Sea-borne tourism in the Antarctic: an evaluation

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Abstract
In an earlier article, tracing the development of commercial tourism in the Antarctic (Reich, 1980), I presented the currently available information on the scale and concentration of tourist activities. From this examination the broad conclusion was that over a 24-year period since tourism began, numbers of visitors landing, primarily from ships but also from aircraft, averaged less than 840 a year. Roughly three-quarters of these visits were concentrated on about nine places, all of which were occupied scientific research stations. In this paper an attempt is made, partly based on first-hand experience of a tourist cruise, to gauge the impact of sea-borne tourism. A description of the cruise precedes consideration of tourism in relation to the Antarctic Treaty. Planning issues are raised in certain recommendations on tourism adopted by the Antarctic Treaty nations, and these are examined. There are more questions than answers, partly due to lack of data, but I hope that by drawing attention to these issues further consideration will be given to them.
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