MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record cruise visitors in Valparaiso and Puerto Montt

Chilean port cities of Valparaiso and Puerto Montt registered unprecedented numbers of visitors during the summer months, with more 80,000 tourists arriving in each city.

The cause of this record-shattering wave of tourists? none other than the Queen Mary II herself, the world's largest cruise liner, which docked in both cities last February.

Region X's Puerto Montt saw 26% more tourists than in the 2004-2005 season. The influx was reflected in the pockets of the city's restaurateurs and tour operators. Cruise liners, including the Queen Mary II, were the main reason for Puerto Montt's boom.

More than 60,000 cruise passengers visited the city.

"We were the only port in the country that simultaneously received more than eight thousand passengers in a single day, with three cruises operating in our ports ? and among them was the largest in the world" reminisced Alfredo Bustos, manager of Empormontt Operations. He was referring to the day that the cruise liners Albatross, Europe, and the Queen Mary II all docked in Puerto Montt.

In Valparaíso, the number of cruise passengers disembarking increased by 21.2% compared to last season, with an increase of 15,000 visitors from the 2004-2005 season.

In January, Iván Cuadra, the general manager of Region V's tourism board, predicted that passengers from the Queen Mary II visiting Valparaíso for the day would spend close to 70 US dollars each.

Region V's Ministerial Office of Finance was even more optimistic, predicting that cruise visitors would spend at least 160-180 US dollars during their stay, a figure more than double what national tourists would spend during the same time period.

Equipped to satisfy any taste, the luxury Queen Mary II cruiser has five pools, an 8,000-book library, casino, movie theatre, cabaret, conference centre, discotheque, spa, beauty salon, art gallery, fitness centre, jogging track, mini-golf, as well as childcare and dog care services. It can accommodate 2,650 passengers along with hundreds of staff and crew members.

The Queen Mary II measures over 340 m in length (approximately three soccer fields), 41 m wide and 72 m high (23 stories). It began its journey in Florida, making stops in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina before arriving in Chile. After Chile, the cruise ship headed for Peru and before making its way back to the U.S., docking in San Francisco.

The journey costs between 7,000 and 54,000 US dollars per capita. Every year cruise ships contribute a substantially to Chile's economy: during the last cruise season, October 2004 through April 2005, total earnings reached an estimated 100 million US dollars.

Lauren Amundsen - The Santiago Times - News about Chile