Abstract:

Antarctic tourism is one of the methods of peaceful use of Antarctica by human being. It was started at the end of 1950s. For the past fifty years since then, Antarctic tourism develops at a steady pace which sees a marked rise in tourist numbers, a gradual maturation in tourism route, being fixed in transportation mode, and a continuous improvement in international cooperation among the operators. Meanwhile, the legal regulation in environment protection within the framework of Antarctic Treaty System is becoming more and more comprehensive and compulsive. It’s not a long time since China has been involved in the Antarctic tourism and there are only about two or three hundred Chinese people travelling to Antarctica each year. Considering that Antarctic tourism is helpful for people to enjoy the beauty of nature and enhance the awareness of environmental protection and is beneficial to promote international culture communication and environment protection cooperation and will favour the restructuring and optimization of industrial structure in China, therefore, it is suggested that China should strengthen the study on Antarctic tourism, legislate accordingly for the operation and management of Antarctic tourism to follow rules and regulations and progress orderly, speed up familiarizing the international regulations and bringing in line with international practice, and Antarctic tourism should also be pushed forward in consideration of commercial rules.

Key words: Antarctic tourism, development trends, countermeasures and suggestions