The prize, awarded by popular vote, highlights the country’s natural advantages for activities of this type.
For the third consecutive year, Chile has been crowned the World’s Best Adventure Tourism Destination in the World Travel Awards. The prize, awarded by popular vote, highlights the country’s natural advantages for activities of this type.
The diversity of landscapes and tourist attractions found throughout Chile offer unique opportunities for adventure tourism. They include the waves of its coasts, considered some of the best in the world for surfing, as well as perfect geographical conditions for a variety of other sports such as skiing, rafting, kayaking, underwater diving, sandboarding, kite surfing and paragliding.
The award ceremony was held on Saturday, December 1, in Lisbon, Portugal, and was attended by Chile’s ambassador to Portugal, Pedro Pablo Diaz, who received the prize.
After learning about the result of the vote, President Sebastián Piñera posted a tweet that read, “For the third consecutive year, Chile has been recognized as the best adventure tourism destination in the world by @wtravelawards. We will continue working to consolidate our tourism potential in all regions, always creating jobs and taking care of our great nature. Long live Chile!”
Similarly, the Minister of Economy, Economic Development and Tourism, José Ramón Valente, said, “Tourism is one of the most dynamic economic sectors in Chile (...). Moreover, tourism is not only generating a lot of high-quality jobs but also has the potential to continue growing strongly in our economy.”
"If we compare ourselves with the OECD, we are a country where tourism accounts for approximately 3.2% of our economy. In the OECD countries, it is close to 4.5%. We have a lot of room to grow in tourism. It is our responsibility to make our country one of the most extraordinary destinations in the world,” he added.
Undersecretary for Tourism Mónica Zalaquett stressed that, "This new recognition from World Travel Awards consolidates our position as a destination. It is no longer an accident; for three consecutive years now, the world has decided that Chile is a much more suitable and much more recognized destination for adventure tourism than countries like Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador, Fiji and the United States, among others.”
"This is great news and is in line with what is happening in Chile: out of the almost 6.5 million tourists who arrived last year, 51% said they had come for our natural attributes. Here we have wonderful raw material, we are privileged as a country and this makes the tourism sector every day more important because of the opportunities it implies for all the country’s regions,” she added.
World Travel Awards
Established in 1993, the World Travel Awards seek to promote and develop the travel and tourism industry globally, rewarding excellence and diversity. Today, they are recognized globally as a hallmark of quality across all the services and experiences related to the sector.
To learn more about opportunities for investment in tourism in Chile, see this article.
Sources: Bio Bio Chile, CNN Chile and Economía y Negocios
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