The tourism industry has gone from expectation to annoyance, and from annoyance to exasperation. The reason: the government continues to fail to establish a deadline and concrete definitions for the opening of borders to foreign tourists, which keeps important destinations and subsectors of the sector very depressed because they do not have the demand to operate.
This is the case of airlines, tour operators and tourist accommodations in places that receive a large volume of foreign visitors, who fear starting a new high season without receiving international tourists, with a huge economic and social impact for those areas, including Magallanes, Aysén, San Pedro de Atacama and the Metropolitan Region.
“Inbound tourism represented an important part of national tourism in terms of contribution to the economy per year (before the outbreak and the pandemic), allowing revenues of US$ 3,000 million. Today, for every day that Chile keeps its borders closed to foreigners, the country and the sector lose US$ 8 million,” says Ricardo Margulis, president of the Federation of Tourism Companies of Chile (Fedetur).
The official adds that “we are ready to start a new high season, and we continue with the uncertainty of knowing if we will be able to receive foreign tourists, which for some destinations is key, since they represent a large part of the income they obtain in the year”.
“We still do not understand why the authority only allows people to leave the country (and their subsequent return), but not access to international visitors. At this point, we believe it is due to a political rather than a health decision, since all the figures of the pandemic indicate that there is no reason to maintain the restriction, except when the industry has shown that it has high-standard protocols to ensure the health safety of tourists,” he says.
In Fedetur they point out that the closure of borders, in turn, affects the positioning and competitiveness vis-ed international tour operators, business tourism and fairs, which are opting for other destinations in the face of the closure of borders in Chile.
Concern in regions
Aysén and Magallanes are regions that have the best indicators at the national level regarding the control of the pandemic. Despite this, they remain unable to open their destinations to international visitors. This is a great headache for the local tourist activity, since much of the activity in these areas, is nourished mostly by receptive tourism, both those who arrive by air, and on cruises.
“While many sectors of the country are being able to reactivate, here in Magallanes tourism is still stopped by order of the authority, which has transformed us into a true sacrifice zone, with a great social impact for the entire region,” says Paola Milosevic, president of the Magellan Association of Tourism Companies (AustroChile).
For her part, María Cristina Reyes, president of the Chamber of Tourism of Coyhaique, said that “many people in the region depend directly and indirectly on tourism, especially foreign visitors, so the opening of borders is essential for a large number of companies, such as small lodges, guides, boteros, gauchos that offer horseback riding and roasts patagones, that otherwise, they will have no way to support themselves.”
In Fedetur, the concern is not only about the lack of definition in the opening of borders, but they are also concerned about the conditions in which the government will define that opening, since for the industry it will not be of any use if the obligation to carry out a 7-day quarantine is maintained.
“For the tourism sector, as important as the opening is that entry is allowed with the complete vaccination schedule and a PCR test 72 hours before, but without mandatory quarantines, because otherwise, the reopening will not be of any use,” emphasizes Ricardo Margulis.
In tourism they also resent the exceptions allowed by the government in relation to this industry, and there they mention cases such as the conditions under which high-performance athletes or certain authorities are allowed to enter Chile, for example, who are given the option of doing a much less isolation.
In addition, they question that it is not allowed to reach the final destination by air (transit flights), but only through land transport, and that there is no approval of the vaccination program for foreign passengers, and only for Chileans and resident foreigners, in a process that is taking several days.
In the sector, they expect that this week there will be news about the reopening to foreign tourists, based on the announcement made a few days ago by the subsecretaria Paula Daza, that “soon” there would be news.
