In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Cristóbal Benítez, National Director of Tourism of Chile.
Cristóbal, what are your expectations for such an important event?
I am very happy and in a very good mood because in general in Chile we have recovered the inbound tourism that we had before the pandemic. As of September, we have 4% more than we had at that time, and we hope to reach the end of the year with quite positive figures, around 8%. That is, we would be reaching approximately 4,800,000 visitors. Europe is one of our main markets where we are focused, specifically on four countries, one of which is the United Kingdom.
We are here at this fair in particular because we are interested in one of the most strategic markets, where we still need to recover a little, but we believe we have the potential to do so. We have come with a good delegation, we have 20 products between tour operators, hotels and cruise lines, and we believe we have a very good and attractive offer to be able to show in the English market.
What regions are accompanying you here?
There is a lot of Patagonia, not only Magallanes, but also Aysén and the Lakes. Patagonia is very strong, as is the central area, that is, Santiago and its surroundings.
We are coming to the end of the year. Can you take stock of what you have experienced so far and what are your expectations for the coming year?
I think we can reach close to 5 million visitors by the end of the year. We already have 3.6 million visitors this year, and we expect to reach 4.8 million by the end of the year, so it is a very positive figure compared to what we had before the pandemic. This shows that tourism in Chile has been reactivated and is working quite well. Part of the challenges we have next year has to do with how we show and position new destinations, promoting travel throughout the year, not just in the high seasons. That is part of the work we are doing in the different markets.
For example, the winter season was very good this year, the Brazilian market was very strong and that is part of what we have to continue strengthening next year.
In terms of promoting your country outside of this event, what is next and what do you have planned for next year?
In general, we have a 360 strategy, that is, we participate in fairs and we are mainly going to each of the markets I mentioned before, in Europe mainly Fitur, ITB and WTM, but we also have business meetings and many spaces such as specific workshops to showcase Chile.
We are concentrating a lot on the US market, with roadshows featuring good Chilean products and we are also participating in some niche fairs in certain segments, for example, adventure tourism. We are participating with different actions and we are also supporting this with brand positioning campaigns, with tactics that involve appeal and conversion to sales.
In the Brazilian market, it worked very well for us with very good conversion rates. We want to continue strengthening this, but we will mainly continue working a lot with the commercial channel rather than with the final public.
You were talking about growth in general, what is happening with connectivity?
It is one of the challenges. Part of what we have done in the marketing plan is to support our strategies where we have greater connectivity and where we have possibilities to grow and that is why the US market is very important for us because we have very good connectivity, as with the Brazilian market.
In the case of Europe, we have been a little slower because we have less possibilities to grow in connections, but it has also been recovering quite a bit and we have some good news about new airlines that will be entering Chile in the coming months. That will also open up new markets for us.
For example, it has already been announced that Turkish Airlines will begin operating to Chile. It will launch its first flight at the end of December and that also opens up a whole hub for us to be able to connect with other points.