The visitor attractions include an Antarctic snow storm room, an audiovisual display, meetups with husky dogs, and rides in Hägglunds all-terrain vehicle outside the centre.

The first British Antarctic expedition by Robert Falcon Scott visited Christchurch in November–December 1901 with the vessel RRS Discovery, on the voyage to Antartica.

This was the beginnings of what became known as Operation Deep Freeze, and led to the establishment of research stations in Antarctica in preparation for the International Geophysical Year.

The first stage opened in September 1990, providing an office and warehouse storage facility for the Antarctic programmes of New Zealand, the United States and Italy.

The architect for the development was Barry Dacombe of Warren & Mahoney, and the main contractor was Armitage Williams Construction.

Dacombe describes the visitor centre building as: "a series of fan shaped solids of varying height appearing as large wedges of ice squeezed outwards from the Antarctic continent".

Work had also commenced on producing a short film about Antarctica, to be shown in the centre on the largest high-definition screen in the South Island.

The centre changed its marketing focus to attract more local visitors, and introduced annual passes and heavily discounted tickets for families.

These initiatives were successful, and during the winter school holiday period in 2012, up to half of all visitors to the centre were from the local Canterbury region.

[26][27] Along with Real Journeys, the International Antarctic Centre became part of the privately-owned Wayfare Group, subsequently re-branded as RealNZ.

[30] In 1997, the International Antarctic Centre won the visitor attraction category in the New Zealand Tourism Awards.

The International Antarctic Centre was recognised as the Champion Host Winner and shared the finalist category along with Whale Watch Kaikoura and Canterbury Museum.