MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Southern Cone cruise convention.

The cruise industry and its future development was the main issue of the conference on “Patagonia sea travellers integral improvement of passengers catering”, held this week in Punta Arenas sponsored by Surcruise, Southern Cone Cruise Association.

The conference which also had the support of several Chilean government agencies and Patagonia's Sustainable Tourism was targeted to the creation of a data bank to which eventually other countries in the cruise business in the Southern Cone could have access, such as Uruguay and Argentina.

Javier Martin responsible for the organization of the event said the project involved 18 months and demanded over 20,000 US dollars. The outstanding lecturers of the event were, Juan Permuy, former president of Surcruise and Daniel Barrera currently president of Surcruise and member of the Board of Puerto Montt's port.

Apparently during the closed sessions of the conference it was revealed that the saturation of traditional cruises in areas such as the Mediterranean and Caribbean had convinced some of those passengers to try travelling to other destinations such as Patagonia and the Southern Cone.

However operators were at difficulties in explaining why in the Caribbean and Mediterranean cruise visitors spend a daily average of 200 US dollars and only 50 US dollars in the Southern Cone.

"Basically we believe it boils down to information", said Javier Martin who blames the situation on a limited knowledge of the region and its possibilities, in spite of the 1,500 pages report with evaluations and assessments of the region and potential visitors for an industry that expands at an annual rate of 11%, even in the most critical moments such as when the terrorist 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Daniel Barrera recalled that over 60 calls are scheduled for this coming cruise season in Chile involving approximately 200,000 visitors which means "cities must organize to offer the most interesting products and obviously the most demanding services, so they leave the region hoping to return in the near future".

Last Friday Suncruise held the V assembly of the Cruise Ports Association of the Southern Cone with representatives from Uruguay, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. This is the first time an event of this significance was celebrated in Punta Arenas.

More information see: www.surcruise.org