The Conosur delegation met with executives from the main international cruise lines that call at Chile and South America, who expressed their interest in developing new destinations on their itineraries and their intention to deploy more ships.
Meetings were held with Silversea Cruises, Hurtigruten, Ponant, Royal Caribbean, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Princess, MSC Cruises, Fred. Olsen, Carnival and the new Exploris expedition line.
Sernatur organized the Chile stand whose participants included Conosur, representatives of the municipality of Puerto Montt, the Valparaíso Regional Tourism Corp. and other entities
Conosur also participated in a meeting organized by Cruise Lines International Association, along with representatives of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and received a visit from executives of the American Association of Port Authorities at the Chile stand. During a meeting with Argentina's General Administration of Ports, they agreed to continue a common work agenda, strengthening regional circuits and common itineraries in Antarctic tourism.
More than 370 cruise calls projected
'In the meetings we had with the cruise lines, several confirmed that they want to increase their calls in Chile, which also implies more visitors to the country,' Conosur President Rodrigo Pommiez said. 'According to our projections, this season we will receive more than 370 cruise calls, which is a great contribution to the reactivation of local and national economies. The cruise industry will continue to grow and recover after the pandemic so we must be prepared and work to improve infrastructure capacity and services for passengers.'
Conosur Executive Secretary Eric Petri said: 'This was an excellent initiative to promote tourism in our country. In addition, it allows us to consider future challenges for the ports of Chile and our destinations. We want cruise ships to continue coming as part of the creation of a sustainable tourism industry, which is one of the main challenges facing this market.'
The Conosur delegation was part of a national committee headed by the National Tourism Service (Sernatur) and jointly participated in the Chilean stand along with representatives of the municipality of Puerto Montt, the Valparaíso Regional Tourism Corp. and other entities.
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