Wine tourism, mining, gastronomy, beekeeping, nuclear medicine, biomechanics and salmon production. These are the seven areas new to the Meet in Chile – Business Tourism Ambassador program. The third meeting was held this Wednesday at the Hotel Galerias in Santiago.

Led by the Undersecretary of Tourism and SERNATUR, the program brings together national professionals who are leaders of global associations, with the aim of providing them with technical tools and personalized support materials to nominate Chile as a venue for future international conferences or seminars.

This act of international promotion has already 60 ambassadors -including the seven new representatives-, who, according to the Undersecretary of Tourism, Mónica Zalaquett, “have become key agents for our country to host future global congresses, managing to strengthen business tourism in Chile. In 2017, this segment represented 18% of the currencies that entered Chile, which translates into more than US$670,000,000, hence, the importance of addressing this large group of professionals. ”

Regarding the objective of “Meet in Chile”, the national director of SERNATUR, Andrea Wolleter, said that “it seeks to raise awareness on the impact that business has on a destination’s society and economy and, therefore, on its cities and overall country. If we want to increase the number of applications for international events in Chile, it is necessary to provide tools to these Chilean leaders so they can influence the decisions of the organizations they belong to. That’s what we aim for with this initiative.”

Ambassador Meeting 2018

The Meet in Chile program seeks to build loyalty among its ambassadors by bringing together the different tools that the government provides them with to apply for international congresses, such as promotional material, air tickets for inspection visits, destination presentations, representative training on how to offer Chile as a venue as well as a contact network through the different regional convention bureaus.

A fundamental part of the work of a business tourism ambassador is to position Chile as the natural destination for business, which is why training is an important way to maximize ambassador performance. In this opportunity, Santiago González ICCA (the International Congress & Convention Association) Regional Director for Latin America, highlighted in his presentation the Chile’s security and infrastructure, characteristics that have positioned the country among the first four of South America in the 2017 ICCA ranking, which measures the number of congresses held annually for each destination.

In this sense, Chile -at least until the year 2024- will host fifty world events of various fields, such as medicine, geology, sedimentology, sports and folklore, managing to attract more than 50,000 organization representatives from different countries.

New business tourism ambassadors in Chile

The new ambassadors that will join the Meet in Chile program are Misael Cuevas, president of the Latin American Federation of Beekeeping (FILAPI); Horacio Amaral, former president of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology; José Miguel Viu, president of Enoturismo Chile; Diego Hernández, president of the Chilean Mining Society; Rodolfo Guzmán, chef and owner of Boragó, chosen one of the top 50 restaurants in the world in 2018; Arturo Clement, president of the Salmon Industry of Chile (Salmón Chile); and Sacha Bittelman, member of the International Society of Biomechanics and the British Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology.