It’s getting harder and harder to see much of space in urban and suburban areas, thanks to the air and light pollution that make all but the brightest of stars hard to find. But there are still some wide-open rural spaces without much in the way of human habitation, where it’s still possible to go stargazing without powerful telescopes.
And that’s where astro-tourism comes in. With an increasing number of people wanting to see the stars, tourism organizations are beginning to market the darkest, most sparsely populated parts of their countries.
Some national parks have started classifying areas as “dark sky preserves,” where they put in the effort to keep the area dark enough to see the Milky Way, or even just stars beyond the handful we’re all familiar with, like those that make up Orion’s Belt or the Big Dipper.
Certain features, like the Northern Lights near the Arctic Circle, draw tourists looking to see those specific events.
“There has been an increasing interest since the last four years,” said Ellen Kachel of the northern Norway Tourist Board. “It has to do [with] our marketing, of course, and an awakening.” She noted that Northern Lights tourism is particularly popular among Asian visitors.
August 21, the date of the next total solar eclipse, is the astro-tourism event of the year. The eclipse will only be visible in certain parts of the United States, and some of the communities in that area are already reporting significant tourism around that day.
In Idaho, the tourism is ready to welcome the influx of tourists who will flock to the state on and around that day. “We are almost sold out,” said Nancy Richardson of Idaho Tourism. “We’ve been selling this product [the solar eclipse] for two years already.”
Astro-tourism could have other benefits as well. An increased desire to go stargazing could result in more efforts to curb both air and light pollution. Curbing light pollution can also benefit nocturnal animals, which are thrown off by the amount of light that still seeps into dark spaces at night.
According to some estimates, we might not be able to see any stars by as soon as 2024. That would be a great loss for everyone, but maybe we can do something about it before that happens. Perhaps astro-tourism will be the key to saving the night sky.