For Greenland tourism, Trump’s interest creates uncertainty

When President Donald Trump revived his desire to acquire Greenland for the United States early in his second term, it initially came as a boon to Casper Frank Moller and his co-founders at Raw Arctic.

The three Greenlanders had begun their adventure tour company in mid-2024 and discovered that it benefited from the global focus on their home territory: Curious travelers flocked to book tours. The demand was so great that the men had to buy additional boats and hire more workers for their fly-fishing trips and whale safaris.

This year, with Trump threatening to acquire the island, is different.

“Last year, there was a lot of talk, but it came with a positive side effect of putting Greenland on the map as a destination,” Moller said. Now, Greenland is associated with “the potential disturbance of the current world order,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of questions about whether it’s a safe travel destination.”

Tourism in Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has been rising steadily for years. In 2025, 44% of Greenland’s tourism businesses reported an increase in high-season bookings over the previous year, according to the tourism board. The board concluded that, with some improvements in infrastructure, the 2026 season could be “significantly better” yet.

Those expectations are fueled, in part, by major investments. Late in 2024, a new airport in Nuuk began allowing international flights. The following summer, United Airlines used it for the first direct flights from the United States since a short-lived effort from Air Greenland ended in 2008.

“We used to have mainly Danish or Scandinavian tourists, and now they come from all over the world,” Avaaraq Olsen, Nuuk’s mayor, said. “Even the really small businesses, like the artists who make small souvenirs by carving bones, they told me that they sell so much more now than they ever have before.”

But that was before the American president made Greenland a geopolitical focus. Now, Greenlanders are wondering if the instability will curb tourism or if the attention will increase it.

“We have a lot of eyes on Greenland right now,” Christian Keldsen, director of the Greenland Business Association, said. Although there are no figures yet, Keldsen said he had heard from operators that fearful travelers were canceling their trips.