During this Friday, the Undersecretary of Tourism, Verónica Kunze, toured some of the communes most affected by the forest fires in the La Araucanía region, in order to make a cadastre of the losses and then look for measures that help entrepreneurs in this zone.
And it is that unlike what was expected, the tourism sector could not return to normality after the pandemic, being strongly affected by the accidents that devastated the south-central area of our country.
In this context, the authority pointed out that “this is a catastrophe that comes on top of the bad years that have been experienced first by the social outbreak then by the pandemic (…) this leaves them quite beaten, it is very disastrous.”
In addition, Kunze explained to emol that there are two types of affectations “first, the direct one of people who suffered damage to infrastructure, machinery, livestock and crops. But also, there is the indirect affectation, which is the one that mainly affects tourism because there was a demand that was not met made. There are people who canceled their trips to these communes”.
That is why the objective of the Government is to know the magnitude of the losses “on average it is in the order of 60% and 70%. There are cases in 100% and others a little lower and the idea is to take the pulse of this affectation” pointed out the undersecretary.
In the case of those who have suffered a direct impact, it will seek to apply specific instruments from Corfo and Sercotec, in addition to working with the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Bank.
For those who have suffered an indirect impact, Kunze assured that they want to work on a “planning of programs and activities that allow the high season to be extended until Easter and to be able to carry out other coordinated actions throughout the year that allow attracting this demand that is not made during February”.
