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The biggest problem facing Chile as it promotes itself as a tourist destination to be reckoned with, is thatit is at the end of the earth. It is too far south to be a convenient stop on the way to anywhere else and is much farther than a relatively cheap half-day flight away from the big tourist markets, unlike Mexico, for example.
Chile, therefore, is having to fight hard to attract tourists, to convince travelers that it is worth coming halfway round the world to visit. But it is succeeding; not only in existing markets like the USA and Western Europe but in new territories, in particular the Far East. Markets closer to home, however, are not being forgotten, More than 50% of visitors to Chile still come form its nearest neighbor, Argentina, where the cost of living is much higher.
Like all South American countries, Chile sees tourism as a valuable earner of foreign currency, although it has been far more serious than most in promoting its image abroad. Relatively stable politically within the region, it has benefited from the problems suffered in other areas. In Peru, guerrilla warfare in recent years has dealt a heavy blow to the tourist industry and fear of street crime in Brazil has reduced the attraction of Rio de Janeior as a dream destination for foreigners.
More than 150, 000 people are directly involoved in Chile’ s tourist sector, an industry which earn the country more than US $ 950 million each year. The state-run National Tourism Service, in partnership with a number of private companies, is currently running a worldwide campaign, taking part in trade fairs and international events to attract visitors to Chile.
Chile’ s great strength as a tourist destination is its geographical diversity. From the parched Atacama Desert in the north to the Antarctic snowfields of the south, it is more than 5,000 kms long. With the Pacific on one side and the Andean mountains on the other, Chile boasts natural attractions. Its beaches are not up to Caribbean standards but resorts such as Vine del Mar is generally clean and unspoiled and has a high standard of services.
But the hump card is the Andes mountain range. There are a number of excellent ski resorts within hour’ s drive of the capital, Santiago, and the national parks in the south are home to rare animal and plant species. The parks already attract specialist visitors, including mountaineers, who come to climb the technically difficult peaks, and fishermen, lured by the salmon and trout in the region’ s rivers.
However, infrastructural development in these areas is limited. The ski resorts do not have as many lifts and pistes as their European counterparts and the poor quality of roads in the south means that only the most determined travelers see the best of the national parks.
Air links between Chile and the rest of the world are, at present, relatively poor. While Chile’ s two largest airlines have extensive networks within South America, they operate only a small number of routes to the
United States and Europe, while services to Asia are almost nonexistent.
Internal transport links are being improved and luxury hotels are being built in one of its national parks. Nor is development being restricted to the Andes. Easter Island and Chile’ s Antarctic Territory are also on the list of areas where the Government believes it can create tourist markets.
But the rush to open hitherto inaccessible areas to mass tourism is not being welcomed by everyone, Indigenous and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, say that many parts of the Andes will suffer if they become over-developed.
There is a genuine fear that areas of Chile will suffer the cultural destruction witnessed in Mexico and European resort. The policy of opening up Antarctica to tourism is also politically sensitive. Chile already has permanent settlements on the ice and many people see the decision to allow tourists there as a political move, enhancing Santiago’ s territorial claim over part of Antarctica.
The Chilean Government has promised to respect the environment as it seeks to bring tourism to these areas. But there are immense commercial pressures to exploit the country’ s tourism potential. The Government will have to monitor developments closely if it is genuinely concerned in creating a balanced, controlled industry and if the price of an increasingly lucrative tourist market is not going to mean the loss of many of Chile’ s natural riches.
According to the passage, in WHICH area improvement is already under way