&Beyond has become the latest travel company to expand into South America in a bid to capture the growing number of Aussies planning trips to the region.
South America is the company’s third continent, following on from successful operations in South Asia and Africa.
As part of the its expansion, &Beyond will open its first office in Santiago, Chile on 15 July 2015.
The office will be led and operated by Managing Director Pedro Barraza, who will report to Regional Managing Director (East Africa, South Asia & South America), Mark Wheeler.
Pedro has 25 years’ experience in the travel industry and 14 years’ experience in top management roles in South America specifically.
From this premises, the company will provide luxury tour operating and destination management company (DMC) services to guests travelling to Chile.
According to the company, Chile was selected as the start point because of its convenient air connections – Qantas’ direct flights to Sydney – and because of its iconic locations including Iguazu Falls, Easter Island, the wine regions of Santiago, Atacama (one of the world’s driest deserts), Buenos Aires (the “Paris” of the Andes), and of course Patagonia, which is the gateway to Antarctica.
By 15 August, &Beyond expects to have additional operational coverage in neighbouring Argentina before moving into Peru and Ecuador by mid-2016.
Although &Beyond says it will initially operate as a full-service luxury DMC, it will also start exploring other exciting opportunities that South America offers in terms of luxury experiential lodges, blue ocean ships in the Galapagos and river ships on the Amazon.
By taking its core company ethos beyond Africa and South Asia, &Beyond believes it can make a significant and meaningful difference to the land, wildlife and people of South America.
Over the last few years, South America has picked up in popularity amongst Australian travellers, driving more tour operators to introduce additional itineraries in the continent.
Earlier this year, Princess Cruises announced it would operate the first circumnavigation of South America from Australia.
Sailing aboard Sea Princess, travellers will spent 84-nights visiting Central and South America, stopping at 28 ports across 18 countries. Read on.