Currently there are 35 member organizations representing 10 countries. During the last 35 years tourist expeditions have ventured to Antarctica every year since 1966. Tourism in the Antarctic is overwhelmingly by some 20 vessels carrying 45 to 280 passengers each. The ships are ice strengthened and sail primarily to the Antarctic Peninsula region. Yacht travel to Antarctica is also very popular, with nearly all itineraries in the Antarctic Peninsula, and using Ushuaia as a port.
Several expeditions take place outside the Peninsula region each season.
Since 1992 the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov and or Kapitan Dranitsyn have conducted voyages to the Weddell Sea, Ross Sea region and, on occasion, East Antarctica including islands of the Indian Ocean sector. These expeditions have uniquely included visits to Emperor Penguin colonies, historical huts, the Dry Valleys and other remote areas. Icebreakers also routinely carry helicopters for tourist visits and ice reconnaissance. The Akademik Shokalskiy has been operating voyages in the Ross Sea Region and the New Zealand and Sub Antarctic Islands for many years, departing out of Bluff, New Zealand. Since the 1970s there have been occasional voyages from the Peninsula to the Ross Sea, usually including New Zealand and Australian Sub-Antarctic islands.