New York, London, Paris ... and Svalbard?
The appetite for a visit to the remote Norwegian archipelago, which lies above the Arctic circle, is growing for travelers these days, drawing tourists eager for a glimpse of its stark, beautiful scenery: shimmering northern lights, cold, craggy ice shelves, and groups of polar bears -- known in Svalbard as isbjørn, or "ice bears."
One measure of the travel boom is the number of Svalbard sites visited by cruise passengers, which more than doubled between 1996 and 2003, reaching 23,190, according to a 2004 report by the World Wildlife Fund's International Arctic Programme. It's a phenomenon being repeated across the Arctic. About 1.5 million tourists now visit the polar region each year, up from about 1 million visitors in the early 1990s, according to a June 2007 United Nations study.
The development of more rugged ships and the expansion of air travel routes are some of the factors driving the Arctic travel boom. But most intriguing is the sense among some tour operators that warnings about climate change are enticing travelers to journey north and catch a glimpse of the harsh Arctic landscape before it's gone.
Take Jennifer Gregoire, a spokeswoman for Lindblad Expeditions, whose founder, Lars-Eric Lindblad, led the first tourist expedition to Antarctica in the 1960s. On a recent cruise to Svalbard, Gregoire found that half of her fellow travelers cited global warming as a reason they decided to journey to the far north.
"I spent a good deal of time talking to the guests," Gregoire said. "They were saying, 'I want to see for myself what this environment is like. I want to see a polar bear before it's not around.'"
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| Some of Lindblad's travelers want to see the Arctic ice before it thaws. Photo by Stewart Cohen, used by permission of Lindblad Expeditions. |
The company's Arctic and Antarctic cruises have grown so popular -- with passengers booking cruises a year to 18 months in advance, according to Gregoire -- that Lindblad recently purchased a second ship able to navigate icy polar seas.
Meanwhile, another company, California-based Betchart Expeditions, is offering a climate change-themed cruise this year to "Warming Island" off the coast of Greenland.
Explorer Dennis Schmitt discovered the rocky outcrop in 2005, after retreating glaciers exposed it as an island unconnected to the mainland, not the peninsula depicted on maps of the area. The discovery spurred headlines around the world and created a potent new symbol of climate change -- a fact not lost on Betchart, whose promotional materials note that "the island is a compelling indicator of the rapid speed of global warming."
Schmitt is scheduled to lead Betchart's second cruise to the area in September. "What we would like to do is give people a big perspective on world-class ideas, things that affect the world, and the place we are in," said Bob Nansen, Betchart's field operations coordinator.
Other tour operators say they're not so sure that news of global warming is driving the Arctic trend, although they welcome the increased media coverage.
"We've been in business for 18 years, so we've never really bought into the idea that the 'end of the Earth' feeling is driving people to polar regions," said Prisca Campbell, spokeswoman for Norwalk, Conn.-based Quark Expeditions. The small firm focuses on polar cruising, with trips ranging from a 13-day cruise along Canada's Baffin Bay to a 17-day journey -- by a converted Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker -- to the North Pole.
"The thing about the polar regions we are still dealing with is that not many folk still understand they can actually go there," Campbell said.
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| Quark Expeditions' nuclear icebreaker, the Russian-made "50 Years of Victory," cruises near the North Pole. Photo by Bjorn Eriksson courtesy of Quark Expeditions. |
Still, the expedition company was intrigued enough by the idea that climate is driving interest in Arctic travel that it commissioned an online survey of its customers.
Of the 300 people who responded the company's questionnaire, about a third said global warming gave their trip to the Arctic a sense of urgency. But the overwhelming majority -- about two-thirds -- said they had little or no interest in global warming when they booked their trips.
In an interesting wrinkle, however, many Quark customers said their attitudes had changed radically after they trekked north and saw glaciers, polar bears and sea ice at close range.
"Sixty percent of our travelers surveyed said yes, absolutely, I had no idea until I went there how important it was to make a difference and make choices" to help fight climate change, Campbell said. "We said, let's make it easier for them."
In response, Quark launched its "Polar Ambassadors" program, creating an online book club to explore Arctic issues and asking travelers to spread the word about their polar experiences and ways to reduce climate change once they returned home.
Tour operators are also split on whether climate change is easing their routes north.
Gregoire of Lindblad said her company's employees have seen the effects of last year's record-low Arctic summer sea ice coverage firsthand.
"In the itinerary we've gone to year after year, Svalbard and the north of Norway, many people have remarked that last year we were able to push further north than ever before just because there was less than years past," she said.
Meanwhile, several companies are planning cruises that trace part of the long-sought Northwest Passage between Europe and Asia, which made headlines last year when European and American government science agencies announced it had opened for the first time in hundreds of years thanks to the record melting.
Others are skeptical. "The Northwest Passage story makes us laugh," said Quark's Campbell. "Two seasons ago, our Northwest Passage voyage was truncated because our polar-class icebreaker, designed to sail in Arctic waters, was beset in ice for a week."
In part, that's because even when a passage is technically open, hard-blowing winds can pin a ship between two massive chunks of ice, or between sea ice and the shore -- a crushing experience noted by explorers and in Arctic natives' lore.
"The Russian wisdom is, if the ice isn't in Russia, it's in Canada for the summer," Campbell explained.
Cost is another factor making it unlikely Arctic ports of call will supplant Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas or other top mass-market cruise destinations anytime soon.
The cost of traveling to the far north remains prohibitive for many, with the cheapest journeys -- to southern Greenland or parts of Norway -- beginning at $3,000 to $5,000 per person. Prices rise as journeys lengthen and ships travel farther north into sea ice that requires vessels with reinforced hulls. Hurtigruten, a Norwegian cruise company, offers a 12-day trip to Svalbard that begins at $10,000, while Quark's North Pole trip costs a cool $23,000 per person -- or more.
Still, tourism experts said they believe there is a viable, if currently small, market for the polar trips.
"People who've read about [polar explorer Ernest] Shackleton or people that have a lifelong love of polar bears will find a way to get there," Campbell said.
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