A lack of awareness about the ease of travel to South America and the breadth of product available across the continent is preventing the destination from achieving its true tourism potential, according to Unique Latin America Director Rebecca Espinoza.
Speaking at a recent Delfin Amazon Cruises media event in Sydney, Espinoza highlighted flight times of just 13 hours from Sydney to Santiago, Chile – far less than those to perennially popular Europe. And yet South America’s many destinations are still thought of as remote, while Europe continues to soar.
Not only that, but Australian travellers lack knowledge of the luxury product available across the continent – something she believes must be addressed. “Mindset is a key word when we think about South America,” she said.
Since Espinoza first started working with Delfin 12 years ago, she explained that travel agents have been shocked to discover the premium nature of the river cruise product, and to learn that other products of a similar standard were on offer across the destination.
“They didn’t realise Peru has a quality of products to offer to a very demanding high-end market,” she said.
“In Australia, they always associate Peru and South America with backpackers and travelling on a shoestring. They believe it’s not a destination for them. They didn’t understand that we have the most incredible lodges, hotels and cruises that rival those in Africa, in Europe.”
In addition to addressing this, there is a need to grow awareness of Peru’s key tourism sites beyond Machu Picchu, the iconic Incan citadel in the mountains beyond Cusco. ‘This is the jewel of Latin America and no trip to Latin America is complete without a visit to Machu Picchu,” she conceded.
“But for me, being Peruvian, no trip to Peru is complete without visiting the Amazon, because 60% of my country is actually rainforest. Therefore, doesn’t make any sense for me to go all the way to Peru, and the people from Australia potentially go once in their lifetime, and only see the mountains. They have to see the Amazon, because it’s so diverse, so different.”
While many travellers associate the Amazon with Brazil, Espinoza highlighted the possibilities for wildlife spotting along the Peruvian stretch of the river – with pink river dolphins, primates, sloths and an abundance of bird species all to be found in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve where Delfin operates.
“In Brazil the towns are so big, the Amazon River is so huge that in some parts of the river you cannot see the other side, therefore there’s no point to go there to see wildlife, because it will be hard to spot it,” she said.
Now, Espinoza together with Delfin Co-Founder and CEO Aldo Macchiavello are planning to tackle all of these knowledge gaps among Australian travellers and the trade with a targeted campaign that will see them join forces with agents and other tourism players.
Macchiavello told LATTE that he will be returning to Sydney to hold a series of events designed at broadening knowledge around the destination and helping the market to understand how easy it is to travel and within to the destination, but also the range of high end products that can be tagged on to one of Delfin’s Amazon river cruises.
