Chinese tourists shoot wedding photos in Antarctica. (File photo/people.cn)
(ECNS) -- China now ranks fourth in terms of sending tourists to Antarctica, according to new data from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operations (IAATO).
Some 3,042 Chinese tourists visited Antarctica in the one-year span between 2014 and 2015, following the US, Australia, and the UK.
The latest number is four times as many as visited from 2011 to 2012, and 1.5 times that of 2012 to 2013.
An agency named HH travel, which is affiliated with Ctrip, also released an annual report on high-end visits to Antarctica. Over 90 percent of high-end Chinese travellers are willing to visit Antarctica, it noted. Most of these are company managers and investors, along with their families. They are aged between 17 and 74 years old, with an average age of 48.
The major attractions for potential tourists to Antarctica are viewing penguins and whales. Tourists can only visit the continent during the southern hemisphere summer, from October until February, making China's Spring Festival holiday a preferred travel period.
