The Changing Face of Antarctic Travel and Its Sustainability
Steve Wellmeier Director of Special Projects, Poseidon Expeditions USA
You’ve had a very interesting career, from helping with the recovery from 9/11 to working in the travel industry, becoming the Executive Director of IAA - TO and now as the Managing Director of Poseidon Expeditions. Through the years, how have you seen Antarctic travel change? While I’d been involved in small ship cruising since 1983, my first exposure to polar cruising began in 1997 after I was recruited back to Clipper Cruise Line as vice president of marketing. Clipper had just purchased the Alla Tarasova, which was previously a Russian research vessel. She was typical of the small ice-class vessels that were traveling to Antarctica in those days – former Russian ships that came available with the fall of the Iron Curtain. Clipper spent $13 million, a huge investment at the time, to customize the ship and the resulting Clipper Adventurer was considered one of the nicer expedition vessels at the turn of the 21st century. Adventure travelers then were looking primarily for comfort, safety and the educational elements of remote polar environments; the more luxurious aspects that have become more important in the past decade weren’t given a second thought by most customers, even the well-heeled. Visitation to Antarctica had steadily increased to around 45,000
by the 2007-08 season, but then dropped off for near - ly a decade for two reasons. First, the recession of 2008 and 2009 cut deeply into the travel market, with visitor numbers dropping to only around 26,000 by 20 12. Second, the sinking of an expedition ship in November 2007 in Antarctic waters – fortunately, there were no fatalities – forced a rethinking by the Antarctic Treaty Parties, responsible for regulating the Antarctic environment, and by the companies in the polar market. These events initiated a pause in new ship construction and brought about changes in the regulatory environ - ment as well as a turn in how the next generation of customers wanted to experience the polar regions. Larger ships, in the range of 200-plus, became the norm. Luxury brands like Silversea and Seabourn, along with new players like Scenic and Viking, entered the marketplace. The older re-purposed Russian vessels began to fall by the wayside. In the past few years, there’s been a growing emphasis – beyond the basic educational aspects that were always the cornerstones of passenger activities – on luxury accommodations, balconies, white-glove service, gourmet food and new “toys” such as helicopters and submersibles.
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