Extreme tourism and Antarctica

What is Extreme Tourist? Severe tourism is an offshoot of mainstream tourist that involves the tourist going to locations with a harmful landscape combined with an unsafe environment or remote locations that are either sparsely inhabited or not occupied at all. Increasingly more individuals are participating in activities like rock climbing, white-water rafting, paragliding and more. Who Participates? Typically, the normal experience traveler will be 30 years old, single individual and have no children.

Due to the costly nature of these vacations, those participating will more than likely remain in high power jobs, which would enable them to earn a high income.

Many people will come in small groups but there are a few wealthy people who go by themselves. As really few individuals go on these kinds of vacations, the sector will never ever be as big as other tourist sectors like eco-tourism. What are the Attractions? The most popular areas for extreme tourism are Peru, Chile, Argentina, Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

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These areas boast hard landscapes, tough climates and even unsteady political situations.

A significant example of this would be the mountainous areas of north Pakistan. They are often explained as some of the most difficult landscapes worldwide and, as pointed out earlier, some feel that the risky political circumstance (as it is near an Al Qaeda base) includes an extra thrill. Other more mainstream attractions consist of desert walking, canoeing in areas like the Amazon and treking in the Himalayas. Antarctica: What Activities are there? Many of the activities available in Antarctica are based around the distinct climate and wildlife present there.

The activities differ from sporting activities such as snowboarding and treking expeditions, to viewing the native wildlife like whales and penguins. Activities like coping with the Emperor Penguins are popular among travelers as you aren't required to be very physically in shape and it can be really touching to be around them. Other activities like skiing throughout large distances or hiking up mountains like Mount Vincent are a lot more requiring physically and as such fewer people go on these expeditions, yet they are still rather popular due to the thrill attained by participating in these harmful activities.

How has the Number of Tourists going to Antarctica Changed? Tourism in the Antarctic regions started in the late 1950’s (approximately 1958), half a century after Amundsen and his team first arrived at the South Pole. At this time the numbers of people visiting the area were very low, a stark contrast with the numbers of tourists arriving today which is somewhere around 28,000 people per year. The number of people visiting is only expected to go up as more activities are made and marketing of the area increases. What are the Impacts of Tourism?

While those in charge of the tours do their best to ensure that any impacts caused by the tourists are minimal or don't even happen, it is nigh impossible for them to remove the risk altogether. As a result, there are impacts caused by the tourists and the extent of some of them can be quite considerate. The most obvious impact brought on by tourists is the disturbance of the native wildlife such as the emperor penguins. Human interaction with these animals can cause major effects such as a change in migration patterns leading to further effects in the ecosystem as a whole.

Impacts can come in other means as well. The sinking of the MS Explorer showed that access to the area needed to be restricted and lead to fuel spilling in the water, doing untold damage to the marine life. How have the Impacts been managed? All tour operators, of which there are more than 100, are members of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and are urged to be environmentally friendly in their practices and are asked to convince tourists to be as well.

In order to preserve more delicate areas, there are certain Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) which tourists are not allowed to visit so that the wildlife and inhabitants are protected. Anyone wishing to take part in activities on the island must have a permit and are banned from leaving any waste/litter behind and being closer than 5m to an animal. Any ships going to the area is limited in the amount of passengers it can have (500 max of which only 100 can disembark at once).