Antarctica - Managing the Impacts of Tourism

AS and A Level Geography

Stage 2 Tourism Task 5 531352 R

Stage 2 Tourism

Name: ANDY IM

Topic: Managing the Impacts of Tourism

Word count: 1283

Task 1

Part A

(A) Discuss and define

Tourism is changing as nature, heritage, and recreational destinations become more important. Eco-tourism focuses on local cultures, wilderness adventures, volunteering, and learning new ways to live on our vulnerable planet. It is typically defined as travel to destinations where the flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. Responsible ecotourism includes programs that minimise the adverse effects of traditional tourism on the natural environment, and enhance the cultural integrity of local people. Sustainable tourism is an industry which attempts to make a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems. Cultural diverse tourism is a genre of special interest tourism based on the search for and participation in new and deep cultural experiences.

(B) Prepare checklist/guidelines identifying qualities, which help to ensure a tourism site/location is sustainable and inclusive of the implications of cultural diversity.

Educate visitors to consider the effects of their visit in advance and to modify their behavior while traveling, with the objective of minimizing impacts.
Provide introductory information on the people and ecosystems to be visited in predeparture packages. Stress the importance of reading pre-departure information, such as selected bibliographies, and review additional resources for each destination
Offer visitors the educational materials they need to learn about the places and people to be visited and introduce the importance of contributing to the conservation of places being visited.
Provide general travel ethics addressing standards for behavior in natural areas and with local cultures.
Keep information objective and well-grounded using examples of phenomenon visitors might encounter.
Provide information on the equipment, clothing and personal supplies suitable to the regions being visited.
Warn against bringing disposable goods that contribute to the solid waste burden in the region.
Provide information on products to avoid that are illegally traded.

Part B <using Antarctica as a case study:>

The Antarctic is a remarkable continent as a remote, hostile and uninhabited wilderness of great beauty. It is the highest, and continent, 58 times larger than Britain. With low , inland the continent is a desert. Its contains 70% of the world's freshwater and 90% of the world's ice. Icebergs calve from the floating , and much of the surrounding Southern Ocean in winter.

Tourists visit Antarctica for many reasons. Many keep recording their experiences, and most return home with stories, photographs and vivid ...

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Part B <using Antarctica as a case study:>

Tourists visit Antarctica for many reasons. Many keep recording their experiences, and most return home with stories, photographs and vivid memories. Many tourists want to experience its scenery and wilderness as well as its unique wildlife such as penguins, seals and whales. Tourist can enjoy the possible adventure activities like mountaineering and snowmobiling and see the historic huts and retrace the steps of the early explorers. Tourists also can see natural features. The best conditions for visiting the Antarctic occur between mid-November and early March. So, if tourists want to go to Antarctica, it is best time to visit. In 1997 to 1998, 10 590 tourists have travelled in Antarctica and 12 300 tourists travelled in 1998 to 1999. Also, in 2001 to 2002, 14 250 tourists travelled in Antarctica. Every year, Antarctica tourists are steadily increasing.

Antarctica currently has no economic activity apart from offshore fishing and tourism, and these are run by other nations.

The natural environment of Antarctica has unique values for us human beings. While pristine environment is constantly decreasing on Earth, the Antarctic Continent, which covers approximately 1/12 of the entire global land area, remains out of human activities. The unique natural environment supports local wildlife and keeps the historical record of the Earth.

To ensure that Antarctica's unique qualities are not damaged, all Antarctic tour adheres to harsh policies on . Wastes are removed, special areas are set aside for protection, and a policy of minimizing impact is applied to all activities.

To prevent destroying Antarctica’s circumstances and achieving sustainability of Antarctica, many rules and pre-education system was created for people, who want to visit Antarctica. However, these are not enough affect to tourists, who visit Antarctica. The reason is some of tourists ignore rules and do not follow the things that they learnt from pre-education system. Therefore, posts, which show do not throwing wastes or do not ruin environment, have to be set up at paths for tourists. Furthermore, establishing monetary penalty for tourists, who against law. It also can keep away from ruining Antarctica’s environment. Moreover, making the limitation of carrying capacity also can affect to conservation of natural environments.

Task 2

Using Task 1, discuss “Is tourism in Antarctica sustainable and considerate of the culturally diverse needs of tourists?”

Antarctica is the continent, which is the coldest area in the earth. It temperatures go down between approximately -85 degrees to -90 degrees in winter season and 30 degrees about in summer season. Moreover, there is an also sunburn issue, because Antarctica is covered with snow, which reflects about 90% of the sunlight. Therefore, there is no way to people alive in Antarctica permanently. Because of this, long time ago, some of people call this continent ‘death land’. However, these bad conditions make Antarctica can keep its natural environment.

Over the past few decades, tourism has taken on global proportions. Technological advances have changed the view of distance. As a result, the tourist industry is one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries. Yet, a few areas have remained largely untouched by tourism: Antarctica is one of them. Antarctica is a magnificent place to visit, but it is also a fine area, vulnerable to environmental disruption. In the area, tourism could become one of the major agents for environmental change. The number of tourists has been steadily increasing since the beginning of Antarctic tourism in the 1960s. In 1991, the year in which the Madrid Protocol was adopted by the ATCM member states, the number of mostly ship-borne tourists was some 4,800. At present the number of yearly visitors is about 16,000 with a projected increase to some 26,000 around 2007. Especially tourism on large ships carrying thousands of tourists is seen as a future threat. This growth in numbers has gone hand in hand with a diversification of tourist activities, which now include scuba diving, kayaking, snorkelling, marathon running and mountain climbing. The booming tourism developments are a matter of international concern, given the weakness of the Antarctic ecosystems. Nevertheless, complete baton tourism is neither advisable nor possible under the existing system. Antarctica is a global common and wilderness that is open for use by anybody. The difference of interest between tourist development and natural preservation is not the only source of conflict. The scientific community in Antarctica is also quite concerned about the claim that tourists lay on the available search and rescue facilities. The high-risk tourist activities, such as mountain climbing, can be expected to lead to more accidents, and possibly to a sharp increase in the very expensive rescue operations. It is clear that tourism has an important role to play in the transmission of knowledge about this unique place and the necessity to protect it. We will assess opportunities of the development of tourism in the Antarctica.

Bibliography