Proactive management of Antarctic tourism: integrating value-driven and risk-based criteria in a pre-assessment framework for Antarctic tourism activities

Antarctic tourism has not only been growing in scale but also becoming more diverse, encompassing a wider range of recreational activities, facilities, destinations, and operators. This diversification complicates efforts to assess tourism’s implications for Antarctica and to determine how well they align with internationally agreed ambitions for human presence on the continent. The countries that jointly manage Antarctica have long debated how to address the diversification of Antarctic tourism, but have not yet been able to agree on criteria for assessing tourism activities. This paper develops an integrated value-driven and risk-based pre-assessment framework for Antarctic tourism activities. The framework draws on Antarctic experts’ evaluations of current tourism activities through a sorting exercise, the criteria guiding their evaluations, and how these are informed by the values and principles of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The paper argues that an effective framework should combine assessing whether activities align with the Antarctic context and its values with assessing potential risks to the environment, safety, and regulatory and management aspects. By combining these perspectives, the paper outlines a more integrated and proactive basis for managing Antarctic tourism.