The hantavirus crisis has served to remind, at least for a few days, much of the planet about COVID-19 and how exposed a hyperconnected world with a changing climate is to the expansion of pandemics. Also (even if only glancingly) to remember a phenomenon that has been gaining strength for years in a silent, discreet, but forceful way: the tourist exploitation of Antarctica. The MV Hondius was promoted as a cruise to remote destinations departing from Ushuaia, also the departure point for the vast majority of ships that travel to the southern pole.
The interest in Antarctica of the MV Hondius shipping company (Oceanwide Expeditions) is no coincidence. There are more and more signs that suggest that polo is becoming an important tourist asset… and (above all) on the rise.
A percentage: 1,120%. Antarctica may be one of the most remote places on the planet, but that has not left it off the radar of the tourism. On the contrary. Data from IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, has long shown that the region has never been busier. The annual balances may register slight fluctuations, but the curve they draw when the focus is opened and the last three decades are analyzed shows the growing popularity of the destination.
The latest evidence has been provided The Vanguard in an article in which he leaves out a key fact: during the 2024 season, more than 122,000 people visited the continent, which represents an increase of 1,120% compared to 30 years ago, when the statistics did not exceed 10,00 visits.
Is there more data? Yes. To be more precise, the latest IAATO balance shows that if in the 1993-94 season the number of disembarked passengers barely reached 8,000, in 2013-14 it already exceeded 27,700 and in 2023-24 it was close to 78,900. In parallel, the number of those who only travel on cruises, without setting foot on land, has also been increasing. If in 2013-14 there were 9,700 people, last season they exceeded 43,200.
Looking ahead to the 2024-2025 season, the organization calculates a slight decrease in the number of travelers who do not get off the boat and an increase in those who do. The first would remain at 36,769, the second at 80,434. Added to these are 938 “deep field” visitors, as those who fly to the interior of the region or board a ship to explore the Antarctic Peninsula or the islands are called.
USA, the big market. IAATO statistics allow us to go further and analyze, for example, the nationalities of travelers who stop in Antarctica. The Americans are in the lead, with 44.6% in 2023-24, followed far behind by the Australians and Chinese, who each take almost 8% of the pie. The British, Canadians, Germans, Argentines and Brazilians also stand out, although IAATO has identified visitors of more than 200 nationalities.
As for what they do there, the vast majority (98%) of tourist trips focus on the Antarctic Peninsula during the southern summer season and depart from Ushuaia, in the south of Argentina. Activities offered upon arrival include zodiac trips, landings and (more rarely) kayaking, climbing or overnight stays.
IAATO graph with the flow of visitors between 1993 and 2002.
IAATO graph with the flow of visitors between 2011 and 2024.
Looking to the future. The flow of tourists may have skyrocketed in recent decades, but could fall short in the coming years. At least that’s what the researchers believe, who have just published a study on “tourism management in Antarctica” in Journal of Sustainable Tourism. In it, the team led by Dr. Valeria Senigaglia slips two pieces of information.
First, note the boom in visitors in the last 30 years: from less than 8,000 in 93/34 to more than 120,000 in the 2023/24 season. Second, it warns that if the model is not rethought, the number of tourists could quadruple in the next decade to reach almost half a million people annually.
“If the number of visitors grows at the average annual growth rate recorded between the 1992-1993 season and the 2023-2024 season (a constant annual growth rate of 14.0%), the total number of visitors is expected to almost quadruple in 10 years, reaching approximately 452,000 in the 2033-2034 season,” says the paperwhich also recalls that approximately 65% of the more than 120,000 tourists who currently take cruises to Antarctica travel on ships that allow disembarkation, operations that tend to concentrate at the same points.
An invisible footprint. That Antarctica arouses curiosity and there are people who want to know it or even visit it is, a priori, nothing bad. The problem, as the authors of the report warn, is the impact that this growing flow of tourists can have on a particularly fragile ecosystem.
Although every detail is taken care of during landings and IAATO requires tourists not to touch or feed local fauna or damage plants, their presence entails certain environmental risks. For example, Elie Poulin, from the University of Chile, warns in The Vanguard that tourism can unintentionally spread exotic species. It comes with someone transporting them without knowing it.
“Widespread degradation”. “The risks are real. An invasive species of grass has established itself on one of the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, while avian flu has reached the Subantarctic Islands, where it has had a devastating effect on the seal population,” Dana Bergstrom, an expert in Antarctic ecology, warned some time ago. This is without taking into account the environmental footprint left by cruise ship traffic or frequent disembarkation in certain areas.
“A major concern is that the cumulative impacts of tourism will interact with alterations in weather patterns, melting ice, ocean currents and nutrient cycling caused by climate change, leading to widespread habitat degradation and declines in wildlife populations and diversity,” insists Senigaglia.
Review the guidelines? The reality is that visiting Antarctica is still not the same as traveling to any other tourist destination on the planet. Since 1991 there has been an environmental protection protocol for Antarctica that designates it as a “nature reserve” and certain regulations are applied to protect the environment. IAATO guidelines also regulate the frequency, duration and number of visitors who can arrive at the site, establishing a limit on the number of people who can disembark simultaneously.
The key, as Senigaglia and his colleagues point out, is whether the time has come to go one step further. “To manage tourism in a sustainable way we need to operate at different levels. We need specific regulations and guidelines for each place, but this cannot be the only method,” claims the expert, who trusts that her study “will serve as a basis” for the consultative parties of the Antarctic Treaty to create “a tourism framework that not only manages the number of visitors, but also preserves the value of Antarctica for future generations.”
Images | Freysteinn G. Jonsson (Unsplash) at IAATO
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