MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Strict rules for cruises visiting Magallanes fiords

Touring foreign flagged cruise vessels wishing to visit and disembark tourists in Southern Chile fiords and channels will in the future have to request specific authorization for each spot they wish to call at.

The decision follows strong lobbying from local Chilean flagged cruises that felt discriminated by Chilean Customs resolution 5438 which opened 31 spots to the foreign flagged cruise industry.

The official announcement was made in Punta Arenas this week by Magallanes Mayor Eugenia Mancilla adding that an only office will consider all requests, on a case by case basis, of all those cruise vessels wishing to steam along Chilean fiords, channels and even those islands currently in private hands.

Mancilla said that Chilean Customs Director General Sergio Mujica informed about the latest decision.

The resolution favoring the foreign flagged cruise industry was challenged by the Southern Chile Vessel Owners Association with strong support from Magallanes elected representatives.

Ms Mancilla pointed out that the Customs decision respects regional autonomy and underlines the fact that "cruise tourism must integrate with regional tourism development and Unesco norms such as protection of biosphere reserves as is the case with the Cape Horn area".

A second step is to categorize and establish a regional registry of the different places whether they are marine reserves, protected areas or exclusively for scientific research, scientific tourism or for any other environmental purpose.

"Unfortunately in some of these areas huge cruises will have to be banned", anticipated Ms Mancilla.

"We hope the new resolution will enable Chilean and foreign cruise companies to operate in Magallanes region in a climate of fair competition", said Deputy Rodrigo Alvarez.

"We hope the cruise industry continues to develop vigorously and foreign tourism operators continue to work with us, abiding Chilean law and ensuring that there's a fair compensation for the conservation of the areas visited, as happens around the world" he added.

"It is great news that there's no longer free, undisputed access to 31 tourist locations for the foreign cruises", said Alejandro Kusanovic, president of the Southern Chile Vessels Owners Association.

However he admitted that the decision which protects the wild life heritage of the region, "must lead us to a big debate on how we wish to manage and conserve the great tourism future of Magallanes".