Antarctic gateway cities

The Antarctic gateway cities are five cities on the rim of the Southern Ocean through which nearly all cargo and personnel bound for Antarctica pass. From west to east, they are Punta Arenas, Chile; Ushuaia, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Hobart, Australia; and Christchurch, New Zealand. As Antarctica is a low-resource environment with no major transportation infrastructure of its own, gateway cities are a necessary part of all Antarctic activities. Each of the gateway cities accommodates both planes and ships traveling to Antarctica, and generally services the areas of the continent closest to them. The cities are used by both national Antarctic programs and Antarctic commercial tourism companies, although they differ in how much of each they facilitate. As a result of their status as transportation hubs, the cities also have cultural, economic, ecological, and political connections to Antarctica.