The Paradox of Last Chance Tourism

Martijn van der Mark

Certificate in Hotel and Tourism Management

HTMi Switzerland
Introduction

Our planet is around 4.5 billion years old (U.S. geological survey, 2014). But lets

put this in another perspective. If the earth would be 24 hours old, humans

would only exist for 1 minute and 17 seconds. (Jeff Dunn, 2011 ). And in that

short period of time humans already marked 80% of earths land (National

Geographic, 2012). Furthermore we also injured the water and air. Since the

industrial revolution the carbon dioxide level increased significant (National

Research Council (NRC), 2006). Because of this the climate has changed a lot.

Alongside the climate change, tourists visiting places that cease to exist in their

original way has increased a lot in the last few years (Hall, 2010 et al., 2010).

This form of tourism is called last chance tourism. The definitions of last chance

tourism are scarce, but most of them refer to a natural travel destination that is

going to disappear due to climate change (Dawson, Stewart, Lemelin, and Scott,

2010). Some may call this a new trend, others may call this a modern version of

being the first, but in this situation tourists want to be the last (Expedition News,

2008). In this paper the main focus will be on polar bears in the Artic. Since polar

bears are on of the most obvious forms of last chance tourism, as the

environment and tourists have a clear and direct impact on them (Hall, 2010).

The interesting thing about last chance tourism is the paradox. Most of the

tourists that visit last chance tourism are highly educated people (Frigg,

Jorgensen, general secretary of the Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators

(2012)(AECO). Tourists know that the Artic will soon cease to exist, but more

importantly, they know what kind of footprint they will leave behind in

vulnerable places like the artic. So why if tourists know that these places are

going to disappear soon and they know what kind of footprint they will leave
behind are they still visiting these places? Why are they not instead benefiting

the environment? In the following paragraphs the motivation of tourists visiting

last chance tourism is going to clarified.

Motivational aspects of last chance tourism

Figure 1, Juergen Gnoth

The figure above indicates the process of motivation and expectation made by

scientist Juergen Gnoth. The figure matches the way tourists think in last chance

tourism. A good example is the persistence that grows the further you progress

through the process. In this situation the Artic that is shrinking and the polar

bears that are therefore disappearing. Furthermore, there is the subjective

situation. This pull factor could be the fact that tourists become more aware of

the influence they have on the environment. As one becomes more aware, one

will maybe make the choice not to go based on the harm imposed on the

environment. Or sometimes if tourist would go their values will change because

than they have seen the current issues, so tourists will consider twice the next

time. A further factor that enhances the motivation for last chance tourism is the

negative spiral.

Figure 2: The negative spiral of last chance tourism (Dawson, 2010)

Dawson makes the next figure (Figure 2) in 2010. In this figure one of the issues

in last chance tourism is presented, which could be described as a negative

spiral. This negative spiral is an immense concern and could be described as the

following. On the left it illustrates resource base diminish. This is the artic

shrinking whereby, the habitat of the polar bear decreases. Considering this, the

chance to visit polar bears will shrink together with the artic. Since the resource

is shrinking the urge to visit the Artic before it disappears grows. So more

tourists will visit the Artic and because of that the ice caps will melt even faster

and the habitat of the polar bears will be demolished (Kovar 2014). As you can

see in figure 2, tourist’s motivation will grow by the place disappearing. This is

the negative spiral. Summarized, the worse the environment becomes, the more

people will visit, therefore the condition will become even poorer and therefore

more tourists have the urge to visit. Another motivator for tourists is feeling.

“The human ego remains a terrific sales tool for almost any product “(Salkin,

2007). The ego in this case is that tourists do not care about the environment.

They want to be special and visit these places. According to Dreyfus, (2012)

people for centuries desired to be special. They want to have a special treatment

or a special experience. As mentioned in this paper is that, in some cases the race

of being first changed to the race of being last. Tourists want visit the polar bears

before they evaporate alongside the artic to be special. They have seen and

experienced something that no one else has. Companies are taking advantage of

these tourists by using this as a marketing trick. Crystal Cruises for example says

“once-in-a-lifetime trip to experience the environmental devastation of the

Arctic”.
To do this they are using a cruise ship that emits three times more CO2 per

passenger than a jumbo jet (Independent, 2014). "Environmental disaster

tourism" is what Atherton (2014) calls it.

Motives and awareness

Most tourists say that they visit the Artic region for the natural experience

(90%). One third uses the argument visiting the artic before it gone as well, or in

other words the last chance tourism argument. 92% of the tourists on cruises

that travel to the Artic stated that they received information about the changing

climate, although the biggest part of this about global changes was. 97% believed

that climate change is real nonetheless, half of the people said this occurred due

to a natural cause. A little bit less than half of the tourists contributed this to

anthropogenic causes (Eke Eijgelaar et al. 2010).Astonishingly academically

educated people chose a natural cause twice as many than the anthropogenic

cause. Around 80% of the tourist believed that climate change will become a

problematic issue for humankind in the future. While 15% think climate changes

will never become a problem for humanity. Around 40% of these tourists

admitted that they saw the consequences of climate change. Eighty percent of the

tourist say that the cruise to the artic region did not changed their opinion. A

minority even said that the situation is not as bad as they thought it would be (E.

Eijgelaar, 2010). 50% of the tourist does not believe that travelling and being at

the Artic has an impact on that place particular, only a quarter of the tourists

believes this is true. Even the people who did not admit that climate change is a

problem caused by mankind admitted that tourists have a bad influence on the

environment (Eke Eijgelaar , et al, 2010) .

Conclusion

According to Hall (2010) last chance tourism in the Artic regionstill has a lot of

issues. A lot of problems need further investigation. As described, the artic is

shrinking drastically and has negative influence on the population of polar bears.

The last chance tourism locations are stuck in a negative spiral. Furthermore,

tourists are not aware enough of what kind of footprint they leave.

Recommendations

In the future there has to be more attention for these issues. Travel agency’s

should make tourists aware that this is a serious problem. That, they have to be

careful with the flora and fauna in their travel destinations. Another good thing

will be if the travel agencies use the money to benefit the environment. A big

issue in this situation is that tourists are often not aware of their deleterious

influence on the environment. What is going to be the difference if I visit or not?

They should be less selfish. It is true one tourist cannot change the current

situation, but if the al think a little bit more about the environment they can

make a huge difference and benefit the situation. The need to come with a long

term solution for the current situation. Maybe it is even better to not visit the

Artic region for a certain amount of time so it can restore.

Referencing

D. Atherton, (2014) CLIMATE CHANGE CRUISE WILL BRING TOURISTS ACROSS

THE MELTED ARCTIC

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/climate-change-cruise-will-bring-

tourists-across-melted-arctic

Dawson, J., Stewart, E., Lemelin, H., & Scott, D. (2010). The carbon cost of polar bear

viewing tourism in Churchill, Canada. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(3), 1-18.

Dawson, Lemelin, H.R., J., & Stewart, E.J. (2010). Last chance tourism: the doom,
the gloom and the boom of visiting vanishing destinations. Current Issues in
Tourism. Figure 2

Dreyfus (2012) The Need to Feel Special

http://www.docdreyfus.com/psychologically-speaking/the-need-to-feel-special

Eke Eijgelaar , Carla Thaper & Paul Peeters (2010) journal of sustainable
tourism

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09669581003653534

Expedition News (2008). Tourism of Doom. Re- trieved 17th January 2011, from

http://www. expeditionnews.com/Archives/EN0801.html
Frigg, Jorgensen (2012) general secretary of the Arctic Expedition Cruise

Operators (AECO)

C. Hall (2010) Last Chance to See? Future Issues for Polar Tourism and Chang

Pp. 417-418

Jeff Dunn (2011) If Earth’s Entire History Was Just 24 Hours Long

http://www.edudemic.com/earth-24-hours/

Juergen Gnoth, University of Otago, 1996 Figure 1

Adam Withnall (2014) indpenedent

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/luxury-cruise-line-

accused-of-offering-environmental-disaster-tourism-with-highcarbon-footprint-

arctic-voyage-9635556.html Accessed date 23 November

Kovar (2014) TTRA Conference, Guelph, Ontario, October 14-16, 2009

http://www.wengerna.com/blog/6-ways-tourism-is-impacting-antarcticas-

environment/

Lemelin, H., Dawson, J., Stewart, E., Maher, P., & Lü ck, M. (2010). Current Issues in

Tourism, 13(5), 477-493.

National Geographic (2012) Human impact

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/human-impact.html

National Research Council (2006) Polar bears Churchill

U.S. geological survey (2014) The age of the earth

http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/gtime/ageofearth.html

Accessed date 22 November