Here today, gone tomorrow (get the t-shirt)
Romanticised, mythologised and a part of our collective imagination for centuries, travel at the poles, for so long the stuff of derring-do, increasingly represents an expensive leisure activity suitable for all, even your grandmother.
Not yet a century has passed since Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole in December 1911, marking the peak of the heroic age of exploration. During that period, 16 major expeditions were launched, on which 17 lives were lost in the name of science and discovery.
From military explorers to scientists and now tourists, the evolution of humans in Antarctica in the space of just three generations reflects both the technological advancements of the 20th century and the latest trends in society and tourism.
Polar explosion
Inhospitable they may be, but the poles are seeing increasing numbers of visitors. Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has been in existence since the 19th century and has long since been relied upon by local economies, have increased from about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today, due in part to lengthening summer seasons brought about by climate change.
Most visitors arrive by ship. In 2007, 370,000 cruise passengers visited Norway, twice the number that arrived in 2000. The islands of Svalbard had 45 cruise visits, 17 more than the previous year. Iceland, a country where tourism is the second-largest industry, has enjoyed an annual growth of nine per cent since 1990.
Meanwhile, Alaska received some 1,029,800 passengers in 2007, up 7.3 per cent on 2006. Greenland especially has seen rapid growth of marine tourism, with cruise ship arrivals jumping 250 per cent since 2004.
While low-key tourism began in Antarctica during the 1950s, it was only since the adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1991 that visitor numbers have risen dramatically. From 4,698 seaborne tourists in 1990–91, annual numbers had risen to 46,213 by 2007–08, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), whose own ranks grew by nine to 109 members this year.
The global economic downturn has curbed the annual 20.6 per cent rate of increase in visitors to the Antarctic – last season saw a drop of 17 per cent to 38,200. However, there has been a 760 per cent rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access; while in the past two seasons, ‘fly-sail’ operations have begun. These deliver tourists by air to ships, so far more groups can enjoy a cruise in a season; large cruise ships capable of carrying up to 800 passengers aren’t uncommon.
Interestingly, it would seem that a high number of visitors return to the poles. ‘Looking at six years’ worth of data, of the people who have been to the polar regions, roughly 25 per cent go for a second time,’ says Louisa Richardson, a senior marketing executive at tour operator Exodus.
‘I think most passengers on my Antarctic trip would have told you it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip,’ says Christopher Ray, a business analyst from London who visited Antarctica in January and then Svalbard in June with Exodus. ‘However, after a few days, it seemed as though a significant number of us were already working out when we could return.’
A warmer welcome
In the same period that tourism has exploded, the ‘health’ of the poles, especially the Arctic, has deteriorated. ‘The biggest changes taking place in the Antarctic are related to climate change,’ says Rod Downie, environmental manager with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
At the IAATO’s annual meeting in June, its members officially recognised that climate change poses the most significant current threat to the Antarctic environment, and established a working group to investigate ways of reducing tourism’s carbon footprint.
Widely accepted as a legitimate polar activity, tourism remains largely unregulated. Earlier this year, at the convention of the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted US proposals for limits to tourist numbers, mandatory safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved environmental protection for the continent. Ratifying countries must prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a maximum of 100 at any one time with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists. Encouragingly, the IAATO readily accepts the proposals.
The heightened urgency follows the sinking of MS Explorer in the Bransfield Strait in November 2007 and the groundings of two vessels in December 2008 and February this year. ‘Tourism in Antarctica is not without its perils,’ says Downie. ‘After all, Antarctica doesn’t have a coastguard service.’
Like other scientific agencies, the BAS not only seeks to promote responsible tourism in the South Polar region – Downie has led the project to write Antarctic Treaty-adopted visitor guidelines for six protected sites – but now also actively welcomes visitors. ‘We have a programme that allows limited visits to two of our research stations,’ he says. ‘These are restricted to two group visits per year to Rothera, our main station, and four to Signy.’
Some of the BAS’s own research into the impact of tourism is encouraging. Having monitored gentoo penguins in the heavily visited Port Lockroy area on the Antarctic Peninsula for several years, its findings suggest that the impact is minimal, provided the tourists are properly managed and controlled while ashore.
Polarisation
These days, rarely a week passes without a ‘poles in jeopardy’ headline in the mainstream press. The suffering polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking and time is not on its – or our – side. And it would seem that the ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some of us when choosing to see the poles for ourselves. ‘There’s an element of this now,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes 7,000 people to the poles annually.
For Ray, this was ‘definitely a factor in deciding to go to the Arctic as quickly as possible after having already visited Antarctica, rather than wait for a year or two. That said, I don’t think any changes were necessarily apparent to a first-time visitor such as myself, having nothing to compare it to,’ he says.
‘So far, no surveys confirm that people are going to see polar regions before they change,’ says Frigg Jørgensen, general secretary of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), founded in response to the growth in expedition cruise activity in Svalbard. ‘However, Hillary Clinton and many others of similar stature have been to Svalbard to see the effects of climate change. One might expect the associated media coverage would influence others to do the same.’
In November, Heather John from Penarth in South Wales will be travelling with her recently retired husband to the polar bear capital of the world – Churchill, Manitoba – as part of a Natural Habitat Adventures trip. ‘If you’re lucky enough to have been on a safari and been whale watching and such like, polar bear watching is the next step,’ she says. ‘For us, there’s an adventure element to this trip. Given the impact of global warming, what’s to say they won’t stop people from going to see polar bears if their numbers continue to decline or their habitats become too fragile?’
Graham Racher, a 39-year-old IT professional and keen photographer, undertook an Exodus photographic expedition to South Georgia and Antarctica in November last year, followed by a Svalbard expedition in June. ‘South Georgia was fantastic, and I could have sat and watched the weaners (young elephant seal pups) all day. In the north, watching polar bears in their natural habitat has to be the highlight. We had four sightings, all of which were magical.
‘The fact that global warming, among other factors, is changing these places did affect my decision to go on both trips,’ Racher says. ‘Svalbard maybe more so as it appeared to me that the rate of change there is greater. The fact that we had to navigate around a 100-plus-nautical-mile tabular iceberg gave us a stark reminder of what’s happening to the ice shelves in the south, too.’
Keen ‘wildlife travellers’ Dr Peter Mason and his wife Grace, from Cannock, Staffordshire, have visited both poles twice and say that ‘a feeling that these places may not be there to visit in future’ had a bearing on their decision to go. In the Arctic, they were lucky enough to see 28 polar bears close up. But they came away ‘aware that the ice is melting, habitats are changing’.
Spreading the word
If tourists are starting to visit the poles ‘before it’s too late’, the environmental message they take away and pass on to others may contribute to spreading word of the damage being done and, hopefully, to reversing it – a very positive role recognised by the scientific establishment.
‘People who travel to the polar regions return with a deeper understanding of the connection between their home communities and the Arctic and Antarctic,’ says Campbell. ‘They become advocates for the protection of the areas, the wildlife and for the preservation of the historic sites.’
Jørgensen agrees. ‘When you have experienced things with your own eyes (such as the beauty of the Arctic), you are more likely to get involved in issues such as environmental protection,’ he says. ‘If nobody ever got to see a polar bear, would there be so much interest in their wellbeing?’
Ray is definitely a convert. ‘It’s impossible not to be awestruck by what you see, and therefore it’s impossible not to talk about the place with passion,’ he says. ‘I think it was one of the guides in the Antarctic who said that once you’d done one of these trips, you become an ambassador for the region. And it’s true – you can’t help it.’
More information
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), which promotes conservation and adherence to environmental standards, has produced a Know Before You Go pamphlet, downloadable from its website (www.asoc.org), to help promote responsible tourism.
November 2009
Not yet a century has passed since Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole in December 1911, marking the peak of the heroic age of exploration. During that period, 16 major expeditions were launched, on which 17 lives were lost in the name of science and discovery.
From military explorers to scientists and now tourists, the evolution of humans in Antarctica in the space of just three generations reflects both the technological advancements of the 20th century and the latest trends in society and tourism.
Polar explosion
Inhospitable they may be, but the poles are seeing increasing numbers of visitors. Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has been in existence since the 19th century and has long since been relied upon by local economies, have increased from about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today, due in part to lengthening summer seasons brought about by climate change.
Most visitors arrive by ship. In 2007, 370,000 cruise passengers visited Norway, twice the number that arrived in 2000. The islands of Svalbard had 45 cruise visits, 17 more than the previous year. Iceland, a country where tourism is the second-largest industry, has enjoyed an annual growth of nine per cent since 1990.
Meanwhile, Alaska received some 1,029,800 passengers in 2007, up 7.3 per cent on 2006. Greenland especially has seen rapid growth of marine tourism, with cruise ship arrivals jumping 250 per cent since 2004.
While low-key tourism began in Antarctica during the 1950s, it was only since the adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1991 that visitor numbers have risen dramatically. From 4,698 seaborne tourists in 1990–91, annual numbers had risen to 46,213 by 2007–08, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), whose own ranks grew by nine to 109 members this year.
The global economic downturn has curbed the annual 20.6 per cent rate of increase in visitors to the Antarctic – last season saw a drop of 17 per cent to 38,200. However, there has been a 760 per cent rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access; while in the past two seasons, ‘fly-sail’ operations have begun. These deliver tourists by air to ships, so far more groups can enjoy a cruise in a season; large cruise ships capable of carrying up to 800 passengers aren’t uncommon.
Interestingly, it would seem that a high number of visitors return to the poles. ‘Looking at six years’ worth of data, of the people who have been to the polar regions, roughly 25 per cent go for a second time,’ says Louisa Richardson, a senior marketing executive at tour operator Exodus.
‘I think most passengers on my Antarctic trip would have told you it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip,’ says Christopher Ray, a business analyst from London who visited Antarctica in January and then Svalbard in June with Exodus. ‘However, after a few days, it seemed as though a significant number of us were already working out when we could return.’
A warmer welcome
In the same period that tourism has exploded, the ‘health’ of the poles, especially the Arctic, has deteriorated. ‘The biggest changes taking place in the Antarctic are related to climate change,’ says Rod Downie, environmental manager with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
At the IAATO’s annual meeting in June, its members officially recognised that climate change poses the most significant current threat to the Antarctic environment, and established a working group to investigate ways of reducing tourism’s carbon footprint.
Widely accepted as a legitimate polar activity, tourism remains largely unregulated. Earlier this year, at the convention of the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted US proposals for limits to tourist numbers, mandatory safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved environmental protection for the continent. Ratifying countries must prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a maximum of 100 at any one time with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists. Encouragingly, the IAATO readily accepts the proposals.
The heightened urgency follows the sinking of MS Explorer in the Bransfield Strait in November 2007 and the groundings of two vessels in December 2008 and February this year. ‘Tourism in Antarctica is not without its perils,’ says Downie. ‘After all, Antarctica doesn’t have a coastguard service.’
Like other scientific agencies, the BAS not only seeks to promote responsible tourism in the South Polar region – Downie has led the project to write Antarctic Treaty-adopted visitor guidelines for six protected sites – but now also actively welcomes visitors. ‘We have a programme that allows limited visits to two of our research stations,’ he says. ‘These are restricted to two group visits per year to Rothera, our main station, and four to Signy.’
Some of the BAS’s own research into the impact of tourism is encouraging. Having monitored gentoo penguins in the heavily visited Port Lockroy area on the Antarctic Peninsula for several years, its findings suggest that the impact is minimal, provided the tourists are properly managed and controlled while ashore.
Polarisation
These days, rarely a week passes without a ‘poles in jeopardy’ headline in the mainstream press. The suffering polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking and time is not on its – or our – side. And it would seem that the ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some of us when choosing to see the poles for ourselves. ‘There’s an element of this now,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes 7,000 people to the poles annually.
For Ray, this was ‘definitely a factor in deciding to go to the Arctic as quickly as possible after having already visited Antarctica, rather than wait for a year or two. That said, I don’t think any changes were necessarily apparent to a first-time visitor such as myself, having nothing to compare it to,’ he says.
‘So far, no surveys confirm that people are going to see polar regions before they change,’ says Frigg Jørgensen, general secretary of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), founded in response to the growth in expedition cruise activity in Svalbard. ‘However, Hillary Clinton and many others of similar stature have been to Svalbard to see the effects of climate change. One might expect the associated media coverage would influence others to do the same.’
In November, Heather John from Penarth in South Wales will be travelling with her recently retired husband to the polar bear capital of the world – Churchill, Manitoba – as part of a Natural Habitat Adventures trip. ‘If you’re lucky enough to have been on a safari and been whale watching and such like, polar bear watching is the next step,’ she says. ‘For us, there’s an adventure element to this trip. Given the impact of global warming, what’s to say they won’t stop people from going to see polar bears if their numbers continue to decline or their habitats become too fragile?’
Graham Racher, a 39-year-old IT professional and keen photographer, undertook an Exodus photographic expedition to South Georgia and Antarctica in November last year, followed by a Svalbard expedition in June. ‘South Georgia was fantastic, and I could have sat and watched the weaners (young elephant seal pups) all day. In the north, watching polar bears in their natural habitat has to be the highlight. We had four sightings, all of which were magical.
‘The fact that global warming, among other factors, is changing these places did affect my decision to go on both trips,’ Racher says. ‘Svalbard maybe more so as it appeared to me that the rate of change there is greater. The fact that we had to navigate around a 100-plus-nautical-mile tabular iceberg gave us a stark reminder of what’s happening to the ice shelves in the south, too.’
Keen ‘wildlife travellers’ Dr Peter Mason and his wife Grace, from Cannock, Staffordshire, have visited both poles twice and say that ‘a feeling that these places may not be there to visit in future’ had a bearing on their decision to go. In the Arctic, they were lucky enough to see 28 polar bears close up. But they came away ‘aware that the ice is melting, habitats are changing’.
Spreading the word
If tourists are starting to visit the poles ‘before it’s too late’, the environmental message they take away and pass on to others may contribute to spreading word of the damage being done and, hopefully, to reversing it – a very positive role recognised by the scientific establishment.
‘People who travel to the polar regions return with a deeper understanding of the connection between their home communities and the Arctic and Antarctic,’ says Campbell. ‘They become advocates for the protection of the areas, the wildlife and for the preservation of the historic sites.’
Jørgensen agrees. ‘When you have experienced things with your own eyes (such as the beauty of the Arctic), you are more likely to get involved in issues such as environmental protection,’ he says. ‘If nobody ever got to see a polar bear, would there be so much interest in their wellbeing?’
Ray is definitely a convert. ‘It’s impossible not to be awestruck by what you see, and therefore it’s impossible not to talk about the place with passion,’ he says. ‘I think it was one of the guides in the Antarctic who said that once you’d done one of these trips, you become an ambassador for the region. And it’s true – you can’t help it.’
More information
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), which promotes conservation and adherence to environmental standards, has produced a Know Before You Go pamphlet, downloadable from its website (www.asoc.org), to help promote responsible tourism.
November 2009
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