MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Punta Arenas and Ushuaia inaugurate cruise season 2024/25 next week

Punta Arenas and Ushuaia are ready for the start of the cruise season which in Chile is scheduled for Saturday 14th September and in Argentina, 17th September. In both cases it is a regional cruise with the “Ventus Australis” along the Chilean straits and channels, but there is great optimism that it could in effect 2024/25 could be a record season.

In Punta Arenas the Austral Ports Company, EPA, is looking forward to 186 calls, of which 121 in Punta Arenas itself, with some 100,000 visitors, which compares with the 123 and over 76,000 visitors in the whole of the previous 2023/24.

But in Ushuaia, Roberto Murcia, head of (Tierra del Fuego) Provincial Ports Administration is even more ebullient, he declares that they have reserves for some 550 cruise calls, both bi-oceanic and Antarctica. To this must be added all the cargo, fishing and oil industry vessels plus the logistics supplying of bases in the Antarctic continent.

“By the end of September we are expecting our first cruise headed for Antarctica” pointed out Murcia who also included the super yachts “such as the one form Bill Gates who in summer is a regular visitor of Tierra del Fuego province”.

Murcia also revealed that Ushuaia normally receives the Infinity, 240 meters long, but this year a second vessel is expected, the Eclipse, 330 meters long, and they are prepared to have it dock. However “the fact that the main pier was extended some 150 meters has been most useful but it is already becoming insufficient, as vessels grow larger and longer, and we are thinking of prolonging it to 800 meters, since we could not service four of these vessels at the same time, as we are sure to happen at some point”.

Murcia estimated that private yachts and catamarans represent some 250,000 visitors annually, and some 270,000 cruise visitors in the season, “which also means we urgently need a passengers terminal”.