Around 73,358 tourists arrived in Punta Arenas located in extreme south of Chile during the last 2016/17 cruise season ending in April, of which 67.560 (92.1%) arrived in international vessels and 7.9% in domestic vessels.
The number of visitors and calls was similar to the previous season, which was exceptional with a 35% increase. The number of cruise calls was 99, of which 61 international and 38 domestic.
Ignacio Covacevich, General manager of the Austral Port Company that runs the Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales harbors estimated those numbers “should increase between 3% and 5% in line with the industry’s world tendency”.
Covacevich also pointed out two significant facts about the just ended season. First that the Antarctica Norwegian cruise vessel Midnatsol has confirmed that Punta Arenas will continue to be its operational base, nd secondly a survey of cruise landed visitors showed that average per capita expenditure has increased from US$ 62.5 to US$ 84. This means that the overall injection to the Punta Arenas economy during the season was over US$ 6 million.
