AT the end of his first year directing the Falkland Islands Tourist Board, Managing Director Tony Mason shares the past year's accomplishments and a vision for the future.
The Falkland Islands International Tourism Statistics Report released to the public this week records that 2012 was the second highest year on record in terms of overnight visitors travelling for leisure. There were 7,791 overnight tourists (as opposed to day trip cruise tourists) arrivals in the Falkland Islands in 2012, of which 1,937 could be classed as leisure visitors. Overall, tourist arrivals have grown at an average annual rate of 7% per annum over the period 2000-2012.
The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, IAATO, with over a hundred member organizations held in April its latest annual meeting in Punta Arenas, Chile with a numerous delegation from the Falkland Islands attending given the growing economic significance of the cruise industry and Antarctica tours.
The Falkland Islands Tourist Board (FITB) will be hosting some of the UK’s top bird watchers at the end of this month, on a trip led by Tim Appleton, cofounder and organiser of the prestigious British Birdwatching Fair.
A New York Times article entitled “The 46 places to go in 2013”, the Falkland Islands is recommended for a visit before the oil industry, “rapidly transforms Stanley's ethnic, economic and social character, driving development in this tiny, eccentric village of about 2,000 year-round residents”-.
Despite claims by the Argentine media that the Bahamas flagged cruise vessel “Seabourn Sojourn” had no plans to visit Falklands the 431 passengers on board have enjoyed a wide range of tours around the Islands after they anchored in Port William, just outside of Stanley Harbour on Friday at 9am.
Tourist arrivals to the Falkland Islands are expected to increase by 14.6% in 2012 with a significant 28% increase in the number of leisure visitors, mainly driven by the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands war according to the September Falklands Forecast from the Falkland Islands Tourist Board.
MANAGING Director of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board Tony Mason is to lead a team of delegates from the Islands to World Travel Mart in London next month.
In a well illustrated piece the Daily Mail writes about the Falklands’ tourism industry and future prospects, including air links to the South Atlantic Islands, over which Argentina claims sovereignty.
Luxury super yacht MY Sherakhan, is one of four vessels new to the Falkland Islands visiting in the 2012/13 season beginning next month. More often spotted in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, she also ventures further afield to Patagonia, Antarctica, French Polynesia, Asia, and Panama.