Antarctica’s tourism boom accelerates melting of ‘white continent’

While the number of tourists has skyrocketed over the past decade, the pristine continent, which is attracting growing interest among researchers, is gradually deteriorating.

It was January 2024, but Pascale remembered it as if it were yesterday. “Antarctica is a once-in-a-lifetime journey that changes you. You see spectacular landscapes, untouched snow, colonies of penguins. Everything is silent except for the sound of falling ice,” recalled the 64-year-old personal development coach, who lives outside Paris and asked not to share her last name.

During the 13 days she spent aboard a ship from Exploris, alongside “fascinating young scientists,” Pascale said she “learned a lot about the fragility of ecosystems.” Even though she sometimes felt like an “intruder in this highly protected environment.”

As summer comes to a close in the Northern Hemisphere, a new tourist season is about to kick off at the far edge of the Southern Hemisphere. In just a few years, the “white continent” has become a sought-after destination: Approximately 118,000 people (40% of whom were from the US) visited during the 2024-2025 season, which ran from October to March. That was a dramatic surge compared to the previous decade: Only 36,000 tourists came in 2014-2015.

Antarctica’s tourism boom accelerates melting of ‘white continent’