ExtremeEnvironment Tourism Case Study Antarctica -Geog gcse

• Small-scale tourism started in Antarctica in the 50s when commericial shipping began to take a few passengers
• The first specially designed cruise first went to Antarctica in 1969
• From 9000 tourists a year in 1992-3 it has grown to around 46000 in 2007-8
• Many tourists fly to New Zealand or Argentina and take a cruise ship for 1-2 weeks
• There are over 100 tourist companies involved
• In order of percentage of nationality of tourists: American, British, German, Australian

• The environmental impact of a tourist is much greater than that of a researcher
• Landing sites are chosen for particular reasons, so often become honeypots
• Few visitors go on the ice - and 99% of the island is ice, meaning there is little left for tourist activity

• There is a fragile land ecosystem as it's very cold with little sunlight
  -this means it takes a long time to recover from damage
• Tourists can trample plants, disturb wildlife, drop litter
• There are fears that tourists could introduce a new species to the area which could spread disease or wipe out current species.
• There is a worry of fuel spillages - this would damage sea life (e.g. kill molluscs, fish and birds that feed on them)

There are measures in place to protect Antarctica
The Antarctica Treaty:

• This was made in 1961 and signed by 47 countries
• This was designed to protect and conserve the area and its plant and animal life
• There are limits on tourism - each ship must have fewer than 500 passengers and only 100 passengers are allowed on land at a time

There is a voluntary code of conduct which most listen to:

• Specially Protects Areas are out of limits to tourists
• The wildlife must not be disturbed - e.g. boats should keep distance from whales
• No litter can be left by tourists
• No smoking on shore
• Tourists must stay in their groups and be supervised
• Tourists must not walk on the fragile plant life
• Sewage must be treated biologically and other waste left on the ship