Strict Rules for Cruise Liners Visiting Chile’s Magallanes Fiords

Touring foreign flagged cruise vessels wishing to visit and disembark tourists in southern Chile fiords and channels will in the future have to request specific authorization for each spot they wish to call at.

The decision follows strong lobbying from local Chilean flagged cruises that felt discriminated by Chilean Customs resolution 5438 which opened 31 spots to the foreign flagged cruise industry.

The official announcement was made in Punta Arenas this week by Magallanes Mayor Eugenia Mancilla adding that an only office will consider all requests, on a case by case basis, of all those cruise vessels wishing to steam along Chilean fiords, channels and even those islands currently in private hands.

The resolution favoring the foreign flagged cruise industry was challenged by the Southern Chile Vessel Owners Association with strong support from Magallanes elected representatives.

Ms. Mancilla pointed out that the Customs decision respects regional autonomy and underlines the fact that “cruise tourism must integrate with regional tourism development and UNESCO guidelines, such as protection of biosphere reserves as is the case with the Cape Horn area”.

A second step is to categorize and establish a regional registry of the different places whether they are marine reserves, protected areas or exclusively for scientific research, scientific tourism or for any other environmental purpose.