MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Tierra del Fuego to promote tourism as the main industry

A typical sheep farm settlement in the extreme south of Chile

An innovative and aggressive program to promote Chilean Tierra del Fuego tourism as its most dynamic industry is to be implemented between government, the private sector and international advisory organizations, according to reports in Punta Arenas La Prensa Austral.

The program is being promoted in spite of the fact that “traditional” tourism in Tierra del Fuego has a sustained annual growth of 15% supported on the territory’s exotic alternative conditions compared to “package and brochure” tourism.

The news focus is based on developing alternative cultural and historical options linked to the region’s aboriginal past, European settlements, missionaries and the traditional industries of oil and gold mining and obviously sheep farming.

The project comes under the name of “Promotion of Special Interests tourism; cultural routes in Tierra del Fuego” and is headed by Eugenio Garcés, professor at the Architecture, Design and Urban Studies Faculty from Chile’s Catholic University in Santiago.

The equivalents of Chile’s Development Corporation are granting 160.000 US dollars and the University in association with tourism promotion agencies, Fantastic South, Matheson & Co Tecno Aike, Untamed Patagonia and Vertical which will chip in with another 80.000 USD.

Researchers and professionals linked to the project will work through a common site as they collect data www.tierradelfuegochile.com together with the associated operators, institutions and consultants from the Catalonia Poly-technical in Barcelona, Spain and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The project will attempt to transform the current “weakness” of Tierra del Fuego (scarce population and declining productive activities) into opportunities. Therefore the Tourism of Special Interests with modern technologies and resources will try to exploit the cultural roots of Tierra del Fuego.

A first experts’ incursion into the area took place last week with all the data collected analyzed and later put into the development site.

Bernardo Troncoso the regional representative from Corfo (Promotion Corporation of Chile) said that aboriginal heritage and even the “generation to generation” accounts passed on by these families will help understand the close link of these peoples with such “modern” ideas as conservation and sustainability.

Tierra del Fuego governor Eduardo Barros, said the project contemplates specific cultural tours as those exploring the selknam peoples, the architecture of farm settlements, evidence of the oil and gold mining booms and discovering the Darwin cordillera.

“Hopefully the Tierra del Fuego cultural heritage with time will become as renowned as those of Torres del Paine (national park)” said Governor Barros.