An ongoing programme of tourist survey research, conducted since the 1990/91 summer season, is summarised. While focusing initially on the nature reserves of the New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands, the programme was subsequently extended to encompass related tourist visits to Macquarie Island (Australia) and the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. In accordance with expressed management information needs, the research objectives and the methodology, based on questionnaires distributed by national representatives aboard tour vessels, have evolved from general descriptive visitor surveys to more site-specific visitor assessments. Research findings emphasised that these tourists constitute a distinctive activity group. The impact issues they reported were mainly related to trampling and some site-specific wildlife disturbance, with other impact issues not being prominent. No notable dissatisfactions were apparent or visit improvements demanded, and strong support was indicated for most of the management restrictions applied to onshore visits. Methodological lessons from conducting this survey programme are briefly summarised, and suggestions for future research directions are made, with more emphasis on post-voyage evaluation surveys and assessments of physical impacts related to tourist visits.

A single chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica), which had moulted at the South Shetland Islands, was subsequently tracked during 120 days at sea in the austral winter using a global location system (geolocation) based on light intensity. The bird moved east along the Scotia Ridge to a point approximately 300 km west of the South Sandwich Islands and approximately 1600 km away from the colony in which it had moulted. It spent more than 60% of its time in open water north of the edge of the pack ice.

Polar research teams often spend extended periods of time away from base stations, living and working in remote field camps of portable tents. This article reports results of a survey study conducted in 1996 of polar researchers from the United States. The study was about the design and use of portable field tents being deployed in polar areas with regard to safety, health, and well-being from the user's perspective. Preliminary analysis indicates that there existed a number of areas in design and use of the shelters that contributed to concerns of safety, health, and well-being among a considerable number of tent users. The article concludes with suggestions for designing and manufacturing portable field tents.

This article gives an overview of tourism on Svalbard. Tourism to this archipelago, which is under the jurisdiction of Norway, started more than 100 years ago. As a modern industry, however, the end of 1980s can be seen as the starting period. Since 1990, tourism development has been given priority by the Norwegian government, and there has been a significant increase both in commercial activities and in the number of tourists. Early and recent tourism developments are presented. In 1996 tourism accounted for almost 200 jobs, 48,000 commercial overnights, around 12,000 airborne tourists, and between 15,000 and 20,000 cruise-ship passengers. The article then describes the most frequent types of tourists, and discusses tourism's impact on the environment. So far, tourism has not produced many documented problems on biota and heritage. Tourism regulation on Svalbard is also described, showing a multitude of means and arrangements, including a proactive self-regulation by the tourism industry. The future challenges, particularly the questions connected to the limits of volume, are discussed. There is a broad understanding of the need of an active policy from the authorities to cope with these questions. The article concludes by referring to the increased emphasis on environmental questions in the Norwegian politics concerning Svalbard, which probably also indicates a willingness to intervene with tourism development.

Sir Ernest Shackleton bought the Norwegian sealer Foca 7 in 1921 for his third Antarctic expedition and renamed it Quest. He died aboard the ship in South Georgia in January 1922, but Frank Wild took over the leadership and completed the expedition after the delayed start. The vessel returned to Norwegian ownership in 1923 but kept the name Quest. In the 1920s and 1930s, in-between sealing voyages, she was chartered out for various scientific or hunting expeditions, mostly to S valbard or the east coast of Greenland, during which many well-known explorers trod her decks, including Gunnar Isachsen, Gino Watkins, Augustine Courtauld, John Rymill, Count Eigil Knuth, Lawrence Wager, H.W. Ahlmann, Gaston Micard, Paul-Emile Victor, and John Giaever. Vital assistance was given in rescuing the survivors of the Italian airship Italia in 1928, of the Danish ship Teddy in 1924, and of several sealers at different times. Many sailors owed their lives to this little ship, which was owned by the Schjelderup family and for most years captained by Ludolf Schjelderup, who gained international fame as an expert ice pilot. On one occasion, 1936–37, the vessel overwintered at Loch Fyne in northeast Greenland. In April 1940, when the Germans invaded Norway, Quest was sealing off Newfoundland. Allied naval forces took possession of her and she was used in various capacities in Canada, Bermuda, and UK coastal waters for the rest of the war. After the war, she once again returned to the sealing business under Norwegian ownership until finally coming to grief in the ice just north of Newfoundland and sinking on 5 May 1962.