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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 13th 2025 - 00:51 UTC

Tag: IAATO

  • Sunday, July 6th 2025 - 11:45 UTC

    As more and more tourists flock to Antarctica: a visitors’ tax and a numbers’ system cap

    Market-based tools could prevent Antarctic tourist numbers from getting out of control. HURTIGRUTEN via AAP

    By Daria Hatton MacDonald , University of Tasmania And Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania - The number of tourists heading to Antarctica has been skyrocketing. From fewer than 8,000 a year about three decades ago, nearly 125,000 tourists flocked to the icy continent in 2023–24. The trend is likely to continue in the long term.

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  • Monday, October 21st 2024 - 08:39 UTC

    Chinese tourists growing interest in visiting Antarctica

    In an interview with TravelDaily China, Joe Zou, Hurtigruten's Sales Director for Greater China and Southeast Asia, highlighted that Chinese tourists accounted for about 20%-25% of their voyages

    In the 2023-2024 Antarctic tourism cruise season, a record 9,384 Chinese tourists visited Antarctica, according to data from IAATO. And this coming season, 24-25 the Hurtigruten cruise line, according to its Shanghai sales office is expecting 600 Chinese tourists to visit the Arctic Islands and more than 1,400 Antarctica.

  • Saturday, June 22nd 2024 - 06:18 UTC

    IAATO measures and short term priorities for the coming 2024/25 Antarctica season

    “These new measures are part of IAATO’s continued mission to advocate and promote the practice of safe and environmentally responsible private sector travel to Antarctica,” said Lisa Kelley

    The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has announced a series of enhanced responsible tourism measures and short-term priorities as its members prepare for the 2024-25 season in Antarctica. According to a press release, these actions were agreed upon during the association’s annual meeting in Annapolis, United States, in late April.

  • Monday, June 10th 2024 - 09:10 UTC

    Antarctica tour companies working closely with IAATO in conservation measures

    Since its launch in 2022-23 season, data gathered through V-CaPS has contributed to improved protections for whales, implemented by all IAATO operators along the Antarctic Peninsula.

    Data collected by tour companies operating in Antarctica is bolstering conservation measures for whales and seals along the region’s Peninsula, according to a piece by Travel and Tour World news site.

  • Monday, January 29th 2024 - 10:43 UTC

    Ice Patrol HMS Protector is helping to study the impact of tourism on Antarctica

    According to IAATO, during the 2022/23 season more than 104,000 visitors traveled to Antarctica.

    The Royal Navy Ice Patrol HMS Protector took scientists on an Antarctic research cruise to analyze the increasing impact of tourism and climate change on the frozen continent, a challenge which has been underlined by IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. IAATO has pointed out that during the 2022/23 season more than 104,000 visitors traveled to Antarctica.

  • Monday, January 8th 2024 - 12:06 UTC

    During January, HMS Protector will help witha a research on increased tourism and pollution

    IAATO recorded 105,331 people visited Antarctica during the 2022-23 tourism season – travelling on one of 50 ships a day. And this trend is expected to grow

    The consequences of increased tourism and pollution in Antarctica, are two of the tasks the Royal Navy Ice Patrol HMS Protector will be checking during this month in the frozen continent. For this purpose it has invited two scientists from the University of Portsmouth, Professor Fay Couceiro and Dr. Clare Boston.

  • Thursday, July 27th 2023 - 10:00 UTC

    IAATO Climate Change Committee incorporates Chimu Adventures Chad Carey

    Carey was elected to a one-year term on the Climate Change Committee and his first step will be to collect a baseline for fuel emissions.

    Chimu Adventures’ Managing Director Chad Carey has joined the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) Climate Change Committee to help improve sustainability in the Antarctic tourism space, according to a statement.

  • Wednesday, May 10th 2023 - 10:00 UTC

    IAATO confirms the Falklands Development Corporation in its family

    Falkland Development Corp. was voted in at the organization's recent annual meeting in Hamburg

    The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators welcomed five provisional operators and eight associates. Bunker One A/S, Freestyle Adventure Travel, South America Shipping, UnWild Planet Travel and Polar Tourism Guides Association were approved by IAATO members during an inter-session vote at the end of 2022 while Avila Reizen, Falkland Islands Development Corp. and Summit Aviation were voted in at the organization's recent annual meeting in Hamburg.

  • Wednesday, April 12th 2023 - 10:57 UTC

    Antarctic Tourism is up, but experts give it a thumbs down

    Experts from Antarctic ecologists to marine scientists are sounding the alarm about the environmental impacts of that swelling human presence

    By Jen Rose Smith (*) – Even after Captain James Cook first sailed below the Antarctic Circle 250 years ago, icily inhospitable Antarctica stayed quiet for a long, long time. The only continent with no native human population, it remained a place apart, where occasional expeditions and intrepid researchers contended with harsh and sometimes deadly conditions.

  • Friday, December 2nd 2022 - 10:26 UTC

    Antarctic fellowship recipients announced on Antarctic Treaty anniversary

    Aanchal, plastic polution; Antonio submarine volcanoes; Hanna from Ukraine will be visiting BAS; Eduardo, wildlife conservation.

    On the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, December first 1959, the Antarctic Fellowship Recipients have been announced. The annual fellowships awarded by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), are an investment in the professional development of talented early career researchers and aim to further the understanding of human presence in Antarctica.

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