Turismo Chile showcases hot travel trends

Turismo Chile hosted 100 travel agents last week at a training session and cocktail reception at the Loft at Earls in Vancouver. It was the only Canadian stop for the nine-member delegation with representatives from properties and travel operators from Patagonia to the Atacama Desert.

Only about half of the agents in the room said they were currently selling Chile as a destination, and a fraction had completed the Chile Specialist program, a seven-module online course that gives graduates access to bonus “booster” commissions and special destination updates.

Juan Lopez, Turismo Chile’s North America product manager, set out to change that with a presentation highlighting five reasons why Chile is hot right now: its natural wonders, culture and heritage, sports and adventure opportunities, wine and cuisine, and stargazing.

Those natural wonders include 24,000 glaciers and 2,900 volcanoes ­– only 90 of which are active ­– as well as the Atacama, the driest desert in the world. “People think there’s nothing to do in Atacama,” Lopez said, “but there is too much to do.” He highlighted the “flowering desert” phenomenon, when occasional rains send the desert flowers into full bloom.

Culture and heritage attractions include several UNESCO World Heritage sites and indigenous cultures. Perhaps most surprising are the Chinchorro Mummies, 2,000 years older than the mummies in Egypt. “So don’t send your clients to Egypt,” Lopez said, “send them to Chile!”

At 4,300 kilometres in length, Chile is the longest country in the world and touches three continents – South America, Oceania and Antarctica. That creates a huge variety of climates for sports and adventure, from scuba diving at Easter Island to skiing in the Andes Mountains. “Your clients can do some hiking on a glacier in Patagonia,” Lopez said, noting that Torres del Paine National Park, a main trekking site, was recently named the Eighth Wonder of the World by VirtualTourist.com, part of the TripAdvisor Media Network.

Chile has 14 wine regions, including Casablanca, a member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, a list created by Restaurant magazine, recently named Chile’s capital city of Santiago one of five cities that all food lovers must visit in 2016.

The Atacama Desert is also an important astronomical site, home to the ALMA Observatory – the largest radio telescope in the world. From a tourism perspective, the desert is a prime site for stargazing. “I can bet anyone here that at least 340 days a year will be clear skies,” Lopez said. “Seriously, $1 million!” he joked, adding more seriously, “one of the best experiences your clients can have is stargazing.” Three destinations in the Atacama Region, as well as Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park in the Coquimbo Region, have received Starlight Certification for preserving their nightscapes.

Before exploring what makes Chile hot, of course, one must get there. All flights to Chile from North America fly overnight, with the journey taking about nine hours and 45 minutes from Toronto. “Tell your clients to sleep on the plane,” Lopez said, joking: “If you send them in coach, give them a pill and they can sleep all they way down to Chile.”

To a round of applause, Lopez noted Canadians no longer pay the reciprocity fee.

Chile welcomed nearly 4.5 million tourists in 2015, an impressive 21.9 per cent more than the year before. Of those, 33,915 visitors came from Canada, a 10.5 per cent increase over 2014.

Twelve new hotel projects are underway in the Chilean capital, all scheduled for completion by 2018, including the boutique hotel Luciano K, in the Lastarria neighbourhood. The contemporary five-star Cumbres Vitacura opened in March with 225 rooms. A new airport will open in Puerto Natales, 90 minutes from Antarctica by air, in November.