MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
War Anniversary has positive effect on Falklands Tourism
The best season in four years reports Jenny Luxton,Travel Manager for Stanley Holidays With receptive tourism agencies in Stanley reporting excellent results for the 2006/7 season just finished and a higher than normal level of advance bookings, it looks as if the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War is having a positive effect on local tourism.
Sally Ellis, who handles the inbound business for Stanley based agency, International Tours and Travel, told Mercopressthat with the 2007/8 season still some seven months away, her company had already taking bookings equivalent to 75% of what might be expected in a normal season. After the recent extensive media coverage related to the invasion of the Falklands by Argentine forces in 1982, Sally reports that her "inbox went mad". While the busiest months for overseas visitors to the Falkland Islands are usually from November to February, coinciding with the comings and goings with some of the migratory species of penguins and albatross, this year has seen some winter bookings from companies specialising in battlefield tours, to coincide with the commemorations of the liberation of the Falklands which are planned for June. While the clients of International Tours and Travel are predominantly independent travellers from continental Europe, who take advantage of the weekly LAN Chile flight from Santiago to add a visit to the Falklands onto longer visits to South America, the profile of the clients of Falkland Islands Holidays, Stanley's other principal receptive agency, is slightly different. Travel Manager for Stanley Holidays, Jenny Luxton, also reports a good season â€" "the best in four years" â€" though her clients are mainly from Britain and travel in groups. Jenny reports that for her the season started slowly, but was characterised by many more late bookings than usual. Wildlife and photography are the usual principal interests of her clients, but new for this season and next have been groups of walkers. The further development of land-based tourism in the Falkland Islands is made difficult by limited air access, but the cruise ship element continues to grow year on year. Episodes of exceptionally windy weather, especially in January caused ten cruise ships with a total 8,000 passengers to cancel visits to the Islands' capital, Stanley. Despite this set-back, between November and March there were a record number of 98 visits made to Stanley by 41 different ships and 51,000 tourists came ashore in the Islands capital. There were also 93 visits made to some of the smaller islands in the Falklands archipelago, principally to West Point, Carcass and New Island, by ships ranging in passenger capacity from 50 to 500 John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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