Tourist Cruises Research Articles

Sea-borne tourism in the Antarctic: an evaluation

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.

The First Tourist Cruise in the Soviet Arctic

In the summer of 1931 the icebreaking steamer Malygin sailed from Arkhangel'sk, bound for Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa with the first Soviet tourist cruise to the Arctic, the main objective being to visit the various historic sites of the archipelago. The steamer also made a rendezvous with the airship Graf Zeppelin at Bukhta Tikhaya. Other historic sites visited included Mys Flora, Bukhta Teplitsa and Camp Zeigler on Ostrov Al'dzher. Of special historical interest was the recovery of a message left by Baldwin at his satellite camp at the west end of Ostrov Al'dzher. A significant contribution to the charting of the archipelago was the discovery that Jackson's "Arthur Island" and "Alfred Harmsworth Island" were in fact a single island, for which the name Ostrov Artura was retained. Surprises such as this, a brief accidental grounding, and a three-day drift amongst ice and in dense fog probably combined to persuade the Soviet authorities not to repeat this experiment for several decades.

Karel Absolon as a Geographer and a Great Personality of Czech Natural Science

Karel Absolon as a Geographer and a Great Personality of Czech Natural Science