The Arctic islands of Svalbard, Norway are home to around a tenth of the world's polar bears. Photo / Getty Images
The Arctic islands of Svalbard, Norway are home to around a tenth of the world's polar bears. Photo / Getty Images
The Norwegian government has chosen to ban cruise tourists from much of its remote Arctic islands, limiting visitors landing in Svalbard.
From 1 January 2025, new protections come into effect, limiting landings on the islands known for polar bears and Arctic tourism.
The move reduces landing sites from 240 to just 43, banning cruise tourists from some islands completely.
“The purpose is to protect wildlife, and one of the largest wilderness areas left in Europe,” said a release from the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment.
The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act was passed to the Norwegian parliament for amendment last week.
Among the big changes set to take effect next year are the strict limitation of shore landings, reducing ship size to below 200 passengers and only 39 people to be allowed on shore at a time.
A shore excursion from the National Geographic Explorer during Lindblad Expedition cruise in Arctic waters. Photo / John Gardiner
Visitors are now required to keep greater distance from wildlife. A minimum distance of 500 metres must be observed from the islands’ 3500 resident polar bears.
Svalbard is home to around a tenth of the world’s population of the endangered Arctic bears.
“Climate change together with increased activity has resulted in a great pressure on the vulnerable arctic wildlife and nature in Svalbard,” said Norway’s minister of climate and environment, Andreas Bjelland Eriksen.
The body responsible for managing tourism in the Arctic, the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), called the changes “disappointing”.
A spokesperson for AECO told Seatrade Cruise News that they had concerns that the measures would only increase pressure on the remaining landing areas, and limit conservation operations done by AECO members.
“We will however now make a more thorough assessment of the decisions announced and prepare information for AECO’s members so we can adapt accordingly.”
The new measures apply to an area of public land around the size of Denmark, but only to commercially arranged trips. Something that AECO’s chief executive officer Frigg Jorgensen said was counter-intuitive.
He told the Svalbardposten it was a dramatic change for Norway “to set aside the right of public access” to these areas.
The public will still be able to access these areas, although there will be changes to camping permit allocation in the remote and bear-inhabited islands.
With an uptick in visitation since 1990, tourist arrivals doubled in the decade prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, to around 80,000 annual arrivals.
