TRAVEL NEWS
CHILE PUSHES FORWARD IN EUROPEAN
MARKETS AS A TOURIST DESTINATION
By ROMINA VENEGAS
CHILE WILL MAKE A STRONG PUSH IN EUROPE TO PROMOTE TOURIST DESTINATIONS IN THE OLD
CONTINENT, DURING THE SECOND SEMESTER VARIOUS ACTIVITIES WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN ENGLAND,
FRANCE, GERMANY AND SPAIN.
CHILE — First up was Madrid, where more than 500 promotional videos
for Chile were shown daily in some of the most iconic buildings in the city.
This is in addition to cooperative campaigns, which allow joint work with
local tour operators who seek to diminish seasonality with widespread
advertising of promotional travel packages in print media and online.
Meanwhile in Germany, the cities of Munich and Cologne will welcome
Chile’s roadshow with events, presentations and business conferences,
all of these activities directed at professionals in the industry and
specialized press.
For the Deputy Secretary of Tourism, Javiera Montes, Europe is one of the
most important foreign markets. “During 2014, 425,000 tourists from the
Old Continent came into our country, generating an income of US$529
million. This is the reason why our involvement with this market leaves
us very satisfied and with the feeling that we have a good opportunity to
continue growing and increasing the amount of tourists arriving in Chile.”
Andrea Wolleter, manager of Turismo Chile, added “Our purpose is
to continue advancing our country at an international level, Chile has
impressively diverse landscapes, sceneries that are perfect to discover.”
Another activity that was initiated in Germany was a joint campaign with
Chile, the tour operator Wikinger, and the sports brand Outdoor Deuter,
who will raffle a trip to Chile that will be announced with 800,000 flyers.
In August, Chile will be the official destination and sponsor of the final
stages of the Kitsurf World Championships, the most important event
in the category which will take place in St. Peter-Ording in northern
Germany, some 215,000 people expected to attend.
Giant photographs of Chilean destinations will be exhibited at train
stations in Cologne, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, where
they will be exposed to almost 30 million viewings.
Finally, and as a way of exploring new destinations that are not usually
offered as part of travel programs to Chile, 10 Spanish operators will
travel to Aysén and Valle del Elqui in order to better incorporate and
amplify the tours on offer to potential travelers.
Expo Milan
Under the concept “Feed the planet, energy for life”, the exhibitor
countries, amongst them Chile, will present between May 1 and October
31 in Italy. In the context of this activity that took place last May 11 and
May 17, tourism week was developed where our country demonstrated
its wonderful contrasts to the world. It was calculated that almost 50,000
people visited and were amazed at what they saw. Furthermore, training
was provided to tour operators and Italian travel agencies so that Chile
can be better incorporated in the travel packages.