
Brazilian tourists, who usually come to Chile to ski during the winter months, did not turn up as strongly as in years past, hurting the ski resorts, hotels and tourism in general this year.

More than 3.6 million foreigners from all over the world visit Chile spending nearly two billion US dollars every year. To better understand the growing tourism industry in Chile, the country’s national tourism service, Sernatur, has just released a study called “Type of Potential Tourists and Demands in Chile” which categorizes and analyzes tourists’ behaviour while visiting the country.

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.

An Argentine-Japanese couple beat 400 dancing pairs to take top prize in the Mundial de Tango world competition held this year in Buenos Aires' Luna Park amusement centre.

Tourists usually try to run from Brazil’s Rio do Janeiro's notorious slums. Now officials headed by President Lula da Silva are inviting them to come and visit instead. The Santa Marta shantytown this week became the first community in a program meant to promote tourism in the poor neighbourhoods that are home to some unique music and art work.

The Ministry of the Economy is planning to send a bill to Chile’s Congress that would allow cruise ships to operate their casinos while in Chilean waters. This would repeal a section of the 2005 Casinos Act that requires all cruise ships to shut down their casinos when they pass within 13.8 miles of Chile's shoreline.

The cash-strapped Cuban government will allow foreign investors to use state-owned land for up to 99 years in a change that is likely to bring developments of luxury golf courses to the communist island.

Argentina’s hotel building boom can be held up as a symbol of South America’s climb back from the global downturn. The country has 15 projects in the development pipeline representing 1,700 rooms, according to STR Global. Of those 1,700 rooms, 68.9% or 1,172 are currently in the in-construction phase of development.

Air France announced that beginning September 6, it will add more flights between Paris and Santiago. The airline currently offers five flights per week, but by September plans to increase that number to seven.

With only two months to go before the first cruise ship arrives in the Falkland Islands for the 2010/11 season the situation is looking increasingly positive.
An initial prediction of 58 visits to Stanley may this season in reality be closer to 75 (according to the latest schedule) while the smaller expedition ships are planning almost 100 outer island visits.