Krippendorf’s (1995: 308) idea that ‘tourism destroys tourism’, whereby landscapes lose their tourist value through use (or overuse) by tourists, applies nowhere more so than in wilderness where, strictly speaking, any evidence of humanity should be absent. Wilderness areas are arguably the most sensitive physical resources for tourism. A solitary tourist accessing wilderness settings may have an unacceptable physical impact thereby degrading the wilderness status of the environment. If encountered by another, the same tourist may violate wilderness experiences if solitude is an important aspect of the total experience. Physical and visual impacts, crowding and acceptable levels of social contact pose obvious wilderness management difficulties. 
Antarctica as a wilderness covers 50 million km 2, including the Southern Ocean. The land mass alone is 14 million km 2, and 98% is covered with ice that on average is 2km thick (contains 90% of world's fresh water). The climate is extremely harsh with the record minimum being -89.6C.
Politically Antarctica is a neutral territory with no miltary presence other than scientific research. The Antarctic Treaty was drawn up in 1959 and ratified in 1961 and was signed by the 12 leading countries of the United Nations, the Antarctic Treaty System. In 1964 the ATS adopted the first measure to Conserve the Arctic Flora and Fauna. This was reviewed and enhanced by the Protocol on Environmental Protection in 1991 and came into force in 1998 designating Antarctica as a natural reserve.
Although commonly portrayed as the last great wilderness, Antarctica is no longer a pristine environment. At some locations, particularly around long-standing research stations, evidence of past human activity is clear. Many Antarctic stations have disused refuse tip sites, that are now the focus of clean-up efforts. Thankfully, times have changed and current waste management practices in Antarctica are now more refined With the ratification of the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1998, all countries operating in the Antarctic are now committed to comprehensive protection of the environment. The Madrid Protocol specifies that all newly generated waste should be removed from Antarctica, and member countries are even obliged to remove "old" waste unless the action of removing the waste creates a greater adverse environmental impact than leaving the waste where it is.
Tourism is now the latest threat to this environment as more visitors arrive each year and in the 1990/91 season 4,842 people visited Antarctica and this grew to 46,069 in the 2007/2008. Over 36% of the visitors are from the USA, 16% UK, 11% Germany and the remaining 37 % all from the economically developed world.Typically these toursist aer tertiary educated, well travelled and have high disposable incomes and are looking for a unique nature based experience.
Geographically the visit sites are concentrated on a very small area of Antarctica, only 0.5% of the continent but in scale about the size of Sri Lanka, 56,000km2, The Antarctic Peninsula takes 90% of the tourist activity and the most visited site is Port Lockroy (7,500 visits per year)
TASKS:
1. Construct a Case Study on Antarctica: use the RESORCES links below to help -
(i) consider the historical development
(ii) the main attractions of Antarctica as a tourist destination
(iii) the threats increasing toursim raises for the environment and biodiversity.
2. Is wilderness tourism a viable extension of ecotoursim or is it, as some scientists describe it, 'egotourism' and a threat to wilderness regions? Discuss (10 marks)
RESOURCEShttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/24629.stm
http://www.responsibletravel.com/Copy/Copy103555.htm
The Impact of Tourism on Antarctica http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/30/travelsenvironmentalimpact.frontpagenews
