As part of her participation in a panel at the IATA Wings of Change Americas conference taking place this week in Santiago, Chile’s Undersecretary of Tourism, Verónica Kunze, commented a few moments ago that they expect «that next week there will be announcements regarding tourist arrivals».
«We are talking and we are working. And in this government, we consider that there are some restrictions that were imposed and that, given the current situation, it does not make sense to maintain them», added the official.
Kunze is part of the brand-new government of Gabriel Boric, who took office just three weeks ago. She also mentioned that «a new governance has been generated on decision making related to the pandemic that has among its objectives to incorporate sectors that were not in that process although they were affected by them».
Chile currently requires that foreign tourists must register with government agencies, which must «validate» the vaccines received in their respective countries, a process that is almost playful given that it can take a few days or weeks. To this is added the sworn declaration and the PCR test at origin. Finally, upon arrival in Chile, passengers are randomly subjected to a PCR test.
Regarding this process, Kunze said that «for us it does not make any sense, it is an obstacle that makes us lose competitiveness and makes people choose other countries as a tourist destination instead of Chile».
After the official’s announcement, Estuardo Ortiz, JetSMART CEO, jokingly said that he wanted to «applaud» when he heard her words, adding that in January inbound tourism in Chile was 96% below pre-pandemic values, as an example of the negative impact of entry barriers.
«We have to give certainty to passengers that they can do tourism. We will be surprised that the demand will still be there. Chile is an attractive country for tourism,» Ortiz concluded.
