At the end of April, “Cluster Montagne Days” was held, a meeting that brought together 200 tour operators belonging to mountain centers and destination managers, from more than 27 countries. The initiative was convened by Cluster Montagne, a French association whose objective is to support and promote in France and in the world, its knowledge in the management and equipment of mountain regions.
The Chilean group that participated in this instance, thanks to the alliance signed in 2021 between Cluster Montagne and the Transforma Turismo Program of Corfo, was represented by Nicolás Carvallo, coordinator of Mountain Tourism Transforma Turismo; Michael Leatherbee, president of Andacor and Corfo’s Andes Santiago Program; Martín Le-Bert, manager of Andes Santiago; Alberto Stern, consultant at Cluster Montagne; James Ackerson, general manager of Corralco and Enrique Bascur, member of the Board of Directors of Corralco.
The delegation participated in a three-day tour of the French Alps, where they were able to visit mountain centers and attend conferences.
“We were in various instances in which issues on business models, investment strategies, tourism diversification and sustainability were addressed. The main challenges facing mountain tourism today were also reviewed. They were days of a lot of learning and we returned with a lot of work to do to continue promoting sustainable mountain tourism in Chile,” said Nicolás Carvallo, of Transforma Turismo.
Chileans also participated in the 25th version of the Mountain Planet Fair, in Grenoble France, one of the most important worldwide in this area.
On the other hand, Alberto Stern, consultant of Cluster Montagne in Chile, highlighted the importance of the alliance between the French group and Transforma Turismo: “It allows to strengthen the link that already exists with some of the private actors and some of the regional and local governments; but in particular, the challenge and opportunity of having a reference that channels the various public-private initiatives gives the Cluster an interlocutor to approach the mountain territories and destinations to work with them, being able to provide their contribution through the different initiatives that the Cluster carries out”.
From the private sector, James Ackerson, from Corralco, mentioned how fundamental public-private coordination is for mountain tourism “This link is essential for our development. The private sector has made tremendous investments in mountain infrastructure, so it is necessary to continue strengthening collaboration with the public sector so that the country’s growth is kept on par with the development of tourism experiences.”
From now on, Corfo’s Transforma Turismo program will seek to continue strengthening the implementation of the National Plan to promote mountain tourism in each of its prioritized destinations, and contributing to the articulation of public and private actors for the development of initiatives in the line of sustainable mountain tourism.
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