Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Antarctica: The Last Frontier

I have written many times of traveling to all 7 continents in business class by my 30th birthday. I turn the Big 30 in May 2015. To achieve my goal, I will need to head to the world's last frontier.

That is why I was shocked and saddened by this Yahoo article about tourism in Antarctica.

According to the article, 35,000 visitors visited Antarctica for tourism reasons, last year. That number is down from the height of 48,000 visitors in the 1980s, and up from 27,000 in 2011-2012.  Getting to Antarctica can only be done by boat or flight. For more information, go to the website of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

However, trips to Antarctica are no longer sightseeing excursions. The article says, "now people want to go paragliding, waterskiing, diving or a variety of other things."  The result of the increased tourism on the ecological system is unknown. However, "the United Nations' shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, barred the use of heavy fuel oil below 60 degrees latitude south in 2011." This binding rule hurt the cruise industry by limiting the size of the ships going to the continent. Further proposed rules would further limit the size of ships touring around Antarctica to those with less than 500 passengers.

Why does this mean for me? Nothing really except that the trip is going to cost me more money than expected. Small cruise ships = more money. Points will only get me so far on this trip. Good thing that I have started my Antarctica fund, a little bit each paycheck. 

T-minus 26 months until the BIG 3 0!

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