Final Frontiers
By Mario Teixeira
I've had the opportunity and privilege of visiting some of the final frontiers of the planet: the province of Tierra del Fuego, where is located Ushuaia, the southest city on the planet, also known as the End of the World, and Alaska, the American state most associated with The Polar Star and north winds. Both on the American continent. Both show as well as the different can be a source of tourism, generating income and resources. Even actions initiated as rudimentary can transcend the importance of place, drawing thousands of tourists throughout the year.
Ushuaia, for example, began as a penal colony for political prisoners. The name Tierra del Fuego, according to a professor of the Argentina History at Rio Turbio, at southern Argentina, Miguel Gallo, due to the glare of the fires of the natives of the region, sighted by navigators who crossed Cape Horn in search of gold and silver at Chile. The term Patagonia, which is an important region of Argentina and Chile, refers to the marks of footsteps of the natives of the region, who wore fur curled feet.
Ushuaia, after going through a period of prosperity with the transformation of the region into a industrial zone, attracting numerous industries for the region and people of all provinces, collapsed when the companies looking for best places to produce and sell their products. Today one of the main income of the city, and also the province, is the tourism. The old prison turned museum; unkempt parks have become destination of countless vans and tours leaving the city center; an old place called Garibaldi, where there was an exchange of horses that carried supplies to the prisoners won a plate, gazebo and souvenir shop; an old farm, with some chalets on the edge of Lake Escondido, which freezes during the winter, became a famous restaurant; and the creation of dogs to sleds race turned attraction throughout all the year.
In Alaska, towns like Skagway, with 921 inhabitants, has received about 1 million visitors a year with the cruise leaving from Vancouver, at Canada, and Seattle, USA. The city, which lived gold rush in 1850, retraced its history through a large scenographic city, with buildings imitating what existed at that time. With it receives during the summer, about two cruises a day, turned in most shops selling souvenirs and offers a range of tours, almost all going to Canadian territory, that move the city's tourism. A train ride costs about U.S. $ 139 per person, with the right mineral water. It's three hours of travel, without allowing the tourists leave the train. Each of the four trains have 12 wagon, with a capacity for 24 people each, offering options for morning or afternoon.
To get an idea of folklore, there is a river that runs through the city where the salmon are in inexorable destination upriver to spawn and get eaten by bears. There is a large amount of fish, some dead, tired of the way between the sea and spawn, which can be caught by hand by tourists. This is a great attraction for visitors from around the world, visiting a lost city between the ocean and the border with Canada, a few kilometers, and ensure that return more often.
Only in comparative terms, Rio de Janeiro, known throughout the world and one of the dream destinations of 70% of the world population, received the cruise season last year 800,000 visitors. Independent port tariffs, being cited by tour companies as the main reason for the escape of the cruises of Brazil, is to build an alternative to resume the ability Rio. With all the options we have in terms of beaches, mountains, history and too much options, we can get much more than more than 1 million visitors of Skagway, a city hidden deep in a nearly glacial crevasse. You must create a logistic able to meet the demand and work hard to build a reality that meets the aspirations of the country and the tourist demand for the Marvelous City.
I think there would be any demerit study the rules that work in other tourist regions, especially those that offer fewer options than the state capital, and create a tourism policy involving the three spheres of government, always remembering that every tourist who arrives to move economy, leaving dollars in the country, creating jobs by creating new services and heating market. It's time to tourist trade aid the country to find the cruise market again. Disdaining an important market, though seasonal, is unaware of the production capacity of this sector, which relies not only on the scripts, but mainly to word of mouth. Convince someone to return to Skagway can be difficult, Rio de Janeiro, just need to present a good job.
