http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30709924 37000 tourists are expected to travel there this year according to the bbc. frankly living in a cold climate i see no reason why people would want to go and experience more cold but according to this article there is no ban. tourists travel there all the time... there are strict codes but lets be honest. very little is stopping people from traveling there, and who would go out of their way to enforce it? the US coastguard?... the Japanese whaling vessels marked research? dude there is nothing there but ice and rock.