A new foreign tourist’s arrival report released by the Undersecretary of Chilean Tourism stated that during the July 376,029 international travelers arrived in the country. While in total, during the first seven months of the year, the number reached 2,877,087.
According to the report, the increase recorded in July concerned mainly the strategic markets such as China (+ 21.1%), UK (+ 19%), France (+ 13%), Germany (+11. 2%), Spain (+ 9.6%), United States (+ 9.3%), Colombia (+ 7.5%), Brazil (+ 6.5%) and Mexico (+ 3%).
Along these lines, the Undersecretary of Tourism, Mónica Zalaquett, stressed that: “The growth of the priority markets is always good news, since it means that the international promotion strategy that's being carried out has positive results".
She also pointed out that, “reducing dependence on a single market is essential for the good performance of Chilean tourism and, for this, in addition to redefining the strategic markets, it's necessary to strongly support domestic tourism, which we are doing with the national campaign 'And you, how much do you know Chile?', which we launched a few days ago”.
According to the report of the Undersecretary of Tourism, the figure of July represents a decrease of 8.2% over the same month of 2018 (409,798), which is explained, mainly, by the decrease in the number of Argentinean tourists (-22.2%).
Given the complex trans-Andean economic situation, which has affected the movement of tourists from that nation, both to Chile and the rest of the region, it's interesting to note that, by excluding trans-Andean tourists from the analysis, the general fall of international tourists during July reaches only 0.9%.
By replicating this formula in the accumulated arrivals January-July there is an increase of 2.7% in the total number of foreign tourists visiting Chile, equivalent to 50,330 additional tourists.
Along with these figures, the Undersecretary of Tourism also published the Tourism Barometer, which contains some of the main economic indicators of the sector, highlighting, among them, the decrease of 18.2% in interannual prices (July 2018/2019) of air transport services.
Regarding this point, Ms. Zalaquett highlighted the decline, indicating that it has a direct impact on decision-making when traveling.
The document also highlighted that, on June 2019, there was an 8.3% increase in passenger arrivals to Tourist Accommodation Establishments (EAT) nationwide (802,679), compared to the same period of the previous year.
In addition, in this measurement, the arrival of international passengers marks a growth of 31.2% in twelve months.
On the other hand, overnight stays in EAT reached 1,543,169 for the national total, an increase of 2.2% compared to the same period of the previous year.