The recent reopening of the island of Rapa Nui to foreign visitors marks the definitive return of tourism to Chile, President Gabriel Boric declared today at the celebration for that event.

Considered one of the main destinations in the country, the island was closed for more than two years due to Covid-19.

In a ceremony held this Monday in the Plaza de la Constitución, in the Palacio de la Moneda, the president recalled the importance of the leisure industry for Chile’s economic recovery.

Nearly 570,000 jobs nationwide are generated by this industry, without this figure considering all the indirect activities arising from it, the president specified.

He stated that tourism and culture were two of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and “for too long they have been seen in a sort of second line.”

“We have been improving little by little, this requires cohesive work with mayors, local and regional governments and, although the numbers are going up, in terms of tourism we still have not reached the place where we were before the pandemic”, Boric declared.

Through the Chile Supports economic reactivation plan, more than 160,000 small and medium-sized companies, including 150 from Rapa Nui, received subsidies to relaunch their activities.

The Rapa Nui National Park, with its more than 900 humanoid figures sculpted by the ancient inhabitants of that island, was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1995. © LANA Via REUTERS