Elsa Petersen, Executive Director of Travel Mark Argentina

In an exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital, Elsa Petersen, Executive Director or Travel Mark Argentina, speaks about the evolution of the Argentinean market in recent years and the efforts to make a larger number of Russian tourists visit the South American nation on a yearly basis.

How many years have you been coming to Russia for tourism shows?
It’s been fourteen years. Travel Mark attended these shows even when Argentina didn’t as a country.

In terms of the evolution of Argentina’s tourism market, lifting the visa application was an important step to have more Russian tourists visiting Argentina.
Yes, it was quite important because we gained a new segment that couldn’t meet the requirements to obtain the visa, until it was lifted in 2009.

How many Russians visit Argentina? Do you have the numbers?
I don’t have the official numbers. We are presently being more advertised and we are receiving more Russians, you can hear people speaking Russian in the streets because they are directly going there, they make their bookings on the internet. When the visa requirement was put aside, it clear the way to the Internet, globalization; and tour operators don’t sell the destination to all the Russians that are actually traveling there. Travel Mark works with a different style: tour operators from here buy our products and everything is individually done, we’re specialized on the VIP segment, ships sailing to the Antarctic, cruises to Cape Horn, and vessels sailing throughout the fiords of the Argentinean-Chilean Patagonia.

Our tourism is not measured by the amount of Russian tourists, but its high quality, initiatives, different offers and fine turnover.

How many Russians do you move by means of your inbound agency?
Just as I said, we’re not massive, but we could have nearly one thousand Russian tourists a year.

What’s the average spending of a Russian tourist?
It is way high. A very-high average expense. There was a light decrease over the past years because of the growing number of people with lower budget, but the average expense per passenger might fluctuate between 5 and 6 thousand dollars.

That’s nearly the double of the Russian middle class.
Exactly. Of course, we have people that spend 10, 12 or 15 thousand and there are some that are starting to visit us and spend 2,500; but the average is high.

What do Russian tourists look for in Argentina?
Exquisite cuisine, fine wine, excellent hotels like Park Hyatt, Faena Hotel, Alvear Palace, etc.; such exotic destinations as the jungle and Iguazú Falls or Perito Moreno glacier, and our national parks.

When Russian tourists travel to Argentina, they enjoy the multi-destination in the country.
They generally do it in Argentina, although we encourage them to get to know the entire South America and we foster combined tours through the border with Chile because our country has a south-to-north frontier with Chile and five or six different paths with five or six attractive and themed circuits to cross to Chile. We promoted tourism for Argentina and Chile.

Brazil is a usual stop because many of them know it. Over the past years we have sold Peru. We are boosting combined tours throughout South America and the whole Argentina.

The Perito Moreno Glacier can be visited from both Chile and Argentina. What’s the difference between doing it from one country or the other?             
If I’m to talk about the Perito Moreno, I say that doing it from Argentina is enough because it’s really vast, it fascinates people, especially in the season when there are pieces of the glacier falling to the water; but there is a particular attraction: our Patagonia is alike, but different from the Chilean one. Our suggested circuit is Buenos Aires, fly to Ushuaia, visit the National Park and board the Australis Cruise – the one chosen by National Geographic-, dock in Punta Arenas and visit Torres del Paine and its gorgeous national park; then cross the border by land and get to the Calafate to do the Perito and, afterwards, fly back to Buenos Aires.

That tour gives tourists the opportunity to know the very best places of the Patagonia and our Perito with other picture-perfect national parks. We cannot forget our Puerto Madryn, with whales, June-December season.

Is visiting Atacama from that very tour an option?        
It’s an option from the north. If you enter through Argentina and do the Perito in the first place, board the ship and end up in Punta Arenas; we suggest you to fly to Santiago, visit some places, go to Calama and visit San Pedro de Atacama.

If you don’t want to do Patagonia, an excellent combination would be traveling to Salta, do the Calchaquíes Valley, Purmamarca and cross the Jama Path on your way to Chile, do San Pedro de Atacama and fly down from Calama to Santiago, then return to Russia.

What’s the cost of such a trip?
It depends.

Tell me the lower and higher numbers.
We’re always doing different things and prices change depending on the passenger’s requirements. To the north, for example, that circuit would take ten days, no less than ten days, and it would cost about 3 thousand dollars.

We could say that it would be between 3 and 6 thousand dollars depending on the hotels and planes you use.
It depends on the hotels and with high-quality hotels, breakfast and good excursions, I would say that the flying part wouldn’t be included. It would be more the internal flights, because the tourists fly from here to Argentina and return from Chile. The flights total another number, but in this market there many passengers that can afford it to enjoy the wonders we have in the north of Argentina and Chile.

What’s you expectation in such a show as Leisure? Do you prefer Leisure or MITT? Which of them is the most interesting for you?
Actually, I’ve always preferred Leisure because it is held near the sales season for Argentina’s exotic destinations and because I’ve always liked the people that organize it, they are very accessible. We’re always here in March, even the year that Argentina didn’t come as a country, because this is the time when Russian tour operators start preparing the catalogues to be distributed in this show. We have to come before as Argentina so they count on our prices and include our programs on their catalogues. That’s the reason why coming to MITT is also very important.

The closing of tour operators like South Cross, the four tour operators that have disappeared over the past three months, what does it entail for inbound agencies like you?
I believe that what matters the most and have adverse effects is the local spirit because, for operators like us, those tour operators didn’t mean much in terms of production as they were massive operators and didn’t sell our exotic products. They were group operators, for massive destinations, beach destinations, not for Argentina. None of the operators you mentioned was on Travel Mark’s client portfolio.