Oportunidades y Desafíos de la Investigación en Turismo en Patagonia

Abstract

The tourism sector in Chile has had a considerable increase over the last 10 years and a significant change in the visitors’ interests focus. On the one hand, the arrival of international visitors increased from 1,700,000 to over 3,000,000 in 2011. On the other hand, tourists show a growing motivation for different kind of special interest tourism, mainly in the development of activities in rural and natural areas. In fact, nowadays, more than half of international tourists that visit our country are motivated by performing activities related to nature and outdoor sports, .which explains the fact that over the last years visits to wildlife protected areas in the country have increased considerably. The enactment of new public policies and the approval of the Tourism Law indicate the social and economic salience that the tourism sector is achieving. These policies have encouraged innovation and research development, by increasing the funds that drive new businesses, new products, the development of tourist destinations and the cientific knowledge generation about the sector. However, despite the rapid growth the tourism industry has had in Chile, there are still challenges to be fulfilled, mainly refering to the generation of tourism scientific knowledge and its difussion and transfer to potential applicants. Between various universities and R & D centres that provide tourism programs in Chile, just a few of them do tourism research and an important part is produced by the National Tourism Agency and Universities and research centers without tourism training programs. In the southern zone of Chile this problem is particularly stronger, because even though this region has the highest potential for tourism development, it does not have any tourism training and research programs. The national priority assigned to the Special Interest Tourism, in which the Magallanes’ Region presents extraordinary comparative advantages, offers to the University of Magallanes the opportunity of building a Centre for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism in the Patagonia. This Centre would aim to generate interdisciplinary and applied research that would contribute to consolidate the Patagonia as priority international destination.