NATURE BASED TOURISM DESTINATIONS IN A GLOBAL SANITARY CRISIS. ACTORS’ POINT OF VIEW, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES, THE CASE OF THE REGION OF AYSÉN, CHILE

Abstract

A global health crisis has led countries to implement containment measures that affect the entire tourism chain. This study evaluates the prospects for the revival of travels to nature-based destinations through an assessment of international trends and analysis of local actors’ discourses. For international experts it is an urbanization of the planet and hyper-mobilities, in a scenario of climate change, which has triggered the current pandemic. They feel the recovery of the sector could be very slow. In the Region of Aysén, Chile, we observe that everyone hopes to soon be able to welcome a national urban clientele eager for unpolluted areas. However, when entrepreneurs hope to resume their activities, the local community prefers to withdraw, afraid of the risk of attending to visitors. For its part, the state has established health measures and plans to open up the region to visitors through strict safety protocols, but with subsidies that are too limited to prevent many businesses from closing. The pandemic could favour emerging natural destinations, but this requires the consolidation of the destination as a place to live and a qualitative and not quantitative tourism, less subject to international uncertainties, relevant to the regional community and respectful of the environment.