ABSTRACT
Th e sinking of the cruise ship Explorer in Antarctica on November 23, 2007, might well have sounded the death knell for cruise tourism on the seventh continent. Almost 30 years earlier, in 1979, the crash of Air New Zealand fl ight 901 over Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crewmembers, had temporarily halted tourist sightseeing fl ights over the frozen continent. Yet the loss of the Explorer actually spurred demand instead of killing interest in polar expeditions. Why?
