Tourism in Extreme Environments (DP IB Geography)

Tourism in Cold Environments

Opportunities 

• Globalisation has brought many distant places closer and with long-haul flights becoming cheaper and the ability of people to 'surf' for the best prices, cold environments, have become places of mass tourism

• The dramatic landscapes make these areas attractive to visitors

• Adventure tourism to extreme cold environments is a growing industry for countries and local communities

  • There are a variety of activities for people to do:

    • Hillwalking and climbing

    • Mountain biking

    • Mountaineering: professional climbs such as Everest and K2

    • Skiing and snowcat rides

    • Glacial walking and climbing

    • Heli-rides and skiing on glaciers

    • Ice caves and ice hotels

    • Cruises to Antarctica, South Georgia and around the Antarctic peninsula

• Tourism boosts the local economy and provides a variety of jobs (directly and indirectly)

  • Places such as Antarctica have seen an increase in the number of tourists

  • In the Chamonix Valley, France, roughly 5 million tourists visit each year, and this generates 2500 jobs seasonally, with railway companies and ski-lift engineers in high-demand

  • Tourism in Alaska contributes $1.8 billion to the economy, and tourism accounts for one in eight Alaskan jobs

• Tourism has a multiplier effect 

  • It helps thousands of businesses as tourists take their tours, dine in their restaurants, and stay in their guest rooms

  • It leads to improvements to airports, roads and ferries

  • A safe, well-maintained infrastructure encourages new visitors and benefits locals as well

Challenges

• Cold environments are under pressure from continued exposure to increased tourism and some are becoming very fragile landscapes

• Approximately 170,000 tourists visited Antarctica in 2020 and large cruise ships increase pollution in the area, both from the ship and the tourists themselves 

  • Seeds from non-native species, caught on tourist clothing, are being seen growing in the ice-free coastal areas, threatening the continent's biodiversity

• Developments such as roads and hotels disrupt wildlife and damage habitats and migratory patterns, leading to reduced biodiversity

  • In the European Alps, social mobility and wealth have increased the rate of deforestation for ski resorts and supporting infrastructure, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation

• Tourism increases demand for energy and water resources

  • In Zemett, Switzerland, snow cannons add artificial snow to the slopes, but they are energy-intensive and add chemical and biological additives to the soil in the process

• Tourism isn't limited to the traditional single areas but attracts mass tourism to places such as Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Svalbard

  • Trekking causes damage to fragile mountain ecosystems

  • Plant communities, such as tundra flower meadows, need just 25 people a week and damage begins

  • These environments provide cultural, aesthetic and spiritual value as they are mostly unspoilt wilderness with Creation Stories linked to their vast landscape and open, dark skies

  • However, mass tourism has direct and indirect impacts through removing vegetation, building of infrastructure and indirectly through pollution

Tourism in Svalbard

• Svalbard, Norway, is part of a group of islands (archipelago) in the Arctic Ocean 

• Svalbard means 'the land with the cold shores'

• Located between mainland Norway and the North Pole (74° and 81° north latitude), it contains areas of unspoilt, raw Arctic wilderness of glaciers and tundra sheltering polar bears, Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes

• Svalbard is known for the Northern Lights, which are visible during winter, and the 'midnight sun', where it is daylight for 24 hours a day during the summer

Map of Svalbard 

Tourism

• 60% of Svalbard is covered by snow and ice, with more than half being covered with glaciers of varying size

• Just 6–7% of Svalbard is covered with any type of vegetation; it has a very short growing season, a lack of precipitation, and barren ground soil

• Svalbard is the highest latitude where visitors can see the disappearing Arctic ice

• Tourists can take wilderness expeditions to see polar bears, along with extreme ski and snowmobile adventures and kayaking to see glaciers

• It is a popular destination (approximately 70 000 tourists), of which 30 000 arrive on cruise ships and the harbour has been enlarged to accommodate large cruise ships

• This brings in much-needed money, which is returned to Svalbard’s economy, and aids in supporting the remote location and its people

• Tourism provides jobs for locals, providing accommodation and acting as tour operators. This allows people to support their families

• The sea ice no longer freezes around Svalbard and cruise ships can dock in the winter, extending the tourist season to all year round

• The longer tourist season boosts the local economy and provides more opportunities to remain sustainable 

• The most common way to travel to Svalbard is by plane, which has daily flights to and from the mainland

• Svalbard's energy comes from coal mining, and most of its consumer goods are imported to the island

How is it sustainable?

• The aim is to reduce the overall environmental footprint, make better sustainable choices, and balance economic growth with environmental protection

• Over 60% of Svalbard islands are protected in some way

  • Strict limits on the use of vehicles 

  • Tour operators and visitors have to get permission to visit nature reserves

• Different zones have different levels of protection, with nature reserves allowing very little activity 

• Longyearbyen has achieved the certification 'Sustainable Destination' and has committed to reducing the negative effects of tourism through schemes such as:

  • Electric snowmobiles charged using 100% renewable energy

  • Fishing with hybrid, silent boats

  • No picking flowers to protect the vulnerable flora

  • All visitors to Svalbard pay into the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund through their airline tickets. Resources from the fund are used to protect Svalbard’s natural environment

  • Buying locally made goods such as knives, chocolates, woollen garments, wooden cutting boards, soap, art and jewellery

  • Encouraging rental of equipment instead of buying for a single trip 

• Local companies have made changes such as:

  • Energy for the Svalbard Brewery comes from burning waste from its production processes and any surplus energy is used for heating and hot water in Longyearbyen

  • Investments in solar and wind power systems help charge boats and snowmobiles, which contributes to more environmentally friendly transport solutions for both for residents and tourists

• The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located in Longyearbyen and opened in 2008; it can store millions of seeds as a global backup if seeds are lost due to events such as mismanagement, natural disasters, and sabotage

• Hotels are built on stilts and constructed from sustainable wood that is triple-glazed and well-insulated to prevent heating of the permafrost below the foundations. Water is heated before entering the hotel to stop it from freezing and renewable energy is used to run the hotel

• Recently, a ban on the most polluting fuels was put in place and it has meant that large cruise ships are unable to visit areas around Svalbard

Tourism in Hot Arid Environments

Opportunities

• Tourism is limited in arid and semi-arid environments due to:

  • Heat

  • Lack of water

  • Inaccessibility

• Traditional tourism has been focused on historical and archaeological visits to places such as:

  • Palmyra in Syria

  • Petra in Jordan

  • Pyramids of Egypt

  • Uluru monolith in Australia

  • Grand Canyon in the USA

• However, there is a growing trend for adventure tourism, such as:

  • Desert safaris in the Kalahari Desert

  • Quad biking dunes in the Namib Desert

  • Staying in a traditional Ger (Mongolian Yurt) in the Gobi Desert

  • Balloon flights such as those over the Namib Desert

• Locals benefit from economic development, which provides employment and a wage

• Traditional cultures and local knowledge are kept alive, and intercultural understanding is promoted

• Tourism can improve environmental quality by reducing reliance on marginal agriculture 

Challenges

• Large holiday resorts encourage tourists to spend most of their money in the hotel complexes, excluding the wider community

• Often work is low-paid, menial, or seasonal

• Tourist's behaviour can offend local people (drinking, etc.)

• Loss of access to local sites (beaches, forests, etc.)

• Tourist activity can disturb or damage habitats and wildlife; water skiing can damage coral reefs, ivory poaching

  • 4x4 vehicles are being accused of damaging the ecology of the Sahara Desert and contributing to the world’s growing dust storm problem

  • Over the last 25 years, the number of dust storms on the margins of the Sahara has increased

  • In Mauritania during the early part of the 1960s, there were an average of 5 days per year with dust storms, compared to an average of 80 days per year in the early 2010s

  • Since the 1990s, 4x4 Land Cruisers have replaced the camel as transport

  • These vehicles are gradually destroying the thin layer of lichen and gravel that keeps the desert surface stable during high winds

  • In the worst-affected regions, estimates suggest that 1270 million metric tonnes of dust are thrown up each year, which is ten times more than half a century ago

  • The dust, which may contain harmful microbes and pesticides, is transported high into the atmosphere during storms and deposited as far afield as the Alps, seen as a red layer on top of the snow

Tourism in the Nile Valley of Egypt

• Tourism in hot/arid environments has a strong relationship with political, economic, social, and environmental impacts

• Tourism is important to Egypt's economy

  • Produces 10% of the country's GDP

  • Employs about 12% of the workforce

  • Contributes to 14% of foreign income

• 90% of Egypt's tourism is within the Nile Valley and is based mainly on history and culture

• The dry Valley provides a well-preserved view of past temples, ruins and monuments

  • The pyramids of Giza were built as tombs for the pharaohs of ancient times and the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur is particularly important as one of the first pyramids to be built smooth-sided rather than stepped

  • Luxor city is the site of the ancient city of Thebes, whose ruins attract thousands of tourist as the worlds largest city between 1500BCE and 900BCE

  • The 13th-century BCE ancient archaeological site of Abu Simbel is home to two huge temples carved into the mountainside and has four 20-metre-high sitting statues of Ramses II guarding the entrance, along with smaller statues of his mother, some of his favourite wives and a few of his 110 children

  • Although this is not the original site (that was flooded when the High Aswan Dam was built), each stone was moved and rebuilt on higher land beside Lake Nasser

• Other activities include camel riding and sightseeing by boat on the Nile River

  • River Nile cruises are popular and range from small boat trips to cruises of several days on luxury floating hotels

• The infrastructure along the Nile Valley varies

  • Hotels range from basic, locally owned guesthouses to multi-storey international hotels

  • Very few foreign workers are employed in the Nile Valley tourism industry and the large international hotels employ local residents for most of their positions

  • Transport is mainly by train, which is reliable, cheap, efficient and air-conditioned

  • Air travel is possible between Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, but most people travel by train to enjoy the landscape

• Recent political instability in Egypt has presented a challenge for tourism

  • The 2011 Egyptian revolution resulted in a 37% decrease in foreign tourism

  • Terrorist attacks in Cairo and elsewhere has also reduced the number of tourist to the country

    • Although this creates cheaper holidays, it has causes hardship for locals reliant on tourism