Last chance tourism in the Arctic

The Arctic is not only on the radar of major powers such as the United States led by Donald Trump, but has also been discovered by international tourism. Thus, regional tourism, including Greenland, is growing at an outstanding rate year after year, despite the fact that these cruises are usually offered at astronomical prices (millions of HUF). The term ‘last chance tourism’ therefore does not refer to Greenland’s statehood. Due to climate change and the consequent transformation of flora and fauna, as well as the decline of indigenous cultures, tourism to the Arctic is often considered last chance tourism. This form of tourism has emerged not only in the Arctic but also in other regions of the world with extremely fragile natural environments. However, the most spectacular examples of this phenomenon are the Arctic and Antarctic regions, which are the most affected by climate change. The world’s northernmost ocean, known as the Arctic Ocean, was visited by more than 100,000 people by cruise ship in 2019, surpassing the tourism in the Antarctic. For the latter, the number of visitors did not reach 100,000 until 2023. In addition to cruise ships, the number of visitors to land north of the Arctic Circle may have exceeded 10 million in 2024. It is also worth noting that the dynamic growth of tourism is not new to the Arctic, as tourists have been visiting the region since the 19th century. Antarctica (the southernmost continent on Earth) was discovered by the tourism industry in the 1950s. The history of Arctic travel blurs the distinction between explorers, adventurers and adventure sports enthusiasts. The frozen regions feature both in the history of Hungarian travel and in the offerings of contemporary travel agencies.

What do we mean by Arctic?

The Arctic is a much more difficult region to define than the Antarctic. Unlike the southern hemisphere, there is no single continent in the north. The Arctic thus lacks precise geological boundaries: much of the area is maritime (the Arctic Ocean and its tributaries), and its landmasses belong to several countries and continents. The Arctic’s boundaries are generally defined by geographic features such as the snow line, areas with a mean temperature below 10°C in July, or the limit of tree cover. The most specific and therefore most commonly used delimitation is the region north of the Arctic Circle. Based on these definitions, the Arctic region as a whole is not only the northernmost ocean on Earth, but also includes the northern regions of the United States, Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Map: Map of the Arctic. (The red line indicates the temperature limit of the region, with mean temperatures below 10 °C in July.) Source: WikiCommons.

Last chance tourism

Last chance tourism refers to the phenomenon where travellers deliberately seek out destinations that are threatened by environmental degradation, particularly the consequences of climate change. This form of travel is driven by the desire to experience a particular place before it is potentially changed or disappears altogether. Tourism of this type has been booming in recent years as the vulnerability of destinations renowned for their cultural or natural significance becomes increasingly apparent with global warming and environmental degradation. An important part of this process is the growing awareness of climate change, with increasing media coverage and environmental reporting. At the same time, paradoxically, the boom in tourism to these destinations is leading to an increased deterioration in their environmental conditions that travellers value.

The transformations taking place at these sites are not only ecological, but also visible to the naked eye, making the climatic processes in the Arctic a symbol of environmental change on a global scale. In the Arctic, global warming is occurring twice as fast as in the rest of the planet. As glaciers retreat, sea levels rise and weather patterns change unpredictably. The very features that make certain destinations attractive are changing or fading. The regions most affected are:

Melting of the ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctic, with implications for the unique local wildlife;
Glaciers around the world, from Switzerland to northern Europe to Argentina, are retreating at an unprecedented rate;
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, threatened by rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification;
The Maldives are affected by sea-level rise;
Venice, Italy, where the built heritage is particularly threatened by rising sea levels and where the phenomenon of over-tourism (details of the latter concept can be found here) contributes to the damage.

Tourism in the polar regions

Arctic tourism, like that in Antarctica, is reaching unprecedented levels. Notwithstanding the fact that, according to a US survey, a cruise in the Arctic can cost between $7,000 and $49,000; that is, the cost of a trip can range from HUF 2.5 million to in excess of HUF 17 million. For Antarctica, the average cost is over $12,000, or the equivalent of HUF 4.5 million. In line with this high cost, a significant proportion of tourists to Antarctica are from the Western world: just over half come from the United States, followed by Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Tourism in the Arctic

According to the Arctic Council, the region’s main international institution, the number of ships entering the region increased by 37% between 2013 and 2024, which equalled 500 individual ships at the last data reporting.

There are no consistent statistics on the number of travellers arriving in the Arctic areas of each country. We also have to take into account that there are significant differences between the tourism flows to the Arctic region of different countries. The sector’s performance is particularly strong in northern European economies, while Canada and Russia have relatively low numbers of foreign tourists visiting their northernmost regions.

Finland‘s Lapland region was visited by more than 1.4 million tourists in 2024, who spent 3.37 million nights, according to the Finnish Statistical Office. Lapland recorded the highest number of overnight stays among the Finnish provinces, where foreigners spent 9% (0.52 million nights) more time than in the previous year.
In 2024, tourism in Norrbotten, Sweden‘s northernmost county, grew the most, by 4.6%. This was the third consecutive national peak year for the province’s tourism sector. The number of overnight stays reached 2.9 million.
In 2023, northern Norway had more than 4.6 million overnight stays. Travel records are also being broken in Norway, which was reflected in the 2024 figures.
In 2024, Iceland, which is experiencing over-tourism, received 2.3 million visitors, who spent 6.4 million nights on the island.
Tourism in Greenland grew by 46% in just 5 years, between 2018 and 2023, with more than 131,000 visitors in 2023, largely due to the increase in cruise itineraries. The government of Greenland forecasts further growth with the expansion of Nuuk Airport in 2024 and the construction of two more international airports planned by 2026.
Alaska, the US Arctic state, is also experiencing dynamic tourism growth with 3 million tourists arriving in the 2023-2024 season, 20% higher than the last season before the coronavirus pandemic in 2018-2019.
In 2023, 335,000 foreigners visited Canada‘s northern territories, an increase of more than 20% compared to the first half of 2024.
The hardest data to estimate is the number of tourists in Russia. According to Russian government information, 3 million visitors visited the Russian Arctic territories in 2024, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. At the same time, the number and proportion of foreign tourists were reported to be low at 75,000. Nevertheless, this figure shows a doubling of interest from foreign visitors compared to the previous year. China is an important partner for Russia in this sector too.

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/24125047/

Figure: Number of travellers to the provinces of various Arctic countries. By Viktória Németh. Source: individual country and Eurostat data. The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/24125047/

The number of tourists visiting the Arctic could exceed the 8.3 million before the coronavirus pandemic, and could even exceed 10 million by 2024 for the land areas, excluding Russian territory. Including Russian statistics, up to 13 million people could have visited the Arctic. By comparison, 46.7 million people (32 million of them foreigners) holidayed in Austria, one of the most attractive countries in Europe for tourism, while 12.5 million people (2.9 million of them foreigners) holidayed in Finland as a whole in 2024. The tourism figures for 2024 are therefore already impressive for the Arctic, but the number of visitors in all the countries and continents with Arctic territories has significant potential for growth in the future too. The rise in average summer temperatures in traditional Mediterranean destinations could play an important role in this, which could increasingly act as a disincentive for tourists and increase the value of northern destinations.

Hungarians in the Arctic

For Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian expedition in 1872-1874 was an important milestone. At the same time, from the early 20th century onwards, more and more Hungarian travellers went north of the Arctic Circle, in addition to those primarily on scientific expeditions. Many of the early travellers also wrote travelogues, including Gyula Kepes, the ship’s doctor of the Austro-Hungarian expedition, who published a summary in the Geographical Bulletin; Jenő Cholnoky, a geographer, who wrote about his expedition to the Spitsbergen in 1910; and György Barcza, a diplomat, who reported on his 1911 voyage to the Arctic Ocean. This tradition continued during the Cold War, including Pál Rockenbauer, a naturalist, world traveller and one of the founders of Hungarian nature documentary-making, who also incorporated his Arctic experiences into his educational work. In the last century and a half, the region’s exploration and scientific aspects were the primary focus, but, like in other countries of the world, the region has recently been on the radar of Hungarian travellers as a tourist destination too. It has also appeared in the offerings of Hungarian travel agencies. This includes the more exotic and astronomically priced Arctic cruises, as well as more accessible tours such as Nordic adventure tourism and Northern Lights (aurora borealis) hunting.

The most special event of recent years was the participation of Levente Varga, a Hungarian high school student, in an international Arctic expedition in the autumn of 2024, supported by Rosatom, as part of the so-called “Icebreaker of Knowledge” project. The aim of the programme, which was organised for the fifth time last year, is to discover and support young talents.

Antarctica tourism – an outlook

In 2023, 124,262 people visited Antarctica, a significant increase from 104,897 the previous year. Not all of those arriving by boat will set foot on the continent. Altogether more than 80,000 tourists visited the land area last year.

The advantages and disadvantages of Arctic tourism

Visiting remote landscapes not only brings risks, it also brings opportunities. Visits to sparsely populated polar landscapes offer opportunities to boost the local economy and raise cultural and environmental awareness. At the same time, more caution is expected of travellers to the polar regions because of the extremely fragile natural environment. These rules have been declared and made publicly available by the Arctic Council, the most important institution for Arctic affairs.

Environmentally damaging and anti-local economy impacts

Travellers visiting fragile ecosystems can damage the environment and the local economy in several ways. This phenomenon is also a form of overtourism. This is when travellers overwhelm a tourist attraction to such an extent that the quality of life of local residents is impaired and natural assets are threatened. This goes against the principles of sustainable tourism, which is becoming increasingly widespread and which aims both to protect natural assets and to stimulate the local economy. Iceland is leading the way in the region in promoting the latter type of tourism.

The risks of polar tourism include transport and the transport of food consumed locally. Large ships cause a lot of environmental damage in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. Observations in the region suggest that, in addition to increasing carbon dioxide emissions, they are also accelerating the melting of snow. Another significant source of carbon dioxide emissions is air travel. A lower emission alternative could be trains. However, a difficulty is that the cost of train tickets in northern European countries is significantly higher than air travel, and the journey time is also extended.

Cruise ship visits also have a negative impact on the local economy, as passengers prefer to use on-board facilities rather than local services such as restaurants, cafes and tour operators.

Biologists also warn that the arrival of people and the photographing of animals can disturb the behaviour of local species. Another influencing factor may be the significant increase in visitor numbers to Antarctica during the summer season, followed by a sudden lull in the winter. In addition, travellers bring and establish microorganisms that were not previously present in the Antarctic.

The impact of tourism on local indigenous cultures

Tourism is a sector that in many cases is considered by governments in the Nordic countries to be of paramount importance for the preservation of indigenous employment and culture. The European Union has also supported regional tourism, including indigenous employment, through a number of programmes in recent years. However, the perception of the sector in terms of indigenous cultures is not uniformly positive.

The harmful consequences of Arctic tourism are often felt in the local culture. Such negative effects can include housing shortages, skyrocketing property prices, and over-demand for real estate and food, resulting in reduced access (supply) for the local population.

The dark side of tourism is also reflected in phenomena such as exploitation and folklorisation. This means that the traditional way of life and art no longer occupy their former place in society, but become a tourist service. Paradoxically, tourism can lead to the reinforcement of stereotypes about indigenous peoples, rather than to an actual knowledge of them, as exemplified by souvenirs that are not actually specific to the culture. Tourism offers lower earning potential than other sectors and is seasonal, so not a stable source of income. It thus preserves the disadvantaged economic position of the indigenous population in relation to the majority society.

Summary

The Arctic is not only the northernmost ocean on Earth, but also includes the northern regions of the United States, Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Tourism in these regions is growing dynamically year on year. Awareness of environmental change is at the heart of this phenomenon. This type of tourism is referred to in the literature as last chance tourism. At the same time, climate change offers further opportunities for tourism in the northern regions, as the rise in average summer temperatures in the Mediterranean regions could lead to a shift towards cooler regions. This phenomenon is not an isolated trend specific to Western European travellers, but is also spreading to Hungarian travel agents. The rise in real wages in Hungary is also reflected in the increasing number of trips abroad by Hungarians, including the increasing number of trips to Northern Europe.