Antarctic Tourism: Nature and Science in the limits of Contemporary Tourism

Abstract

For half a century Antarctic tourism has turned from being an elitist activity to become an economic sector that attracts a growing number of travelers. At present, the current human presence on the Antarctic continent brings about a dichotomy; on the one hand, nature tourists cruises, which may or may not land in Antarctica; on the other hand, scientific missions (another example of tourists), that in many cases maintain a continuous presence throughout the year. These two groups are related in the sense that both inflect undoubted pressure on the environment that international law seeks to regulate. In this paper, we describe both in their geographical contexts and show how they have evolved over the past decades.