Anyone Fancy A Holiday?

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas...I personally received more than one polar-themed gift (including the adoption of five Adélie penguins!), so am very happy!

Is anyone experiencing some post-Christmas blues, though? You know, it's January...it's back-to-work time...you're miserably failing your New Year's resolutions...the last mince pie's been eaten. Sorry, that's probably not making you feel much better. So how about a holiday? Come to think of it, why not a holiday to the Arctic? Or Antarctica for that matter? After all, there have been enough cute pictures of polar bears and penguins wearing woolly hats recently, you'd be crazy not to want to see to them first-hand!

This brings us nicely onto the moment you've all been waiting for - that's right, the results of our polar tourism poll... Time to see what you'd really think about a polar holiday. 

I must admit, I'm actually quite surprised by the results. I naïvely thought that a lot of people would say 'no way' to a polar holiday, preferring to spend their free-time relaxing on a nice sunny beach...In fact, only 12% (3/25) of you said 'absolutely no way!' to a holiday in the Arctic, and a tiny 5% (1/20) of you said you wouldn't go to Antarctica. Interesting - it seems there is indeed a market for tourism in these regions...

Yep, I can see why you voted as you did...This shows the
aurora borealis (northern lights) over the Lyngan Alps, Norway, in January 2012.
Source: www.news.nationalgeographic.com

Amongst those of you who said 'yes' to a polar holiday, the split between those who would go under any circumstances, and those who would go only if it was ecotourism, is very even. For the Arctic, equal numbers of you voted for each of these options (44%/11 people for each). In the Antarctic poll, 50% of you (10 people) said you'd 'grab any chance' to go, compared to 45% of you (9 people) saying you'd only go if it was ecotourism. 

I'm pleased that so many people are showing enthusiasm about these beautiful places. Mind you, a significant proportion of people said they'd go even if it wasn't ecotourism (tourism with limited environmental impact), which is a little worrying. What actually is the impact of tourism on these regions? Is it beneficial or harmful? Can it be both? Next time, we're going to finish off our polar journey by taking a look at these questions. I wonder if any of you would change your poll response after reading it...?