As with Antarctica, the aim of responsible tourism

In the Arctic, however, the wildlife is being threatened directly in its home turf.

And we haven’t even touched yet on the topic of the indigenous Arctic cultures that are facing very serious threats, with increasing mineral prospecting threatening their very existence. The growth of mass tourism is the latest problem to add to the mix, primarily from mega cruise liners that allow thousands of gawking tourist to land ashore on small and remote Inuit villages all at once, as recently reported by The Guardian.

How can responsible tourism help the Arctic?

Perhaps the prime point to make here is that large-scale drilling, prospecting and development are of much greater threat to the Arctic than tourism could ever be, yet it’s not just a matter of picking ‘the better of two evils’. As with Antarctica, the aim of responsible tourism operators is to offer in-depth and enlightening visits, the kind that swap nightly cabaret shows with educational lectures.

These are the kind of trips that have the potential to change someone’s outlook on the way they live. This is the kind of place that teaches you that what you do at home, every day, has a much greater effect on our planet than what you do on your yearly vacation.

Tourism can also provide an alternative income to indigenous communities who still rely on the trading of fur and game-meat to survive. People in the Arctic have been enjoying a subsistent lifestyle for thousands of years and, nowadays, they’re still allowed to hunt endangered species, although numbers are limited. Nevertheless, offering an income – in the form of tourist dollars – directly on their shores means they’ll be less likely to migrate to larger cities in search of work and can actually help them preserve their traditional way of life.

Nothing in the world is ever black and white and never has this proven to be truer than when discussing the benefits of tourism, even in the most ‘endangered’ destinations of all.

Choose to actually visit the Polar Regions, however, and chances are you will start taking more accountability for your own footprint, in general

What will benefit our planet is not only more responsible polar tourism but more responsible living, no matter where we are. Our increasingly consumeristic lives may well manifest in the Polar Regions, but what we see happening in Antarctica and the Arctic is a consequence of everything we do, back home.