Tourism and heritage in Antarctica: exploring cultural, natural and subliminal experiences

Figures & data

Figure 1. Factor Change in Traditional Ship-borne Expedition Tourism (involving landings) in the Antarctic Peninsula 1989–2019 (ATCM, 2019d).

Table 1. IAATO’s Top Twenty Most-Visited Sites during the 2018–19 Season (including yacht visits) and Their Relationship to HSMs (Based on ATCM, 2019d).

Landing Site	Landed Visits	Landed Tourists	HSM
Port Lockroy, Goudier Island	172	18,048	61
Cuverville Isle	160	22,180
Neko Harbor	157	23,789
Whalers Bay	149	18,167	71
Half Moon Island	131	18,298
Brown Station	121	17,960
Danco Island	107	19,123
Jougla Point	95	7,041
Mikkelsen Harbor (D’Hainaut)	89	9,229
Damoy Point/Dorian Bay	84	12,698	84
Telefon Bay	71	11,259
Portal Point	63	8,249
Orne Harbor	58	7,910
Brown Bluff	56	8,375
Petermann Island	55	5,811	27
Yankee Harbour	53	6,658	57
Port Charcot	48	4,824	28
Waterboat Point/Gonzalez Videla Station	44	7,826	56 & 30
Aitcho Islands – Barrientos Island	42	5,895
Wordie House, near Vernadsky Station, Galindez Island	42	3,358	62

Table 2. Distribution of HSMs against the evaluation criteria (ATCM Resolution 3, 2019) and allocated to one of two eras. Some sites cover both eras.

HSM Evaluation criteria	Heroic Age	Scientific era	Total
Event	28	15	43
Person	30	16	46
Feat	24	7	31
Activity	12	17	29
Construction	11	17	28
Study	8	18	26
Symbolic for many	4	17	21
	117	107	224

Table 3. Cultural heritage specific tours offered by IAATO operators in 2020.

Tour Operator	Tour description
Palmer’s Bicentennial Expedition (Abercrombie and Kent, 2020b)	A 2-week cruise on a purpose-built French ship with 199 passengers. The trip included the Falklands/Malvinas, South Georgia and South Shetland Islands as well as sites on the Antarctic Peninsula and was similar to many other tour operators’ itineraries. The promotional material made particular reference to three aspects: the 200th anniversary of the sealer Nathaniel Palmer’s expedition, the first American explorer to access mainland Antarctica; Russian explorer Admiral von Bellingshausen; and the Brit, Captain Bransfield. Possible landings included the South Shetland Islands (abandoned whaling stations and the US Palmer Station), Danco Coast and Marguerite Bay (Adelaide Island, a British Antarctic Survey station and Rothera).
In the Wake of Shackleton (Noble-Caledonian, 2020)	A 2.5-week cruise on a purpose-built Italian ship with 59 suites for passengers. The trip included the Falklands/Malvinas, South Georgia and South Shetland islands as well as sites on the Antarctic Peninsula and, again, bore similarity to itineraries offered by many other tour operators. The promotional material made passing reference to Shackleton though the main emphasis was on wildlife. Daily landings included visits to sites with HSMs, both in in Antarctica and also in South Georgia, where tourists would ‘visit the old whaling station [at Grytviken] and of course pay our respect at the grave of “the boss” – Ernest Shackleton.’
In the Wake of Mawson (Heritage Expeditions, 2020)	A 3.5-week cruise on a former Russian Polar research icebreaker with 50 passengers. The trip to the Ross Sea region also offered landings on various sub-Antarctic Islands. The promotional material, and the extensive trip reports from 2017 and 2018, made frequent reference to various Heroic-Age and Scientific-Continent events involving Scott, Shackleton and Mawson, and also to Port Martin, a French base built and destroyed by a fire in 1952 in Terre Adélie (HSMs 46, 48, 48, 77 and 81). The 2017 and 2018 trip reports suggest no landings were made at Port Martin and the main passenger activity was wildlife watching and lectures.

Table 4. Trip Adviser postings of Visits to HSMs on the Antarctic Peninsula (at 4 April 2020 from https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attractions-g660183-Activities-Antarctic_Peninsula.html).

HSM	Site	Posts	Average Rating
61	Bransfield House / Penguin Post Office, Port Lockroy, Goudier Island	242	4.73
71	Whalers Bay, Deception Island	91	4.81
62	Wordie House near Vernadsky Research Station, Galindez Island	29	4.54
53	Bust, monolith and plaques, Elephant Island	19	4.89
37	Base General Bernardo O’Higgins, Isabel Riquelme Island	14	4.71
41	Stone Hut, Paulet Island	11	4.91
30	Gonzalez Videla Research Base, Paradise Harbour	7	4.57
	TOTAL	413

Note: The rating is the Trip Advisor scale from 1 to 5, where 5 is the highest possible rating.

ATCM. (2019d). Information Paper 142. Report on IAATO operator use of Antarctic Peninsula landing sites and ATCM Visitor Site guidelines, 2018-19 season. Antarctic Treaty Secretariat.

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Abercrombie and Kent. (2020b). Retrieved April 4, 2020, from https://www.abercrombiekent.com/tours/luxury-expedition-cruises/2020/antarctic-discovery-palmers-bicentennial-expedition

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Noble Caledonia. (2020). Retrieved April 4, 2020, from https://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/destinations/antarctic/tour/1921/in-the-wake-of-shackleton/?search_url_id=0https://www.wildearth-travel.com/trip/antarctica-explorers-and-kings-ocean-diamond/

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Heritage Expeditions. (2020). Retrieved April 4, 2020, from https://www.heritage-expeditions.com/trip/east-antarctica-wake-mawson-15-dec-2019/

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