\n<\/p>\n
While visitor numbers are still small \u2014 in part due to the high costs and time it can take \u2014 they are growing so fast that scientists and environmentalists are sounding alarms.<\/p>\n
\nA deadly outbreak of the rare hantavirus aboard a Dutch ship<\/a> on a weekslong polar cruise has brought attention to the growing tourism trend. A common route is to voyage south from Argentina toward Antarctica before heading north up the coast of Africa \u2014 the same route taken by the cruise ship MV Hondius.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sites you will see in Antarctica are extremely unique and not replicable anywhere else on the planet \u2014 the whales, the seals, the penguins, the icebergs \u2014 it\u2019s all really stunning and it makes a huge impression on people,\u201d said Claire Christian, executive director of the environmental group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.<\/p>\n In 2024, more than 80,000 tourists touched down on the vast ice-cloaked continent and 36,000 viewed from the safety of ships, according to data collected by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.<\/p>\n The International Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that tourism to Antarctica has grown tenfold in the past 30 years.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Some tourists come to Antarctica for \u201clast chance tourism,\u201d knowing the melting landscape is rapidly changing, Nielsen said.<\/p>\n Officials have not indicated any evidence of contamination from the MV Hondius.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \nThat outbreak prompted the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and others to harden rules for tourists\u2019 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are rules that people are bound by when they\u2019re heading south,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween the tongues and the laces of the boots you can find a lot of things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cruise ships have been struck by outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, which can spread quickly in a ship\u2019s close quarters. In 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess turned the cruise ship into an incubator for the then-mysterious virus.<\/p>\n Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.<\/p>\n The World Health Organization said Tuesday that MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and visited Antarctica and several isolated islands.<\/p>\n WHO is investigating possible human-to-human transmission on the cruise ship, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201caim to ensure that all visits, regardless of location, do not adversely impact the Antarctic environment or its scientific and aesthetic values,\u201d according to the treaty\u2019s secretariat.<\/p>\n Companies and scientific ventures voluntarily comply with biosecurity guidelines and submit environmental impact assessments for Antarctic operations.<\/p>\n The treaty was written when tourism numbers were much lower, Christian said.<\/p>\n \u201cActivity needs to be regulated appropriately, as you would with any of the world\u2019s sensitive and precious ecological sites,\u201d Christian said from Hiroshima, Japan, where she was preparing for an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. There she\u2019ll join calls to strengthen protections for Antarctica\u2019s penguins, whales, seabirds, seals and krill \u2014 tiny creatures at the base of the food chain.<\/p>\n For now, the lure of the frozen frontier continues to draw visitors.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can put a footprint in Antarctica and it\u2019s still there 50 years later,\u201d Christian said.<\/p>\n
Most expeditions head to the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming places in the world. From 2002 to 2020, roughly 149 billion metric tons (164 billion tons) of Antarctic ice melted per year, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.<\/p>\n