MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Alarm in Ushuaia: cruise calls are forecasted to drop 20% this season

Ushuaia the southern-most city of South America and a natural call for vessels touring the continent or sailing to Antarctica

Tierra del Fuego province, in the extreme south of Argentina, and its capital Ushuaia is anticipating a 20% fall in the cruise business this coming season 2009/10 compared to 2008/09 according to the president of the regional tourism institute.

“If we have to give an idea of what can be expected with the cruise industry, I’d say we will see a contraction of 20%”, said Pablo Pfurr, who added that contrary to what is happening with the industry in the rest of the world, specifically in Tierra del Fuego “cruise activity is decreasing which can be easily confirmed by the fall in the number of vessel calls”.

Pfurr considered the situation very serious and said that “we must work hard to sustain the current activity and increase it in the future”.

“This means better cruise vessel servicing, a unified rate which we can offer in the proper places such as the Sea Trade fair in Miami that brings together the cruise companies and tourist operators, and where most of the Buenos Aires-Tierra del Fuego tours are commercialized”, said Pfurr.

The head of Tierra del Fuego’s tourism organization said that the lesser calls will also influence Antarctic cruising.

“Nowadays cruise vessels are looking for those ports with tax breaks and where the quality of services increases year after year”, said Pfurr underlining that cruise companies obviously are profit-oriented.

Pfurr warned that cruise companies are looking for “profitable tours”, relatively easy to commercialize, “and the problem we now have in Tierra del Fuego is that these companies must face mounting costs in the region”.

He emphasized that the local attitude towards the cruise industry must change, because contrary to what is happening with other tourist data, with numbers increasing sustainedly year after year, “the number of calls is decreasing and this season we can expect a drop of up to 20%”.

“We must be aware that each time a vessel docks in Ushuaia, it means significant influx of funds for the city and for other collateral activities, generating jobs and giving the local economy a big shot of money”.