It was summer in the city called the “end of the world” with pride, and tourists flock like the penguins who had traveled thousands of miles to see.
In one afternoon late in January, five cruise ships, full of docks in Ushuaia, Argentina, waiting for a deep pocket passengers who had paid $ 15,000 to $ 18,000 each, on average, for once in life 10 days of excursions to Antarctica.
A decade ago, about 35,500 Antarctic passengers started by Ushuaia. Last year, about 111,500 did. This year, as the season ends, the local Port Authority estimates that the number will be 10 % higher. Many tourists will spend a night or two in the city before or after their cruise, some choose an Airbnb over a room in one of the humble hotels in the city.
The explosion of tourism brings prosperity for the 83,000 residents of Ushuaia, which is squeezed between the Andes and the Beagle channel. But they are also taxing resources, increasing the cost of living and contributing to a lack of housing for workers. The distance, the highest point of selling Ushuaia, makes only the strain worse.
“We are selling an aura,” said Julio Lovece, president of the Ushuaia XXI Foundation, which supports the tourism development that benefits the local community. “Unlike other places that may sell waterfalls or whales or glaciers. We are selling the end of the world.”
Cruise on “Other Planet”
Ushuaia, the southernmost city of Earth, serves as the main gate to Antarctica. Although cruises are also leaving Chile, Australia and New Zealand, the Ushuaia location, only about 600 miles from the Antarctic Peninsula on the island of Tierra del Fuego, explains why it represents 90 % of departures.
The desire to see virgin landscapes, unusual animals and huge amounts of ice at a time of global warming draws tourists to cruises. Gabriel Chocron, co -founder of the Local Frestyle Adventure Travel service, described the visit to Antarctica as “the closest you can reach the visit to another planet”.
Ellie Light, 28, a traveler from Dallas, just returned from an Antarctic cruise and wandered between Ushuaia souvenir shops – where penguin figurines are a hot commodity. She mentioned the main points: a underwater walk in the seawater to look at cold water reefs and a polar dip in which a Minke whale appeared next to her, just as she was going to jump from a floating platform.
These types of excellent experiences feed the increase in Antarctic tourism. The cruise season, which previously ran closely during the summer months of Australia, in December to March, begins now in September and lasts until April. The port of Ushuaia has grown. In 2023 more than 32,000 square feet were added to the dock. There are plans to build even greater capacity for cruise ships.
Ushuaia has about 6,200 beds for tourists at any given night, according to the Tierra Del Fuego tourist council, about 40 % in hotels and at least 30 % of temporary rents – probably degraded, because not all rents have been registered with tourism authorities. Many of the hotels in the city center come overlooking the Beagle channel, but the accommodation tends to be rustic and incredible. Budget accommodation abounds, including a new Japanese -style capsule hotel. But tourists who hope that luxury accommodation will not find much in the city: the three five -star choices are Nature resorts away from the city center.
It is aimed at capturing a part of this high -tech market, Meliá Hotels announced in late December that it will build a luxury resort of $ 50 million in Ushuaia, with spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and an 800 -seat amphitheater.
The current lack of high -quality options, local tourist officials say, hinders their efforts to persuade cruise passengers to stay and explore the area.
Forest Clearing to build houses
Passengers who pay up to $ 18,000 for an average Antarctic cruise may be surprised to see how some local workers live. Nolly Ramos León, a 34 -year -old single mother of the four, has spent years living in a mountain where people have cleaned the forest to build socks. The neighborhood offers spectacular views of the port and luxurious cruise ships.
Her first home was a thin structure of nylon and wood. The new family home has better insulation to protect against temperatures that are used to sinking under the freezing, but are not yet connected to the electricity grid or water supply and sewer services. Ms Ramos León takes some of the family waters from a nearby stream.
She walks on the stairs and dirt trails that take place in winter to get to work as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she earns about $ 500 a month, as well as more for overtime.
According to Ms Ramos León, the residents of Ushuaia built on the slope of the mountain made it “try to live with dignity”. At least 10 % of Ushuaians live in these types of unofficial settlements, with minimal access to public services. “It took us a long time to build this house,” said Ms Ramos León. “Sometimes we didn’t even have money to eat, because I put it on this house.”
The population of Ushuaia has grown 45 % since 2010, as workers have moved there looking for financial opportunities. But the absorption of the newcomers was difficult. Ushuaia, Ushuaia, Ushuaia had little space to develop housing and infrastructure – and to build anything on such a remote territory comes with an intense price.
Most Ushuaia tenants spend about 80 % of their housing income. A two -bedroom apartment estimates on average 900,000 pesos a month, or about $ 1,000 in the official exchange rate, according to the local Que Nos Escuchen housing support team. In 2023, rents in Ushuaia even surpassed Palermo, one of the most modern neighborhoods in Buenos Aires.
“It’s a dream to see Patagonia”
When explorer Ferdinand Magellan crossed this island in 1520, he saw the fires of native residents on the coast and named it Tierra del Fuego, land of fire. Much of the island, which is now separated between Argentina and Chile, remains desert.
Visitors to the island can see penguins and marine lions, hike among the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego National Park and hit the slopes at Cerro Castor, which remains open more than any other Argentine ski area.
Tierra del Fuego is one of the many major tourist draw in Patagonia, which usually include the colossal Glacier Perito Moreno near El Calafate. Puerto Madryn, a whale shelter. and the idyllic mountainous city of Bariloche.
“Just as for many Argentines is a dream to see Paris, I think for many people around the world, today is a dream to see Patagonia,” said Mariano Sanchez, a tour guide to Tierra Turismo, a local service that offers four -wheel truck excursions.
Last summer, a record of about 640,000 tourists visited the Tierra del Fuego Argentine section, far exceeding 190,000 people living in the province.
The rush has reshaped Silvana Ponce’s business. Its delegation, Latudge Ushuaia, has been developed to 28 employees from six in early 2020. On the organization’s signing tour, visitors accompany local fishermen to catch and cook Cwinly Centolla, Southern King Crab.
At risk a remote country of miracles
As with other cities of resorts restricted by geography and struggling to balance housing and tourism, Ushuaia has few choices that are pleasing to everyone. Proposals for expanding city boundaries have bubbles, but many concerns could do more harm than good. Some in the tourism sector say that pumping the brakes in both the city and the development of their industry could be necessary to maintain the call of the area as a remote, natural country of miracles.
“We believe that we could continue to take many more visitors, but we also believe that this is the right time to think about how not to lose control of this development,” said Mr Lovece of the Ushuaia XXI Foundation.
Last year, President Javier Milei interrupted the Argentinean rental law, one of the most stringent. This left many residents in Tierra del Fuego – the province with the highest percentage of tenants against homeowners – even more competing, according to housing activists. To bring some relief, local authorities have imposed a moratorium in recent years on the registration of new Airbnb rentals, but they were not largely able to break the spread of units that are not licensed.
In a statement, the Antarctic International Association of Tourism Workers, which represents the private tourism industry in Antarctica, said that most cruise ships remain in hotels, not private rents, during their time in Ushuaia and reported a “commitment to promotion to the promotion”.
Antarctic holidays also have a major impact on the environment: each traveler represents about five tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per journey – about equivalent to the amount of carbon pollution produced by the average person in a whole year. For the average American, it is closer to 16 tonnes. Antarctica is heated at a faster rate of the rest of the world and rising temperatures are already reshaping the landscape around Ushuaia. During a hot summer from a regular summer, a popular ice and rock formation in Tierra del Fuego National Park collapsed in an inflatable pile this year.
According to IAATO, cruises contribute to raising awareness and convert customers to ambassadors to protect Antarctica. But environmental activists say it is time to examine hard covers for the number of cruise ships or to make at least parts of the continent outside the tourism.
Housing activists in Ushuaia are also concerned about the future, as houses become more difficult to afford. “There will be a time when they are going to be tourists in Ushuaia,” said Maria Elena Caire, president of the Que Nos Escuchen Housing Group. “And who will serve them? Because residents can’t find a place to live.”
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