Tourism's threat to Antarctica

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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More and more people I know, and know of, seem to be heading way south on excursions to Antarctica. What was once the realm of only the hardiest scientists and explorers is now creeping into leisure territory. These trips tend to be expensive, which limits the number of people able to go, but even so, tourism has quadrupled in the last eight years.

So it’s no surprise that one of the topics of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting going on in Edinburgh right now is sustainable tourism. It’s not the only topic though; scientists and advisors from 45 countries will also be discussing the effects of climate change on Antarctica and other subjects.

As someone who loves to travel, and who wants to keep traveling for a long time, I think that whether its aim is environmental or cultural preservation, or both, sustainable tourism is an increasingly vital approach for both travelers and the destinations they visit.

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