During her first international visit, Undersecretary Kunze held various business meetings with representatives of the tourism industry
Chile arrived at the World Travel Market in São Paulo with the premise of announcing important news, one of them the policy that the new government will carry out.
The South American country participated with a stand that housed 28 companies and tourist destinations, in addition there was an important regional presence with representatives from the Atacama, Valparaíso and O'Higgins regions.
To find out more details, we interviewed the Undersecretary of Tourism of Chile, Verónica Kunze Neubauer. We share her responses below:
How has been the experience of participating as an official of the new Chilean government in an event like WTM Latin America?
I have been working in tourism for many years and the President's government has made tourism a very important economic activity. He comes from the Magallanes region, which is one of the main receptive tourism regions. In other words, he values the sector, as does the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism. Our idea beyond WTM Latin America is to be present at as many events as possible, because we hope to open soon and receive a large number of international tourists.
During WTM Latin America you have met with the Minister of Tourism and Sports of Argentina, has it been an activity that completed the work agenda maintained by the presidents?
Exactly, unfortunately I was not able to travel to Argentina but we already have a long history of working together to promote the different destinations, especially in the south of the country, we hope that the borders can open and promote the destinations, especially for long-distance tourists . It is something very relevant and we can strengthen ourselves much more as joint destinations.
Is the idea to continue on that course with other countries?
We have a wonderful country and we are going to continue building ties with other governments, mainly with those we are neighbors, but with Argentina we have a long border so we have to take advantage of that closeness.
You also met with businessmen from the sector, correct?
I had the opportunity to hold meetings with senior executives of the GOL airline, with Brazilian capital, and with Maximiliano Bohn, Head of Traffic Development for Nuevo Pudahuel, in order to analyze the connectivity between Santiago and Sao Paulo and evaluate the option of to recover this important route in the near future, also to study the possibility of connecting from Santiago with other Brazilian cities.
We were able to show the work that our country is doing to recover receptive tourism, in addition to strengthening ties with important representatives of the Latin American and world industry. We believe that international visitors are a fundamental piece in this process and we hope to soon return to pre-pandemic levels, when our country received more than 4.5 million foreigners a year,” said Undersecretary Kunze.