Cojimar, near Havana, was the setting for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Nearby, the house where he lived is maintained exactly as he left it in 1960.
As from October 20th, the activity of bioceanic and Antarctic cruises will be resumed, in a progressive way and respecting the protocols so that passengers from all over the world can visit our country with total safety.
The reactivation of international tourism in Argentina continues its fine-tuning with very good progress. After the last summer season mobilized around 15 million domestic tourists and this winter also circulated a significant number of people between the provinces, now another good news is added: the return of Cruise Tourism.
"We knew that it was a great challenge to work in this context of pandemic, so from day one, with a great effort of the public and private sectors of Argentina, we set out to reactivate tourism activity to resume as quickly as possible the levels we had pre-pandemic once the health situation allows it. Today we can already say that we expect to have a great cruise season. The President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, had already announced on August 6 the Recovery Plan for Argentina in stages and this announcement of the reopening of the cruise season marks the guidelines of that recovery and a reference in Latin America", said the Executive Secretary of the National Institute for the Promotion of Tourism (INPROTUR), Ricardo Sosa.
Maintaining social distancing, ventilating enclosed spaces, performing daily disinfections are some of the recommendations to have the best experience on board. In addition, according to Annex 1 of Administrative Decision 834/2021, it is highlighted that both passengers and crew, in order to identify possible cases of COVID-19 before the trip, must present:
• Traveler's Health Declaration Questionnaire and/or complementary and temperature control to all persons.
• PCR test within a maximum of 72 hours before the trip. Those who come on the ship should not perform the PCR, only persons who will board the ship in the national territory should do it.
• Symptom records for all persons boarding the vessel.
• Isolation days prior to boarding. All persons coming from abroad and boarding in national territory must comply with the sanitary measures in force at the time of reactivation of the activity for foreign tourists.
• Vaccination. All persons boarding the cruise ship must be required to present a 100% vaccination certificate (guests, staff, crew) with a complete vaccination schedule. Those persons who are not vaccinated will not be allowed to enter on board. The full schedule must have been completed at least 21 days prior to embarkation (whether it is a one or two dose vaccination). Accepted vaccines are all vaccines approved by the WHO, and/or approved in the country of origin and/or approved in Argentina, which must be accredited with their respective official certificates.
Since the approval of the application of vaccines for children under 12 years of age is still pending, the national health authorities may evaluate their acceptance on cruises according to the results of the application of the protocols in the activity, the epidemiological situation at that time and the approval of vaccines for this age group.
• All persons must have COVID-19 and death insurance, including isolation, transfer, hospitalization and, if necessary, repatriation. It should also cover the isolation and transfer of an eventual suspected case by close contact. It should also include the possibility of coverage for travel suspension.
It is worth mentioning that the activity oriented to Cruise Tourism has developed very strongly in the last years in Argentina -during the 2019-2020 season, more than 755 thousand travelers were registered in this way- and this is demonstrated by the different ports, which are highly prepared.
The Porteño Quinquela Martín terminal, with almost 13 thousand square meters and a capacity to receive 15 thousand passengers per day, is one of the most renowned in South America. Almost 500 thousand passengers from abroad passed through here in 2019.
Puerto Madryn - in the Province of Chubut - has shown sustained growth in the matter, which is reflected in its Luis Piedrabuena and Almirante Storni piers. With 94 thousand passengers, it concentrated 12 percent of international tourists in 2019.
Ushuaia, besides being the city of the End of the World, is the gateway for cruise ships traveling to Antarctica. 174 thousand foreign passengers arrived in the capital of Tierra del Fuego before the pandemic.
Cojimar, near Havana, was the setting for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Nearby, the house where he lived is maintained exactly as he left it in 1960.
