Tourism in Antarctica

Organized tourism in Antarctica began in 1966, with sea voyages by Lars-Eric Lindblad, and grew slowly until the 1990s. In the 1991–1992 season, when the operators’ association IAATO was created, about 6,400 tourists went to the region.

According to IAATO, the 2023–2024 season set a record with 122,072 visitors, and 2024–2025 had 118,491. The drop of about 5% was mainly due to one cruise operator that did not run voyages that season.

In 2024–2025, 80,434 visitors went ashore, 36,769 took only the cruise without landing, and 938 traveled inland on the continent. By comparison, the summer population of research stations is around 4,400 people, as shown in Science and bases.

These numbers count only those who travel with IAATO operators, which includes almost all companies in the sector. They exclude scientists, government staff and most private yachts.

According to IAATO, 98% of ship voyages go to the Antarctic Peninsula, the part of the continent closest to South America. Most depart from Ushuaia, in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego, the nearest port to the Peninsula.

Others depart from Punta Arenas, Chile. From there there are also flights to King George Island in the South Shetlands, where passengers embark already in Antarctica, avoiding a sea crossing of the Drake Passage.

Hobart, Australia, and Christchurch, New Zealand, are the departure points for voyages to the Ross Sea and East Antarctica, which are longer, less frequent and have fewer landing sites.

For the interior, there are flights from Punta Arenas and from Cape Town, South Africa, to camps on the ice, from which ski and mountaineering expeditions depart and flights to the South Pole operate.

Between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands lies the Drake Passage, about 800 kilometers at its narrowest part, between Cape Horn and Livingston Island. It is the shortest link between Antarctica and another continent.

There the westerly winds and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow with no land to slow them. The sea can be calm or very rough, with waves of several meters, and a ship crossing usually takes about two days each way.

The name comes from the English corsair Francis Drake, whose ship was driven south by a storm in 1578, showing that open sea lay below South America. In Spanish the passage is also called Mar de Hoces, after the navigator Francisco de Hoces, who is said to have reached it in 1525.

Tourism takes place only in the southern hemisphere summer, from November to March, when sea ice retreats and the days are long. Outside that period, ice and darkness close access to most of the coast.

In November, at the start of the season, there is still a lot of snow and sea ice near the coast, and penguins are usually building nests. In December and January the days are longest and chicks typically hatch. February and March are the months when whales are most often seen on the Peninsula, as described in Life in Antarctica.

Voyages to the Ross Sea and flights inland have an even shorter window, generally from December to February.

Because summer brings the midnight sun, nights during the season are short or may never get fully dark, and the aurora australis, which requires a dark sky, rarely appears. Seasons and the light at each latitude are explained in Light and sky in Antarctica and in The seasons of the year.

For Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, tourism is an activity like any other: it requires prior notice and an environmental impact assessment approved by the operator’s national authority, under the Madrid Protocol, discussed in The Antarctic Treaty.

Measure 15, adopted in 2009, states that ships with more than 500 passengers must not put anyone ashore; that only one ship may be at a landing site at a time; that at most 100 passengers may be ashore at once; and that there must be at least one guide for every 20 visitors. IAATO rules apply these same limits.

The General Guidelines for Visitors, adopted by the Parties, and site-specific guidelines for the most visited places indicate where one may walk, how many people may be present and what to avoid. According to IAATO, the 20 most visited landing sites on the Peninsula have specific rules.

Nothing may be taken from Antarctica — not rocks, bones, feathers or shells — and nothing may be left behind, including food. It is also prohibited to enter specially protected areas without authorization or to disturb historic sites.

IAATO was created in 1991 by seven tour operators, shortly after the Madrid Protocol was signed, to keep voyages safe and low-impact. Many of its rules were later adopted by Treaty Parties.

On land, the general rule is to stay at least 5 meters from animals, without touching or feeding, to give way to penguins on trails they use and to move away if an animal changes its behavior. At sea there are distances and speed limits for boats near whales.

Since avian influenza H5N1 reached the region, IAATO also requires that no one sit, kneel or lie down near animals and that no equipment be placed on the ground in areas where animals live.

The greatest risk a visitor brings is invisible: seeds, soil, insects and microbes caught on clothing, boots and backpacks. A species introduced from elsewhere can become established and change the life of a place that evolved in isolation for millions of years.

Therefore, before each landing, boots are washed and disinfected, and clothing, pockets, Velcro and backpacks are vacuumed or brushed while still on the ship. On return, boots are washed again so nothing is taken from one site to another.

Non‑native species have already been found in the region, such as the grass Poa annua on King George Island, and a wingless mosquito from South Georgia, Eretmoptera murphyi, on Signy Island in the South Orkneys.

The most studied impacts are trampling of mosses and lichens, which grow only a few millimeters per year, disturbance of animals during breeding, the arrival of non‑native species, pollution from ships and the risk of accidents far from any help.

To reduce these risks, operators send reports of each visit, landing sites are allocated among ships so they do not overlap, and the most fragile places are closed or have smaller limits. Since 2011, a rule of the International Maritime Organization bans the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil in Antarctic waters, and the Polar Code, in force since 2017, imposes safety requirements on ships in polar waters.

In 2024–2025, according to IAATO, Neko Harbour on the Peninsula was the site with the most ship landings, 220, followed by Whalers Bay on Deception Island with 194.

Control relies on landing rules and site‑specific guidelines. The idea of a general visitor cap is discussed at the Treaty Parties meetings.