Chile’s New ‘Route of Parks’

Chile is to launch new ‘Route of Parks’ linking 17 national parks following largest private donation of land to a government in Latin America

A portion of the Carretera Austral, considered one of Chile’s most ambitious infrastructure projects of the 20th century, is to be rebranded and extended as the new ‘Ruta de los Parques’ (‘Route of parks’) destined to become one of the most iconic routes for adventure travel in the world.

As a crucial first step towards uniting Chilean national parks, the route of parks will be 1,500 miles long and travel through a new network of 17 national parks which stretches from Hornopirén to the Beagle Channel. The new route will wind through some of the most spectacular natural sceneries on earth and follows the gifting of Parque Pumalín, a million-acre collection of untrammelled vistas and valleys, to the Chilean government by Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of the clothing company Patagonia and her late husband Doug Tompkins, co-founder of the North Face and Esprit.

The Tompkins spent two decades buying land across the Patagonia region with the hope of saving the natural wilderness and their donation in March of this year was the world’s largest donation of privately held land.

Following the donation Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, signed an agreement to join Pumalín with 10 million acres of federal land – an area larger than Switzerland – and create five new national parks which will be placed under strict environmental protection to be officially reclassified by the end of this year as the ‘Red de Parques de la Patagonia’ (‘Patagonia Parks Network’).

With over 15 degrees of latitude between the future Pumalín National Park, the northernmost park to be part of the Ruta de los Parques chain, and Yendegaia National Park, the southernmost, the combined protected areas are 5,000 times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park and include volcanoes, virgin forests and miles of wild coastline.

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins said, “This is unprecedented and will become one of the most famous routes in the world, connecting up communities and bringing new economic activity to each region. There is no long-term conservation possible unless neighbouring communities find that their best interests are served. National parks have proven to be a strong source of national pride, creating honour and admiration throughout their citizenry.”

The Chilean Tourism Board recently scooped the award for South America’s Leading Adventure Tourism Destination 2017 for the third year running at the 24th World Travel Awards.

The event, which took place on 9th September 2017, recognises and celebrates individual and collective successes within each key geographical region. In the competition, Chile defeated Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay.

With this new recognition Chile will be part of the worldwide competition to become the World’s Leading Adventure Tourism Destination 2017, an award that the country won in 2016. This year the global ceremony will take place in Vietnam on 10th December.

The Sub-Secretary of Tourism of Chile, Javiera Montes, said of the accolade, “with this award we are rectifying all the work and investment of US$5.7 million that we have done regarding our international promotion in priority markets such as the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and China.  All our campaigns are under the concept CHILE OPEN NATURE, reflecting the competitive advantages of our destination: beautiful, wide, and untamed natural landscapes, in addition to its warm and friendly people.”

This international promotion campaign looks set to increase visitor arrivals to Chile by 7% year on year.