Falkland Islands Eager to Make a Splash in Tourism

The Falkland Islands, with their clear skies, half a million pairs of penguins and an appealing sense of emptiness, have announced they are launching themselves on the world travel market.

The islands’ tourist board is seeking a director to attract more visitors to the archipelago and believes that it can further develop a tourism industry which, from being virtually nonexistent 20 years ago, is now the second largest income generator, after fishing.

Perhaps anticipating that some prospective directors may be put off by the idea of work on 4,700 square miles of rock in the South Atlantic, the tourist board is definitely stepping up to the plate.

The islands’ travel industry has been quietly developing without much serious marketing in the past few years. Around 80 cruise ships now arrive each year. These delivered 40,000 people last year, many of them en route to Antarctica before swinging back to the South American mainland.

The aggressive tourism policy is part of the broad economic development undergone by the islands since 1982. In 1980, the population was sapped by emigration and had dwindled to 1,800. Now, at 2,967, it is well beyond its previous 1930s peak of 2,400, though humans are still greatly outnumbered by 670,000 sheep and more than a million penguins.