In yesterday’s entry I looked into the growth of dark tourism, a fascinating example of one tourist activity revealing its historical, emotional, moral and cultural underpinnings. Today I want to cover a slightly different form of extreme tourism, one that is motivated by desires to experience, visit and see an environment, creature or event before it disappears: ‘last-chance’ ‘doomsday’ or simply, doom tourism.
Doom tourism is exemplified by the growing popularity of destinations and attractions threatened by climate change. Proponents of doomsday tourism point to increases in environmental awareness brought about by visiting these sites. In the industry’s opinion, greater visitor interest translates into positive action to conserve these threatened regions and their natural resources. But it’s not hard to make a case that more interest actually feeds more visits. In this way, even faster destruction is almost guaranteed.
As the following video illustrates, the desire to go and see environments such as the Antarctic before its biodiversity is degraded by climate change, has grown rapidly in a comparatively short time. Trips to this region involve risks to visitors that are increasing as glacial features retreat. Cruise ships bringing tourists within range of the Antarctic carry unseen but highly damaging discharges into the seas they cross. Biz/ed has some useful resources cataloguing the impact of cruise tourism.
Antarctica would probably make it into most people’s list of the most endangered tourism destinations. Other sites might include Mount Kilimanjaro, the Maldives, Venice, the Alps and the Great Barrier Reef, although opinions clearly vary a great deal. If tourists are going to become advocates for protecting fragile environments, then perhaps this form of tourism may be sustainable. But if this ‘last chance to see’ motivation is all there is, then perhaps the tourists would do better staying at home and watching nature on BBC Natural History programmes or the Discovery Channel.