Alarm in Ushuaia: cruise calls are forecasted to drop 20% this season
Tierra del Fuego province, in the extreme south of Argentina, and its capital Ushuaia is anticipating a 20% fall in the cruise business this coming season 2009/10 compared to 2008/09 according to the president of the regional tourism institute.
“If we have to give an idea of what can be expected with the cruise industry, I’d say we will see a contraction of 20%”, said Pablo Pfurr, who added that contrary to what is happening with the industry in the rest of the world, specifically in Tierra del Fuego “cruise activity is decreasing which can be easily confirmed by the fall in the number of vessel calls”.
Pfurr considered the situation very serious and said that “we must work hard to sustain the current activity and increase it in the future”.
“This means better cruise vessel servicing, a unified rate which we can offer in the proper places such as the Sea Trade fair in Miami that brings together the cruise companies and tourist operators, and where most of the Buenos Aires-Tierra del Fuego tours are commercialized”, said Pfurr.
The head of Tierra del Fuego’s tourism organization said that the lesser calls will also influence Antarctic cruising.
“Nowadays cruise vessels are looking for those ports with tax breaks and where the quality of services increases year after year”, said Pfurr underlining that cruise companies obviously are profit-oriented.
Pfurr warned that cruise companies are looking for “profitable tours”, relatively easy to commercialize, “and the problem we now have in Tierra del Fuego is that these companies must face mounting costs in the region”.
He emphasized that the local attitude towards the cruise industry must change, because contrary to what is happening with other tourist data, with numbers increasing sustainedly year after year, “the number of calls is decreasing and this season we can expect a drop of up to 20%”.
“We must be aware that each time a vessel docks in Ushuaia, it means significant influx of funds for the city and for other collateral activities, generating jobs and giving the local economy a big shot of money”.
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www.cronista.com/notas/244078-el-transbordador-del-bicentenario-unira-la-argentina-chile
I suppose you are happy that your countrymen in Tierra del Fuego are going to lose out on income.
Pablo Pfurr commented that cruise companies are profit orientatd! Wow, that is a revelation a private company that wants to make a profit. This guy clearly has a PhD in Business Economics.
This article identifes the problems with doing business in Argentina, companies taxed to death an imbeciles in charge.
A drop in argentine calls means a drop in malvinas calls too; do your homework.
The EPA Director Board (Southern Port Enterprise, gvt owned but as a private company) was changed entirely and a new CEO will be named soon with the main task to offer the best service at the minimun rates through a improved management and new infrastructure. The floating cassinos will be permited to operate when they be sailing the Chilean inland waters, the Tourism Service, National and Regional, head had been changed and they must help the Austrochile AG (Private Tourism Operators Chamber) requirements be considered and a big international campaigne will soon start to attrack new markets to Chielean beauties.
The Reginal Mayor (Intendenta Regional) is coming from the tourism business where she owned a important company on the Torres del Paine National Park, so she has well knowledge and interest to develope this area of the Magallanes economic developement and she had propossed to rise to a one million tourist visiting our Region at the end of her term on 2014 (now we have an average of 600.000 visitor per year).
That's the way that things must be done.....
Sergio, great news for the region, is about time that chile lift that ban to cassinos.
- You are not making money, you are stealing money. Enjoy it while you can. :-)
Being an argy he, of course, knows about stealing as it's the only thing argies are good at!!
“I just want the treasures” claimed Admiral Whitelocke.
“But they are ready for asking our protectorate”, replied his subordinate William Beresford.
“F***ing protectorate, all the same rubbish, go and take the Viceroy treasure now”, finish the admiral.
Dialogue repeated during last 204 years in our region.
Terrible historians these Argentines!
They won't get to see the Antarctic and some of our other spectacular sites, but many are content/forced to put it off. Arguing with each other is unlikely to result in more success for tourism businesses; the economic climate combined with new IMO rules on heavy fuel oil and some hopefully clearer thinking on safety in the Antarctic is likely to result in permanently lower numbers.
So the quality of the product and service is what matters. Ask the captains and officers where they prefer to go and why. The answers are predictable, but largely ignored.
I have to say that you are right, I made a mistake cos I trusted only in my memory!
But we can learn history yet: where it says: “Whitelocke”, you have to put: “Popham” and everything will fit as The Times wrote on september 7, 1807, referring to the final results of the invasions :
”This has been an awful expedition from the start. National interests, as our military pride, have been seriously hurted. The original plan was a bad one and worse was its execution. Nothing honourable or worthy...Has been a dirty and sordid enterprise.
How we could expect that the people´s hands and hearts go in our side, if the first in occupying the city (Buenos Aires) were less anxious in gaining the people but in putting at save the looted treasure?”
BTW: Whitelocke was INCLUDED in this critical piece of press.
204 years and counting...
Just can't trust newspapers, can you?
Could be dirty and sordid...only for the gains...but: that is exactly what the City acknowledge as good.
And if the natives react...“we will send them a nuke”.
204 years and counting!
“All that's left of that marriage is the question of how to divide the spoils of power,” says Walger.“
”Walger's unflattering portrayal of Nestor Kirchner will thrill political opponents, who regard with horror his prospect of winning a second term in next year's elections. He is described in the book as “mean, petty, vengeful and envious”.
“One reason she goes on so many foreign trips, says Walger, is to scout for mansions for the couple's eventual retirement.”
“The Kirchners have certainly prospered. The 600% growth in their personal fortune, to almost 12 million USD, since 2003 has prompted allegations of corruption since their combined annual income as President and former president is only $157,000. Opposition leaders have accused the couple of using inside information to engage in currency speculation.
The Kirchners own a luxury hotel and other businesses in the Patagonian resort of El Calafate and, according to Walger, a former Peronist militant, they also have 19 houses and 14 flats.”
Oh what fun it is when the truth starts to come out.
You will be sure to put your house in order before you come out, won't you?
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