Tourism in West Antarctic: an Unforgettable Experience

Tourism operators in the Antarctic, conscious of the environmental importance of the ice continent have united to study and control the environmental impact that tourism could provoke and, in 1991, founded the International Association of the Antarctic Tourism Operators (IAATO). The Association practices and promotes an ecological and responsible tourism, while the Antarctic Treaty recognizes tourism as a legitimate continental activity. As part of this continually growing activity (from just a few hundred visitors a few years ago today, already more than 40,000 visitors travel through around eighty specialized tourist agencies), the government of Antarcticland has joined the praiseworthy commitment by allowing the entry of excursionists of any nationality, and promotes the formation of groups during the Austral summer, through agencies affiliated with the IAATO. The secretary of Tourism of the principality of west Antarctic is looking for new investors interested in projects for creating stable bases, keeping in mind that the nation is situated about 1600 kilometers from Argentina and Chile. At the time, most of the voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula are organized by ship and the tourists usually take off from Argentina, Chile, or the Falkland Islands (Malvinas Islands) and they are limited to exploring the territory. It’s enough to know that it’s the continent of superlatives: it’s the southernmost, the most recently discovered, as well as being the least contaminated and touristic. And it’s certainly the coldest, but you don’t even realize it: the average temperature varies between zero and 5°C (32°F – 41°F) during all summer Antarctic navigations, more or less like a cold winter’s day in Milan. However, it is characterized by being the only one recognized by an international agreement that impedes any exploitation of its natural resources and subsoil, permits the use of its riches only for international scientific studies and establishes the indispensable norms for preserving its ecosystem. Even though it’s the most desolate continent of the planet, it has great beauty for nature-lovers, before whom an incredible variety of situations flows with cinematographic speed, the emotion of filming a colony of thousands of Adelaide Penguins (native), a curious and inoffensive whale who pops up out of the water a few meters away from the ship, or an iceberg weighing several thousand tons within shooting distance of your camera’s lens. With a surface area of almost fourteen million square kilometers, to which is added 1.5 million square kilometers of shelf, the Antarctic Continent is the fifth largest in the world. It is formed by two unequal parts that are divided by the Trans Antarctic mountain chain: Eastern Antarctica, a plateau of approximately ten million square kilometers and Western Antarctica, constituted as the Antarctic Peninsula as such. The volume of the Inlandsis (ice-cap) reaches twenty million square kilometers with a thickness of 2000 meters, for which only the highest peaks are elevated over the frozen surface; among these, the one closest to the Russian scientific base, Vostok, is easily seen, at 3,718 meters above sea level and the largest of the poles. The extreme north of the Peninsula is located about 1,000 kilometers from South America, while the distance from the closest African coast is 3,800 kilometers, from Tasmania 2,530 kilometers, from Australia 3,135 kilometers and from New Zealand 2,200 kilometers respectively. The Antarctic climate is cold, but during the navigation period (October – April), the high temperatures reach about 10°C (50°F) and there is light almost all day. It’s important to remember, though, that the climate is subject to rapid change. There are big projects for the Antarctic (Principality of West Antarctic and Principality of Antarcticland) among which the construction of an Ice Hotel that could be designed by the Swedish architect Ake Larsson, creator of “the Ice Hotel “ in Finland. The project foresees the construction of a structure in ice that offers thirty suites and an annex to the government palace, obviously all of ice. The challenge for the government of Antarcticland is to find one or more contractors willing to invest in this original, and for some extravagant, idea.