Glaciers, Black Rhinos, Coral Reefs - "Last Chance" Tourism Growing Rapidly
It’s a new kind of bucket list item known informally as “last chance travel.” Cuban street life fits into the category. So do African black rhinos and glaciers around the world. As local cultures and natural habitats are transformed by globalization, technology and climate change, a growing number of travelers want to experience them before they are irrevocably altered or vanish.
Amit Sankhala, the owner of Encounters Asia in New Delhi, has been guiding travelers, mostly from America, for the last 14 years. Now, he said, more of his clients are expressing the desire to see a place or a certain animal species before it’s too late. They’re “more and more conscious that things are disappearing.”
Dan Austin, owner of the travel company Austin Adventures, said he fielded questions almost daily on the current state of glaciers in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies or Glacier National Park. The number of glaciers at Glacier National Park is down to 26, from about 150 in 1910, when the park was created.
That’s the kind of statistic that keeps Ken Lyons of Ridgewood, N.J., traveling to ecosystems on three continents. At Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, physical markers show the glacier’s retreat each year, and “as you walk up the trail the signs just get farther apart because a larger amount is melting each year,” Mr. Lyons said.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/business/catering-to-last-chance-travelers-who-seek-disappearing-marvels.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
