China has become the world’s third largest tourist country in Antarctica. Are we ready?

China has become the third largest tourist country in Antarctica in the world

The "Antarctic Treaty" froze territorial disputes in Antarctica and suspended the development of mineral resources. Antarctic tourism has become a major contributor to human peace after scientific research. The main way to use Antarctica. Especially after the establishment of the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators in 1991, it has effectively coordinated and managed the international Antarctic tourism market, established strict Antarctic tourism industry standards, and has been recognized by the international community.

A few days ago, the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators held its 25th annual meeting in Providence, the United States, where its headquarters is located. Wang Zipan, a researcher at the Second Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration, and "A well-known polar tourism organization in China" "Extremely Beautiful" and others participated in this annual meeting as representatives of China's Antarctic tourism industry. This is the first time for Chinese people to appear at the IAATO conference.

According to Wang Zipan, tourism in Antarctica began as early as the 1950s and 1960s. By the beginning of this century, the number of Antarctic tourists had exceeded the number of scientific expeditions. Like Antarctic scientific research, Antarctic tourism is also a symbol of a country's comprehensive strength. For a long time, tourists traveling to Antarctica have mainly come from Western developed countries. With the development of our country's economy, the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Antarctica has increased rapidly.

According to the latest statistics from the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators, from November 2013 to March 2014, the total number of people traveling to Antarctica from all over the world was 37,405, including 12,418 from the United States, accounting for 33%; and 4,115 from Australia. , accounting for 11%; 3,367 people from China, accounting for 9%.

“In 2012-2013, the ranking of the number of tourists to Antarctica from various countries around the world was: the United States, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, and China. Now China has surpassed Germany and the United Kingdom and ranked third. I believe it will soon It will surpass Australia and be second only to the United States," Wang Zipan said.

It is worth noting that in recent years, the composition of Antarctic tourists in my country has also begun to change significantly. Taking the 2014 Spring Festival group as an example, the proportions of entrepreneurs and employees among tourists were 9% and 77% respectively, which shows that China's Antarctic tourism is gradually reaching the masses. In terms of age structure, the proportion of those under 40 years old reaches 60%, and retired elderly people account for about 9.5%. The age structure proportion is close to that of the West.

The international community is actively developing Antarctic tourism resources

According to Wang Zipan, with the development of Antarctic tourism, more and more tourists are not satisfied with "just visiting" in Antarctica. They hope to have more back-to-nature tourism experiences in this ice and snow continent. In response to market demand, the international community is deeply developing Antarctic tourism resources.

For example, in terms of tourism routes, we have developed east-line, west-line, and middle-line landing routes, including sea-based and space-based sightseeing, exploring the pole tours, and sub-Antarctic island tours. In terms of in-depth tourism special products, there are different projects such as Antarctic skiing, ice climbing, camping, caving, diving and ice sea kayaking. The diversification of tourism routes and richness of products displayed at this annual meeting are more than ever before. Group discussions and conference exchanges were also held on risk assessment, emergencies and safety control technologies of various special products and adventure projects. .

“Compared with the development trend of the international industry, my country’s Antarctic tourism is still in the half-hidden stage. Whether it is industry operators or consumers, the current overall understanding of the Antarctic tourism environment and resources, and the development of Antarctic The basic concepts of tourism are still in the primary or even vague primitive stage,” Wang Zipan said, “The international community has generally gone through the debate stage on whether Antarctic tourism can be carried out, and has gradually entered a mature and orderly stage, with in-depth development of resources and development. Actively develop the polar tourism economy. In contrast, we cannot stay in a cocoon.”

At the beginning of this year, China’s polar tourism organization “Jizhimei” organized a tour group of hundreds of people to visit the Antarctic Great Wall Station, which caused a lot of controversy. social repercussions. Qu Xiangdong, founder of "Jizhimei", said: "The Antarctic tourism market is in the ascendant. What we most hope now is that the relevant national departments will issue guiding principles and norms for Antarctic tourism, in line with international practices, through setting thresholds, government approval, and strengthening supervision. , environmental assessment and other system designs to guide the healthy and orderly development of the market and prevent the spread of harmful bacteria in the Chinese tourism market to the clean and beautiful Antarctica. ”

my country’s Antarctic tourism urgently needs policy relaxation

In response to the increasingly diversified activities of Chinese citizens in Antarctica in recent years, the number of people participating in Antarctic expedition activities is increasing, the organization and expedition activities have become more social, and the composition of the personnel has become increasingly diversified, especially Antarctic tourism, exploration and other activities organized by social groups. Popular science expeditions and other activities are on the rise rapidly, and the State Oceanic Administration recently issued the "Administrative Licensing Regulations for Antarctic Expedition Activities".

“This regulation seems to have something to do with Antarctic tourism, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it.” Wang Zipan believes that “it does have something to do with it,” which means that traveling to Antarctica must comply with all regulations on the Antarctic environment and the protection of animals and plants. It doesn’t matter. The purpose of Antarctic tourism is not scientific investigation, nor will it carry out activities listed in the regulations, so there is no need to apply for an administrative license at the moment."

At present, although our country has become the third largest Antarctic tourist destination in the world. It is a tourist country, but it does not control Antarctic tourism resources and has no say in the international market.

The implementation of Antarctic tourism mainly relies on the transfer of cruise ships or aircraft through the Antarctic gateway port.

So far, among the hundreds of Antarctic cruise ships in the world that have operating qualifications from the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Organizations, not one belongs to China, and there are no Chinese aircraft on the air routes. Chinese tourists are basically organized by domestic tourism agencies. They charter a boat or join a group at the Antarctic gateway port. The tourists are sent to the foreign company's cruise ship or plane, and then go to Antarctica. Most Chinese tourism agencies just transfer tourists to overseas cruises and earn a meager commission from them.

“The Chinese are the main financial contributors in the international Antarctic tourism market, but they do not control the Antarctic tourism resources and have no say. Such an unequal status quo must be changed as soon as possible.” Wang Zipan said, “I hope that government departments will realize it as soon as possible. Policies should be relaxed to encourage Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Antarctic tourism and cruise ship industries, build a complete Antarctic tourism service chain, promote Chinese people to take control of Antarctic tourism resources and product development, cultivate a real Chinese Antarctic tourism market, and become a veritable Antarctic tourism country.

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