The Southern Cone Ports Corp. (Conosur) tallied 275 calls, up from 268 in the 2018/19 season, while passenger and crew numbers totaled 432,000, up from 418,500.
Season suspended March 15
Due to the government-mandated ban of cruise ships docking, the season was cut short, ending on March 15 instead of in April. That led to the cancellation of calls in the homeports of Valparaíso, San Antonio and Punta Arenas, in addition to the transit ports of Arica, Iquique, Coquimbo, Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Montt.
Despite this, passenger/crew increases were recorded at Arica (113%), Valparaíso (109%) and Punta Arenas (27%).
'Once the coronavirus pandemic passes, we will continue putting great effort into promoting our ports for cruise calls,' Tourism Undersecretary Mónica Zalaquett said.
'We regret the human losses that have been generated due to the advance of the coronavirus in the world and consider that the most important thing is to protect people's health,' Conosur Executive Director Sebastián Montero said. 'We hope next season will be auspicious, although at this time it is very difficult to predict what will happen and it all depends on the progress or control of the pandemic.'
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