Tourism

• 33,824 visitors (2010-11)  1- 12,629, USA       2- 3,220, Australia    3- 2,763, UK

• Landing sites on Antarctica are limited and quickly become honey pot sites 
• Tourists have the potential to cause environmental and ecological harm, therefore management is important.
• Activites include Skiing, climbing, scuba diving and many more
• Tourists only aloud a short time shore, as they may cause to much disturance to wildlife e.g penguins and seals
• Oil spills are becoming an increasing hazard for wildlife, ships must discharge waste products well away from the antarctican shore

Coping with tourism in Antarctica

• All tour operators are member of IAATO which directs tourism safely and environmentally friendly across Antarctica. Around 100 companies are involved in the Antarctica treaty.
• Visitors are not allowed to visit ' Sites of Special Scientific interests' (SSSIs) to conserve their previous wildlife e.g Bird Island, South Georgia 
• As tourist numbers have increased over the years, protection remains a high priority. A permit must be gained for any activities on the continent.
• No ship containing 500+ passangers can land on the island.
• Theres worrys there will come a time where the volume of tourists will get to the point of unsustainability.

Aims of Ecotourism- environmentally friendly tourism, wants to give people the oppurtunity to experience the natural environment. This could include activities including trekking and bird-watching. Ecotourists want their holidays to have as little impact on the environment as possible, therefore energy tens to be sustainable. Accomodations can include small lodges that may contain no electricity unlike large hotels. The impact on the environment is low but, because ecotourism is small in scale, the price paid by each tourist is high. The market for such tourism is therefore limited.

Stewardship- careful management of the environment on a large scale, regionally, nationally and globally. The personal responsibility of us all looking after things, in this instance the environment

Conservation- stewardship on a smaller more manageable scale. This could be managing the landscape in order to protect ecosystem and cultural features.

Extreme Environments, activities and target market

• Involves extreme dangerous landscapes often with difficult climates
• Usually involved advenurous activities e.g Climbing waterfalls and Ice diving
• For people wanting to visit somewhere wth different physical challenges 
• Targets wealthy unmarried thirty year old.
• This tourism sector is rapidly growing in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

• World Heritage site
• 19 main islands 
• Consejo de Gubierno - 10 year sustainable plan
• 25,000 population
• over 100.000 people visit each year. (170,000, 5x more than 2000) 
• Santa Cruz island:

-Renewable energy- 1/3 of household waste recycled,        

-Development- New facilities to treat water which is a threat to people and wildlife (2001 oil spill)

Benefits

• Enviromental - Galapagos conservation Trust receives approximately £25 per tourist, this pays for conservation work on the islands
• Economic - jobs for local people doing tour guiding, local people can also profit from setting up small businesses, for instances boat companies providing trips around the island and guest houses.

Problems

• Honeypot sites- even though tourism is controlled, some sites are over-used and are showing signs of enviroment stress
• Pollution- Oil pollution from boats can affect fragile marine ecosystem