Surge in Antarctic Tourism Sparks Worries Over Environmental and Health Risks

BRUSSELS (AP) — With growing concerns over climate change potentially causing irreversible melting of Antarctica’s frozen vistas, tourism to the southernmost continent is experiencing a significant surge. Experts caution that this rise in visitors heightens the risk of contamination, illness, and other environmental harm to the pristine region.

Although the number of tourists remains relatively low due to the expensive and time-consuming nature of these trips, the rapid increase in visitors has alarmed scientists and environmental advocates.

A recent incident involving a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship during a week-long polar expedition has brought the burgeoning tourism trend into the spotlight.

The majority of these expeditions target the Antarctic Peninsula, a region experiencing some of the swiftest warming on the planet. From 2002 to 2020, NASA reports that approximately 149 billion metric tons (164 billion tons) of Antarctic ice have melted annually.

A typical journey involves traveling south from Argentina to Antarctica before heading north along Africa’s coast, a route notably followed by the cruise ship MV Hondius.

“The sights in Antarctica are incredibly unique and cannot be replicated anywhere else — the whales, the seals, the penguins, the icebergs — it’s all breathtaking and leaves a lasting impression,” said Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Explosive growth of trips to the southern continent

In 2024, more than 80,000 tourists touched down on the vast ice-cloaked continent and 36,000 viewed it from the safety of ships, according to data collected by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

The International Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that tourism to Antarctica has grown tenfold in the past 30 years.

That number could rise further in the next decade as costs fall with more ice-capable hulls hitting the water and technological advances, said Hanne Nielsen, a senior lecturer of Antarctic law at the University of Tasmania. Her colleagues at the university estimate the annual figure could triple or quadruple to over 400,000 visits in that time.

Some tourists come to Antarctica for “last chance tourism,” knowing the melting landscape is rapidly changing, Nielsen said.

Risks of contamination

Officials have not indicated any evidence of contamination from the MV Hondius.

However, flocks of migratory birds brought avian flu from South America to Antarctica in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That outbreak prompted the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and others to harden rules for tourists’ conduct and hygiene to protect visitors from being contaminated. To protect the fragile ecosystem from invasive species, large and microscopic, visitors are told to stay away from animals and to avoid touching the ground with anything but their feet.

“There are rules that people are bound by when they’re heading south,” Nielsen said, describing her five voyages as a former guide. Crews and passengers use vacuums, disinfectants and brushes to scrub shoes and equipment clear of bugs, feathers, seeds and microbe-carrying dirt.

“Between the tongues and the laces of the boots you can find a lot of things,” she said.

Cruise ships have been struck by outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, which can spread quickly in a ship’s close quarters. In 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess turned the cruise ship into an incubator for the then-mysterious virus.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.

The Hondius’ island hopping cruise

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and visited Antarctica and several isolated islands.

WHO is investigating possible human-to-human transmission on the cruise ship, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness. Officials suspect the first infected person likely contracted the virus before boarding, she said, and officials have been told there are no rats on board.

Antarctica is governed by the Antarctic Treaty, which in 1959 enshrined the territory as a scientific preserve used only for peaceful purposes.

A series of rules that followed “aim to ensure that all visits, regardless of location, do not adversely impact the Antarctic environment or its scientific and aesthetic values,” according to the treaty’s secretariat.

Companies and scientific ventures voluntarily comply with biosecurity guidelines and submit environmental impact assessments for Antarctic operations.

Here’s the latest on the deadly hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch cruise ship:

The treaty was written when tourism numbers were much lower, Christian said.

“Activity needs to be regulated appropriately, as you would with any of the world’s sensitive and precious ecological sites,” Christian said from Hiroshima, Japan, where she was preparing for an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

There she’ll join calls to strengthen protections for Antarctica’s penguins, whales, seabirds, seals and krill â€” tiny creatures at the base of the food chain.

For now, the lure of the frozen frontier continues to draw visitors.

“You can put a footprint in Antarctica, and it’s still there 50 years later,” Christian said.