Polar tourism and environment change: opportunity, impact and adaptation

The Polar Regions (PRs) are characterized by ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, tundra, and other cryospheric landscapes and associated aboriginal cultural features. This primitive polar landscape is a huge contrast to the current human living environment and is a strong tourist attraction. Rapid environmental changes and the emergence of conflicts between tourism development and ecological protection, have affected sustainable development of polar tourism (PT). Polar high-latitude characteristics determine the vulnerability of their environment and the higher sensitivity of PT to climate change. This study comprehensively analyzed the status quo of PT development, systematically revealed mutual influence between environmental changes and tourism development, and proposed some adaptive measures to coordinate environment protection and tourism development.