Antarctic tourism:

Considerations for its analysis from the Antarctic Treaty System and the evolution of visitors’ flows

Abstract

Tourism has occupied an increasingly relevant place in the agenda of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings by virtue of the expansion and diversification of tourist practices. Thus, a series of concerns and questions have been generated with regard to the protection of the environment, safety of human life at sea, disturbance of scientific activity, among others. This contribution aims to observe how the different concerns are related to the evolution of tourist flows in their different modalities. To this end, a review of all the provisions emanating from the Antarctic Treaty System between 1961 and 2019 and from various documentary and statistical sources of Antarctic tourism for the period 1958-2019 have been carried out. In this way, a periodization is presented that synthesizes the behavior of tourism in Antarctica and the deliberations in the Antarctic Treaty Meetings.