Easter Island welcomes back tourists post-pandemic | Inquirer News

Easter Island welcomes back tourists post-pandemic

/ 04:39 PM August 02, 2022

Easter Island welcomes back tourists post-pandemic

Drones form the image of two moais, monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Chile’s Easter Island, during a night light show, the first event of such kind held in the country, at the Club Hipico racecourse in Santiago, on January 16, 2022. AFP

SANTIAGO — Chile’s Easter Island, a popular Pacific Ocean tourist destination, officially reopened to the world Monday after more than two years of coronavirus closure.

The first flight with tourists — many with bookings made before the pandemic — was due to touch down on Thursday, tourism official Veronica Kunze told reporters.

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“We have to open the island, but we have to do it safely,” she added.

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Arrivals must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and show a negative PCR test.

The island, located 3,500 kilometers west of the coast of Chile, is world-famous for its “moais,” huge stone statues in human form partially buried in the Earth.

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The island’s main source of revenue was domestic and international tourism before flights were grounded on March 16, 2020, following the first reported cases of coronavirus in Chile.

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Easter Island used to receive some 160,000 tourists per year, arriving on two flights daily.

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In the two years without tourists, islanders resorted to bartering and planting their own vegetable gardens, officials said.

The island has reported only two coronavirus cases, with no hospitalizations or deaths.

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The reopening will be gradual, with some two flights a week at first, said Kunze.

The local hospital had been reinforced, she added, and now boasts an isolation unit as well as a PCR laboratory.

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Chile will reopen Easter Island to tourists in August

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Chile to restrict tourists, non-locals on Easter Island

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TAGS: Chile, COVID-19, Tourism

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