Chile's Earthquake – Tourism Update

Metropolitan Touring sends an update of the situation in Chile. The worst damages were accrued in the Bio Bio Region (515 km south of Santiago) near the city of Concepcion. “Chile’s solid infrastucture, strict building laws and long-history dealing with seismic activity has prevented the country from a major catastrophe.” Yet, Santiago did experience effects from Saturday’s earthquake and some buildings endured minor damage.

The Santiago Airport, in Chile’s capital city, the only international airport in Chile, is closed due to security reasons. The quake caused damages in the passenger terminal and all the special equipment inside to fail. The DGAC (Dirección General de Aereonautica Civil) has authorized the arrival of domestic and international flights that were re-directed to other airports and passengers have been arriving to Santiago. The departures of International and domestic are still not implemented, and will be analyzed today [March 1st]. Also, a special team is helping with arrival flights that [are dealing with] immigration and other procedures in other city destinations in Chile.    – Metropolitan Touring

No touristic destinations were harmed – San Pedro de Atacama, Easter Island, Puerto Varas and Patagonia are all operating as normal.