MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Another Antarctica season of over 100.000 visitors, according to IAATO

The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat says annual tourism has risen to more than 100,000 visitors with most visitors reaching by ship via the Antarctic Peninsula (Pkc IAATO)

The latest official report from IAATO, (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators), put total 2024-25 visitation at 118,491, after 122,072 in 2023-24, meaning traffic remains well above the 100,000 mark even after a modest pullback.

 At the same time, operators and treaty bodies are tightening site guidance, biosecurity practice, and wildlife protection around a continent already under heavier ecological pressure.

According to the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat annual tourism has now risen to more than 100,000 passengers, and most visitors reach the continent by ship via the Antarctic Peninsula. IAATO adds that 98% of tourism voyages operate in the Peninsula region during the austral summer.

IAATO says the 2024-25 five per cent dip mainly reflected one cruise-only operator sitting out the season, not a collapse in demand, which means the white continent is still attracting numbers that would have looked extraordinary only a few years ago.

Details indicate that the Peninsula is the easiest part of Antarctica to reach from South America, so it absorbs most ship-based tourism, including expedition-style voyages marketed through operators.

IAATO reports that traditional commercial seaborne tourism in the Peninsula accounts for more than 95% of all landed activity, which helps explain why debates over crowding, wildlife disturbance, and site protection keep circling back to one relatively small region.

Traffic is also concentrated inside that region. IAATO says all top 20 landed sites on the Peninsula are managed through ATCM (Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting) or IAATO visitor site guidelines, or through national program management rules.

In 2024-25, Neko Harbor logged 220 landing calls, Whalers Bay 194, Portal Point 184, and Danco Island 173. Even without thousands of people standing in one place at once, repeated calls at a short list of photogenic, accessible stops create a steady pressure pattern.

The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat says the main regulations and guidelines for tourism are compiled in a formal manual tied to the treaty system and the Protocol on Environmental Protection, and the ATCM updated the General Guidelines for Visitors in 2025.

Longstanding operating limits remain central. Only one ship may visit a site at a time. Vessels with more than 500 passengers are not allowed to land passengers in Antarctica.

A maximum of 100 people may be ashore from a vessel at one time, and ship landings are expected to maintain a 1:20 guide-to-passenger ratio IAATO bylaws add that vessels carrying 201 to 500 passengers must follow stricter place and timing restrictions for landings.