists in managing tourism visitation to specific sites and, as such, supports the minimization of environmental degradation and crowding. ICT supports planning as well as cruise operation and monitoring. Initially, the cruise database was an Excel spreadsheet for the collection of information on planned operations. In 2009, AECO had an online cruise database custom-built by an information technology (IT) company. However, this tailor-made ICT tool has been criticized as being _\"static with very limited areas of use\"_ (AECO Annual Report 2011/2012). In 2013, an improved cruise database was developed, which better suits AECO's administrative needs and which has been in use ever since. One of the main purposes of the cruise database is the booking of landing sites (research participant 1). The booking system requires members to register their cruise itineraries before the season starts and book landing sites in advance. The cruise itineraries, or sailing plans, consist of information about where, when and for how long a vessel will visit predefined landing sites. The system ensures that only a limited number of landings can be booked for a specific site and that the operator who booked the landing site will have sole use of the site for a specified period of time, which has environmental benefits in terms of a site's carrying capacity as has been emphasized by research participant 9. Of course, the aspect of being the only operator at any specific landing site is also attractive from a marketing perspective (see also research participant 9, and AECO Annual Report 2014). Figure 1 shows the frequency of bookings for 212 sites (out of a total of 300 sites) by AECO operators in Svalbard. Figure 1: Expedition cruising landing sites in Svalbard 2013–2015. Source: own illustration based on Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) data (base map: TM World Borders). During a pre-defined timeframe, interested AECO members log on to the online system and book landing sites, which they want to visit as a part of a registered sailing plan. The system is open for around three months but there is some degree of competition for the \"best\" landing sites as research participant 9 noted, _\"I need to have all plan in my head (sic), because there are 5 others, who sit and write at the same time. So, this is my decision. If I will be doing this too slow, I may completely lose the spots.\"_ All AECO members have access to this system and can see each other's itineraries. That way, they also know who else will be in the area and who they can contact for assistance or if ad hoc changes have to be made to the expedition itinerary. However, the system is not yet integrated into the Governor of Svalbard reporting schemes and currently serves only AECO's collective purposes, which is somewhat problematic as research participant 2 nicely outlined:  
_\"We do not have all (cruise operators) in the portfolio. Not everyone is an (AECO) member. There are cruise operators that do not register their activities in the (AECO) database and therefore, we do not have a complete overview of cruise activities in the Arctic\" (translated from Norwegian)._  
On any given cruise, adverse weather conditions, such as storms, high waves, sea ice or fog, or wildlife migrations, can pose challenges for the execution of the initial itineraries. Therefore, during a cruise, vessel captains and expedition leaders rely on direct communication with other vessels if they wish to change their landing sites or choose more attractive landings. Informal communication between expedition leaders and captains at sea facilitates smooth transitions between planned and actual itineraries and is considered as hugely important in providing a true cruising experience. It depends on whether _\"you know other expedition leader, how well do you know each other and then you can say--hey, come on, let's come one hour later, but if it is somebody new, sometimes they do not negotiate with you. And that is a problem.