Why visit the Antarctic?

In the last two decades, tourism to the Antarctic region has grown considerably and visitation numbers are still increasing. Both the environmental changes occurring globally and the increase in tourism are causing Antarctica to face several environmental challenges. The purpose of this thesis is to identify to what extent potential tourists are made aware of these challenges while reading promotional materials and other information sources prior to booking a trip to the Antarctic. Through extensive desk research, information was gathered on global environmental challenges, tourism to the Antarctic region and the motivations for this, the current awareness of people about the environmental challenges in the Antarctic, and promotional materials and information sources and the language used in them. The conducted analysis in this thesis followed the first step, being a text analysis, of the three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis by Fairclough. The results of this first-level discourse analysis indicate that through the use of different types of language in promotional materials and information sources, a positive image of Antarctica as a destination is created. In addition, an accurate representation of the current state of the Antarctic environment is excluded from the different materials investigated. These materials thus do not contribute to the awareness of potential visitors to the Antarctic region on the environmental challenges the area is facing. This thesis provides new insights on the topic of awareness of potential tourists and how this is influenced by promotional materials and information sources.