“The recent popularity of Antarctica with the Chinese luxury traveller shows how much experiential travel is now on the cards,” Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said.

A decade ago, only 99 Chinese tourists visited the Antarctic during the 2005/2006 travel season, but the number shot up to 3,042 in 2014/2015, according to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO). The travel season to the continent is between November and March.

Based on tourist numbers to the Antarctic, China is now ranked fourth, after the United States, Australia and Britain. More than 12,000 US citizens visited the continent during the 2014/2015 travel season.

Guangzhou senior manager Zhang Mengying is one of this growing group of Chinese tourists.

She travelled to the Antarctic to “realise [her] life-long dream”, as she had made up her mind years ago that she would visit the Antarctic, the Arctic and the equator at least once.

In February, Zhang took a more-than-30-hour flight from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, transiting at Dubai and Rio de Janeiro. After resting for a night, she and her travel companions then boarded another plane to Argentinean town Ushuaia – the southernmost tip of the South American continent – where they set sail on a week-long cruise to tour the Antarctic.

“The most impressive thing during my Antarctic trip was the impact it had on my soul,” Zhang, 31, said. “Seeing the magnificent, breathtaking beauty of the scenery and animals around me, I couldn’t help thinking that nature is so great that all big and small disputes in our society are in fact meaningless.”

The trip also intensified her belief in environmental protection and convinced her of the urgency to slow down global warming, she said.

IAATO spokeswoman Amanda Lynnes told the South China Morning Post that the rise in the number of Chinese visitors to the Antarctic was in line with global trends and that they expected the figure to continue growing.

Travel agencies’ businesses have been booming over the past few years, according to Charles Wang, who is in charge of tours to the Antarctic and the Arctic at HH Travel, an upmarket brand of leading Chinese travel website Ctrip.com.

“Over the last two to three years, our Antarctic clients have been doubling by the year. One interesting phenomenon is that in the past, only entrepreneurs, gold-collar workers and retirees go to the Antarctic. But now, the tourists are becoming younger,” Wang said, adding that the Antarctic tourists he has been seeing in recent years are aged between 12 and 74.

His company offers two lines: a 12-day trip to the Antarctic Peninsula for nearly 200,000 yuan, and a more-than-20-day trip to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island for 300,000 yuan.

But although Chinese travellers were increasingly keen to visit the Antarctic, Zhao Xikun, head of the Antarctic and Arctic lines at Guangzhou-based Diadema Travel agency, said agent should lower their expectations this year because of an oversupply of agents focused on that destination.

“More agents are doing the Antarctic line and they are just following the trend,” Zhao said, adding that this had forced his firm to charter one fewer cruise this year.

Zhao said tourists to the continent should be prepared to face physical challenges as they had to travel by air for long hours and sail through the Drake Passage, which is known for its raging waves.

Zhang said that being aware of the hardships she would face, she prepared herself by running daily for six months prior to the trip. Her efforts paid off when she did not get seasick throughout the voyage.

With more Chinese tourists visiting exotic destinations, media reports have surfaced of their bad reputation because of their uncivilised behaviour.

Chinese tourists have been observed charging at groups of penguins, chasing them or going too close to them to take pictures, Thepaper.cn reported.

“IAATO has seen some photos of Chinese visitors who look like they may be too close to the wildlife,” Lynnes said. “There were some last season who took wedding photos with them … But these incidents aren’t just limited to the Chinese.”

When such incidents were reported to the IAATO, Lynnes said, the association would identify which operators were involved and contact them to find out what happened, if there were lessons to be learned, and to ensure that all IAATO guidelines and procedures were being followed.

Beijing retiree Yang Yuan, 60, who travelled to the Antarctic in January, said her cruise operator handed each visitor a brochure detailing how to protect the Antarctic environment.

“I was stunned by the pure scenery and was moved by the service of my American cruise operator, who spared no effort in protecting the environment,” Yang said.

“I think my two-week trip was not sufficient. I would like to go to the South Pole next to see the emperor penguins.”