REVISTA DAP AVENTURA 2015-2016

Aventura al fin del mundo 2015 - 2016
Growth of Puerto Williams:
TOURISM BY THE BEAGLE’S SHORES
More than five
thousand tourists
arrived at Navarino
Island last summer,
and a sensible
increment is expected
for this 2015-2016
season.
It’s been a while since the natural attractions
in Navarino Island, and peaceful Puerto
Williams have been pushing the tourist scale
in favor, due to the privileged views by the
Beagle canal’s shores, in front of Tierra del
Fuego and on the way to Cape Horn.
The thrust of new projects that little by little
are changing Puerto Williams’ face and
improving the quality of life of its 2.200 or so
inhabitants, showed its effects last summer,
when in the middle of the season, the hotel
capacity was completely full.
A global investment of almost 20 USD millions
in 215 has made it possible to begin the
construction of the new hospital, the paving
of ripple roads, and finishing the second
stage of development for the traditional
fishermen’s dock.
Even the construction firms, temporally settled
in Puerto Williams with 300 or so workers,
have built facilities to hold 120 people, and
in some way decongest the high demand
for beds in the area.
Lorena Arata, director of the National Service
for Tourism in Magallanes (SERNATUR),
explains that this development is pushed
forward by the Special Plan for Exteme
Zones, a public policy proposed by the
national government in 2014.
Besides those already mentioned, she talks
about other plans for Puerto Williams, such
as a new passenger isle for Guardiamarina
Zañartu airport; a coast-side road going from
Villa Ukika to the airport, as well as improving
the coast area of Puerto Williams; design of
a new multi-purpose dock; construction of
the Subantarctic Center, which will be home
to scientists and investigators working on
Antarctic and Subantarctic science.
“All of this has generated the interest of
foreign companies to operate from Puerto
Williams. An example of this, is Aurora
Expedition, who on the 2014-2015 season
made their first operations into Antarctica,
departing from Puerto Williams. Likewise,
Argentinean companies are interested in
coming to Puerto Williams and Cape Horn
from Ushuaia”, Lorena Araya continues.
She believes that thanks to these projects,
tourism is strengthened as a relevant activity,
taking into account the infinite potentialities a
land with so many attractive tour destinations
can offer.
“During the 2014-2015 season, 5.478
travelers arrived in Puerto Williams. With
better access, we can see a considerable
increase on this number, which for this
season could well be between 50 and 100%”,
34 Adventure at the End of the World