How Female Influencers Flipped the Antarctica Travel Demographic

Five years ago almost every Antarctica expedition company denied my pitch to collaborate with them because “my demographic and I were not their target audience”. I was a twenty-nine year old solo female traveler and blogger, and despite my large audience and establishment in the travel industry, it meant nothing since we weren’t “Late-50’s, retired, married, and male.”

Today, five years later, I have just completed my third expedition to Antarctica, and I have brought over one hundred and twenty guests, 95% of which were millennial women.

Full honesty, while I am so proud of this, and my groups, I will not deny that we get unfairly judged and stereotyped on these particular trips. Many crew and guests don’t take us seriously and don’t like what we wear. I’ve been treated with disrespect by some crew members, however the majority of them are absolutely AMAZING.

I’ve fought for my respect in this particular travel sector, and I am happy to say that after my third trip, thanks to extremely good feedback from the majority of the crew, I am finally getting it.

2018: My First Trip to Antarctica

I’d only been traveling solo for three years, but Antarctica was the apple of my eye. I absolutely HAD to make it to my seventh continent, not just because I wanted to, but to prove that a young woman could do it on her own.

Unfortunately I was still pretty broke at that time, however I was one of the top up and coming travel bloggers and “influencers” – a term that had only just started gaining acceptance. I was also one of the trailblazers of “social media marketing” and the concept of pitching free publicity in exchange for free trips, and it had been working out really well for me, and had even started to become lucrative.

But Antarctica was one destination where I was constantly denied. They would have one look at my profiles and website, likely seeing the blonde hair, flowy dresses, and pink fonts, and immediately tell me no because we weren’t their target demographic.

Target demographics though were something I knew quite well about. I had afterall, built an entire brand and audience of people just like me, who wanted to go to the same places like me, and were actually able to pay for it.

I realized that last part, because one year earlier, in 2017, I hosted my first group trip. To be completely honest, I was extremely skeptical about doing it. The only reason why I did it was because so many people were asking me if they could come join me on my solo travels, that I decided to just host a trip. That trip was to Iceland, and it was intense as all hell. We hiked through a blizzard for hours to get to the abandoned plane, we drove for hours in rental cars, and explored random creepy caves. We re-lived my first solo trip to Iceland, and they loved it, which is what sparked my idea to start hosting more group trips with my followers.

Anyway, while on the Iceland trip, I mentioned my primary bucketlist goal of ticking off my 7th continent; Antarctica. Two of the girls on my trip immediately said they would go if I made it a group trip.

This sparked a new idea. I would pitch the Antarctica companies again, asking if I were to book five people, if I could get my spot for free. That’s usually how it would work if you were getting a commission anyway…which I wasn’t asking for at the time.

None of them responded except one. Quark Expeditions, who happeed to have a millennial running their marketing department. I remember still to this day getting the email that simply said, “Alright Alyssa, if you can book 5 passengers, we’ll give you your spot for free.”

I screamed, I cried, I didn’t know who to tell because not many people at the time understood my desire to not only travel, but to travel as a solo woman without the help or finances of a man or anyone. I wanted to earn my spot on that trip and on any trip, and I wanted to show women like me that these types of trips are possible!

Long story short, I got to go to Antarctica! That first time is still embedded in my memories forever. I remember getting looks of confusion at first at my group of five millennials. And I remember there were only about six or seven other millennials on that entire ship out of about 150 passengers, proving we were not in fact, their primary customer demographic.

2021: Post Covid Pleas

During Covid I thought my career was going to end. I couldn’t go on sponsored work trips, and I couldn’t host my group trips. But then at the beginning of 2021 things started to look up. My Travel Tribe community and other followers on social media were starting to ask more and more when my next group trips were going to be. They were READY to travel again.

But while millennials were eager to travel, the generations above us were not. Whether it was out of fear or new financial burdens; the main demographic of Antarctica tourism was simply not booking trips there.

One day I received an unexpected email from someone who said they were on my first expedition, and had since started a their own travel company that runs trips to Antarctica. They said they had extremely low pricing because of Covid and they asked if I would be interested in hosting another group trip there, except this time, they would actually pay me a comission.

I couldn’t believe it. Never in my life did I think I’d get to go back to Antarctica AND get paid to do it! I told them the pricing was still a bit high compared to my regular trips, but I’d put a poll out and see if anyone was interested.

Over two hundred people filled out that poll, and over one hundred of them actually booked the trip. About 96% of them were millennials, and 98% were women.

2022: The Largest Influencer-Hosted Group Trip to Antarctica

We were all set to take over almost an entire ship when just two months before it, the company I was working with said they needed to postpone. Most of their crew is Australian, and Australians were still not allowed to leave. That and Argentina still hadn’t opened its borders yet…

I was in Egypt when I got the news, and I remember showing on my Stories that I had just received bad news about Antarctica, and I was manifesting with my Lucky Scarab to the Pyramids for a solution.

About ten minutes later, the same guy who first offered me the deal sent me a message that said he had left the previous company, and was taking over a new one, that had a brand new ship with plenty of space for my guests. AKA he was telling me I could literally “jump ship”.

This of course didn’t go over well with the company I was working with, and there was a full on Battle of AntarcticAlyssa that broke out…

But long story short, I gave my guests the option to take a risk and go in December of 2022 with a new company, or postpone to 2023. We ended up with 64 passengers in 2022, making it the largest ever influencer-hosted group trip to Antarctica. (Check out my feature in Forbes about it!)

Of course, having that many female millennials on this sort of trip caused a lot of attention, and not always the good kind. There was a crew member onboard who initially acted as though he were a friend and helping me, and ended up deceiving me and severely stabbing me in the back both financially and by spreading absurd rumors about my group and I to all Antarctica travel companies and even to IAATO.

Not to mention, he purposely tried making my life a living hell onboard for 10 days. When he would hear that my group was going to meet at a certain time and place, he would purposely bring his group there. He would tell his group members that we did not want to talk to any other passengers in order to turn them against us, when meanwhile we were inviting everyone to our events (and I still keep in contact with some to this day).

But I kept a smile and a positive attitude despite high anxiety and stress, and the trip turned out to be a huge success. My guests were so happy that about 60% of them booked a group trip with me in the future.

After the trip, I had to deal with the company I was working with judging me because of it, and even saying they were scared to keep working with me and my guests. This was all from these rumors from one person, and despite all of the positive feedback we had from the rest of the crew.

Regardless, I already had guests booked with them for the next year, so we remained cordial and started prepping for the next season.

Ironically, as much as I was told that Antarcticfa companies were now super worried about working with influencers, the amount of female influencers that were asked to host group trips or do collaborations the following year, was nearly quadrupled.

2023: The Third Group Trip to Antarctica & When It Went Viral

To be completely honest, after the chaos and drama that happened in 2022, I was not eager to do another group trip to Antarctica. I felt judged and discriminated against by Antarctic tourism in general, which really wasn’t worth dealing with since I host trips worldwide and have amazing experiences working with every other local tour companies.

But I had promised the 30+ guests who postponed that I would go with them if they chose to go a year later. We ended up with 37 guests, again, mostly millennial women, and I have to say the trip was a roaring success.

In the beginning it was rocky with the expedition team leaders who of course immediately judged me and my group and tried to come up with every excuse they could to not let us wear our metallic snowsuits (they really hate if anyone looks different). They first claimed the faux fur comes off of the hoods and penguins could eat it, so we needed to take those off, even though other guests and expedition team members could wear faux fur on their hats and hoods of neutrally colored clothing…

So we gladly took off the fur. Next they said the suits gave off glitter. So we did “glitter tests” and proved nothing comes off of the fabric. Finally I was told a slew of things from “Well the people who fund IAATO are from countries where they don’t want to see women dressed like that”, and “Well it’s like if you’re LGBQT and you go to Russia”….to which I informed them of how offensive that is, especially considering I had several LGBQT guests on my trip. I refused to back down and finally they gave up. And at the end, some of the crew asked if we would leave our snowsuits.

Because I knew the judgement against young women going on this particular trip, is why during all three of my expeditions, I have worn a gown in Antarctica. To show that we can be feminine and adventurous as well.

And not just adventurous; interested and respectful. My entire group attended almost every lecture onboard, asked questions, and followed every guideline we were given.

At the end of the trip, I was so proud when one of the team leaders said “It would be an honor and a privilege to sail with you again”, and another commended me for how well my branding was.

So WHY is Antarctica and the Drake Passage Going Viral

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A post shared by Alyssa Ramos MyLifesATravelMovie (@mylifesatravelmovie)

In my opinion there are several reasons.

The first reason: Is the obvious, that Antarctica companies finally started asking to work with travel influencers, and it’s our job to post on social media. We have a high chance of going viral, and several of us went this year.

The second reason: Because us travel influencers are hosting group trips, and the guests are mostly millennial, and we all have social media, and were posting at the same time.

The third reason: We were all there around the same time because the travel window for Antarctica is small, therefore we were all posting at the same time.

@mylifesatravelmovie This WHY the #drakepassage can be dangerous. The ships are built to handle it, but anything inside, including you, are not. Be safe! Follow for more #antarcticatips ! #antarctica #traveltips #mylifesatravelmovie #drakechallenge #drakeshakechallenge #drakeshake ♬ Titanic – Titanic

The fourth reason: Is the saddest but reality; someone passed away on one of the voyages. We had heard about the zodiac exploding and injuring someone’s leg before we left, and when we got back, we heard the same ship was hit by a supposed “rogue wave” which killed someone. We returned to shore with dozens of messages asking if we were Ok since people didn’t know which ship we were on and if it was ours.

In Regards to the Environment

We’ve had plenty of comments saying that we are solely responsible for “destroying Antarctica”, which simply isn’t true. Our demographic JUST started going to Antarctica after decades of tourism with primarily the older generations, who tend to care less about the environment than we do.

There was a report saying tourism has increased since 2015, but again, millennials didn’t start dominating the demographic until 2022, but it is obvious that people like to blame us for everything.

However we are the ones holding fundraisers for climate change organizations, making big donations at the onboard charity raffles, and spreading awareness about conservation and climate change through social media.

Then there’s also the tiny fact that the trips to Antarctica contribute a fraction of CO2 and other harm that the average person does in general throughout their life time. Ships going to Antarctica for 3 months per year is nothing compared to the extreme hard that the meat industry, big pharma, fast fashion, and other big corps do to the planet, which directly affects Antarctica.

I’ve seen the climate change affect on Antarctica throughout my 5 years of going there too. During December (summer) there are islands that are completely green, and then the heavy snow indicates that the ocean water is warmer than it should be.

Moving forward with my group trips to Antarctica, I plan to do more fundraising, and spread even more awareness. From signs on what we wear (I once wore a swimsuit doing the Polar Plunge that said “This is my Global Warming Suit”), to more in depth lectures onboard about how we can help, to more educational social media posts by my groups and I. I’d personally love to join the IAATO board, but I have a feeling they wouldn’t be interested in my brand.