Doom tourism

Also known as "tourism of doom," or "last chance tourism", involves travelling to places that are environmentally or otherwise threatened (such as the ice caps of Mount Kilimanjaro, the melting glaciers of Patagonia, or the coral of the Great Barrier Reef) before it is too late. The trend emerged in the 21st century, identified in 2007 by travel trade magazine in 2007 and explored in The New York Times, This type of tourism has been on the rise. Some see the trend as related to sustainable tourism or ecotourism due to the fact that a number of these tourist destinations are considered threatened by environmental factors such as global warming, overpopulation or climate change. Others worry that travel to many of these threatened locations increases an individual's carbon footprint and only hastens problems threatened locations are already facing. As of 2024, climate change has been making Last Chance Tourism more popular, and riskier. In August 2024, an American was killed visiting an ice cave at the foot of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier.