Currents Summer 2024 (1) - Flipbook - Page 15
When tourists board their ships, they do so with preconceived ideas about what they will
experience during their voyage. They are ready to consume. They look to replicate the
professional-quality images of wildlife and natural scenery in the advertisements on tour
company websites.
Researchers at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in BahÃa Blanca, Argentina, studied Antarctic
tourism during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 seasons. The study9s author, Marisol Vereda,
found that before departing for their cruises, most tourists surveyed anticipated seeing icy
landscapes and penguins during their Antarctic visits. Nearly half of tourists also expected to
have new experiences while on their trips.
For their part, cruise ship companies deliver. Crews design routes that take tourists to sites
complete with all the postcard features: penguins, icebergs, snow. Tour operators understand
their obligation to follow through on pre-packaged promises for the particular experiences
and narratives that have been sold to visitors as representative of Antarctica.
What is left out of these curated representations of the continent is telling.
8Why doesn9t the scheduled programming talk about climate change?9 a university student
onboard the ship asks a particularly friendly crew member. His eyes dart back and forth
across the room before he answers.
8Too political,9 he says. He takes a long sip from the thermos of tea he is holding. He does not
elaborate any further.
At age twenty, this particular student, who is pursuing a degree in environmental science and
traveling with a group as part of a university trip, is an exception to the other passengers on
board. Tourists to Antarctica have not purchased expensive tickets to be lectured about
distressing changes to the polar region. Nor have they paid to hear information that could
disrupt benevolent narratives about tourism working hand-in-hand with conservation.
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