By Sebastián Betancourt
The Port of San Antonio, through its concessionaire DP World, officially began the 2025-2026 cruise season with the reception ceremony for the Oosterdam from Holland America Line. The vessel docked at Site C1 after arriving from the Coquimbo Region.
The ship arrived with 900 crew members and 1,800 passengers on board, of which 1,100 will disembark and the remaining 700 will proceed to visit the city and its surroundings, which also includes Valparaíso. During its stay -handled by Inchcape– 1,200 people will embark, which will lead to its departure for Puerto Montt with a total of 1,900 cruise passengers.
It is worth mentioning that the Oosterdam is the second cruise ship to arrive at the San Antonio port facility during the current season, as the first operation of this type was carried out at the end of October with the call of the Seabourn Pursuit.
In this regard, Horacio Hernández, general manager of DP World San Antonio, commented that “today we are inaugurating the 2025-2026 cruise season at the DP World multipurpose terminal in San Antonio. This will once again be a good season, where the entire DP World logistics chain is working with all its energy, efficiency, and professionalism, focused on the good service of the 15 cruise ships that will arrive this season and their thousands of passengers and crew who come from afar and expect to have great moments, experiences, and memories in San Antonio and its surroundings.”
“According to information provided by Sernatur some time ago, 35% of passengers spend more than 100 dollars per day, 21% between 30 and 100 dollars per day, and 44% less than 30 dollars per day. Although I have not seen updated figures published, the enormous economic benefit of cruises for the social, cultural, and economic life of San Antonio and its surroundings is evident,” he added.
Hernández also added that “more than 90% of cruise passengers say they are satisfied with the service received at the DP World terminal and in the port city of San Antonio, which confirms the great projections of this tourism industry for the residents of the city and its surroundings. All these achievements and successes have been reached by working and planning together with the Municipality of San Antonio, with the authorities of the Navy, Customs, SAG, Carabineros, PDI, with the community, tourism operators, transportation, shipping companies, EPSA, with local commerce.”
In turn, Stephenie Dewulf, Commercial Manager of DP World San Antonio, indicated that “in this 2025-2026 cruise season we will receive here at DP World in San Antonio a total of 15 cruise ships, which will accumulate more than 450 thousand visitors since the arrival of the first cruise ship at our terminal in San Antonio in 2017, confirming that port, logistics, and tourism activity generate a productive chain that benefits gastronomy, hospitality, and services, ensuring sustainable development for San Antonio and its surroundings.
“This season coincides with Chile recently being recognized as the best cruise destination in the world by the World Travel Awards, the most prestigious awards in the global tourism industry and known as the Oscars of international tourism.
This award is a recognition of the great public-private work we have carried out, in the case of San Antonio, with the Municipality and the authorities, the community, shipping lines, operators, customs, police, commerce, museums, hotels, restaurants, transportation and all the actors involved. Today, cruise ships are part of San Antonio’s image and are a source of deep local pride, something we at DP World fully share,” he expanded.
For his part, the general manager of Inchcape Shipping Services, Víctor Oelckers, pointed out that “with this start of the 2025-2026 season, the ninth season of operation in San Antonio is consolidated, which expects to see a total of 15 cruise ships in 2025-2026, all of large dimensions. San Antonio is the number one homeport in South America, where the operation of this cruise ship that provides a pendulum service between San Antonio and Buenos Aires is concentrated, and thanks to that and regardless of a decrease in the number of ships from 23 to 15, the total number of passengers that will move this season does not decrease, around 28 thousand, which is very similar to the last season.”
Likewise, Oelckers pointed out that for the following seasons it is necessary to “promote local attractions, there are very beautiful parks here nearby and everything related to the vineyards, which are vital for the experience sought by the cruise passenger on board, who is generally from North America. They come here escaping the winter and want different experiences, one of these – and very much in demand – being visiting the vineyards, getting to know Santiago, the Litoral de los Poetas, museums in general and enjoying the local gastronomy. Promote all the business of small and medium-sized enterprises both in hospitality and gastronomy, but without forgetting the museums and vineyards.”
Carolina Carrasco, director of the Servicio Nacional de Turismo (Sernatur) Valparaíso, commented that “we are very happy to be able to participate and continue working collaboratively, because this type of action generates activation not only for the commune of San Antonio, but also for the Litoral de los Poetas, but above all for the region and the country. This terminal has a capacity for almost 6 thousand passengers and today with this very large cruise ship that arrived we are almost at full capacity, which means it is positioning itself, as at the Latin American level it is one of the largest, where we can contribute to having them visit us, have a pleasant stay and we can build passenger loyalty so they return and recommend us.”
“It remains pending that this year the number of port calls decreased, not significantly the number of passengers, but we have dead dates and capacity that must continue to be promoted, continue working and we must believe in sustainable work over time. We must promote and disseminate the result of all this work, which will allow many more people to come,” she emphasized.
Omer Vera, mayor of San Antonio, expressed that “we are very happy with the ninth cruise season, which has enabled the Port of San Antonio with its image to project itself nationally and internationally in terms of cruises, in terms of passenger transportation dedicated to tourism.
It has been a very significant instance, enabling local entrepreneurs to adequately develop their ventures, providing transportation services, consulting, guidance, gastronomy, lodging, and different aspects that allow San Antonio to become not only a passenger transfer port, but also an attractive port on various fronts of what tourism means.”
The Oosterdam concluded in San Antonio a 17-day travel itinerary that began on November 17 in Florida, United States. Likewise, from the port facility it will begin another 14-day journey that will conclude in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 18.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the cruise ship is expected to arrive at the Port of San Antonio on two other occasions, which will take place next year, particularly on February 22 and March 22.
