MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ushuaia consolidates as south hemisphere cruise hub

Several cruises docked at Ushuaia port

With 396 cruise vessel calls this season Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego confirms its hub condition for the industry in the southern hemisphere, according to local authorities.

Ushuaia not only hosts cruise vessels touring the two oceans, plus the region's fiords and canals but also is the main access to Antarctica, which this year is scheduled to total 290 incursions into the icy waters. "This is the result of an excellent coordination between the National Tourism Secretary, currently headed by Enrique Meyer and our local authorities", said Daniel Leguizamón, Ushuaia Tourism Office secretary. "This not only refers to the interesting expenditure from visitors landing at the different cities and ports they visit but also to the provision of supplies and services to the huge cruise vessels during the season which extends from November to April", indicated Leguizamon. Precisely last Friday the "Mariner of the Seas" called in at Ushuaia with 2.300 passengers and 1.175 crew and service members. Although too large to berth, an estimated forty tenders transported tourists from the bay to shore for a full day of local touring, walking and shopping. Leguimazon said that basically three types of cruise vessels operate from Ushuaia. Possibly the most important for the city are the Antarctic cruises over which Ushuaia has a virtual monopoly with 90% of schedules. Another segment is the rather small cruise vessels which travel among the Tierra del Fuego canals, through Cape Horn and the Beagle glaciers. These are mainly two, "Mare Australis" and "Via Australis", on a weekly scheduled, 120 passengers each, between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia. "They carry people from all over the world, they are very popular and 90% are foreigners", said Leguizamon. Finally you have the heavy weights that travel both oceans, south along the Atlantic, Rio do Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, then Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt and Valparaiso in Chile. Some names include "Infinity", "Europa", "Radiance of the Sea", "Norwegian Sun", all of them with over 2.000 passengers and tourists not necessarily involved in the whole tour, but different legs. Finally Leguizamon said that the port facilities of Ushuaia had been expanded in 1994 to address the encouraging number of cruise vessels, but cargo movement has also increased and a further extension is needed. "The new expansion project includes the idea of a dock specifically for container trading, so we can have more space for cruises", said Leguizamon.