MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ushuaia expects 60 to 80 less cruise calls next season

Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina, a cruise hub and gateway for trips to Antarctica estimates 60 to 80 less cruise vessel calls next season according to private tourism agents.

Carlos Dominguez head of Navalia said the “confirmed” 60 to 80 drop in cruise calls can be attributed to several reasons and not necessarily exclusively to the global crisis.

He mentioned that there are “three vessels that before launched their season from Ushuaia, but now have moved to Chile”.

He added that some vessels won’t be coming since “they have been dropped off the list”, because of international restrictions such as the year the vessel was built; in other cases the cruise company has disappeared; it’s not profitable and others have become too expensive to operate such is the case of Line C”.

Therefore the number of cruise vessel calls is estimated to drop “from 60 to 80 with a maximum of 90”.

Mr. Dominguez and his company Navalia together with Ushuaia mayor Federico Sciurano also participated in this year’s Miami Seatrade Cruise convention.

“It was very positive for off the record talks with the large cruise lines. We have quite a good idea of 70% of the vessels that will be calling in Ushuaia next season and those than won’t. Keep in mind that a couple of vessels less could mean 22 calls less”, he emphasized.

Mr. Dominguez also pointed his finger to some recent Ushuaia town council regulations which will influence the cruise vessel traffic.

For example he said, “garbage disposal until last year was the equivalent of one US dollar per cubic metre; now the rate is 120 US dollars the cubic metre, which sounds joke but it’s not”.

“No cruise operator will pay those prices, it’s outrageous. We spoke about it with Mayor Sciurano, and we agreed that what will most probably happen is that the vessels will dump garbage in the high seas. This happened because local councillors didn’t talk with the people they should have”.

And why Line C won’t be calling in Ushuaia? “Because they tried to make them pay pending landing taxes plus interest at delirious rates”, said Dominguez.

Daniel Leguimazón, Ushuaia Tourism Secretary tried to downgrade Mr. Dominguez claims saying that what matters are the coordination tasks of “the local government, federal authorities and port officials to ensure common actions that minimize any uncertainties regarding sea passenger operations”.

He added that tourism is a main source of income for Ushuaia and efforts are being made to bring more tourists in winter season and promote charter flights from Brazil.