{"id":7564,"date":"2026-05-18T16:31:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7564"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:31:49","slug":"argentinas-icy-outpost-at-the-end-of-the-world-fears-the-hantavirus-will-chill-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7564","title":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s icy outpost at the end of the world fears the hantavirus will chill tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By ISABEL DEBRE<\/strong><\/p>\n

USHUAIA, Argentina (AP) \u2014 Travelers hoping to catch a glimpse of Magellanic penguins and humpback whales have journeyed in greater numbers every year to Ushuaia, the main Antarctic cruise hub at the southernmost point of Argentina.<\/p>\n

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The wind-lashed city that bills itself as the \u201cend of the world\u201d now fears for its future. In the last week, the remote outpost has found itself at the center of speculation about the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak on an Atlantic cruise after Argentina\u2019s Health Ministry said it was examining whether the outbreak\u2019s first victims, a Dutch couple who died in April, contracted the rat-borne virus there.<\/p>\n

Questions surround the investigation. Authorities in Ushuaia \u2014 the capital of left-leaning Tierra del Fuego Province, which has frequently clashed with libertarian President Javier Milei \u2014 say they\u2019re victims of a smear campaign. The Argentine Health Ministry says it can\u2019t rule out any destination visited by the Dutch bird enthusiasts during their monthslong road trip through Argentina and Chile before boarding the ship in Ushuaia.<\/p>\n

Despite a lack of any evidence to suggest the outbreak started in Ushuaia, people here whose livelihoods depend on foreign visitors say they are feeling the effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a place that we\u2019ve tried to promote as being as far away as possible from all the world\u2019s problems \u2014 war, racism, health problems, too,\u201d said Julio Lovece, the former tourism secretary of Ushuaia. \u201cThere\u2019s concern because our main attraction is clean and pure landscapes, the imaginary idea of the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hantavirus anxieties cause some travelers to reconsider<\/h4>\n

The arrival of winter has emptied Ushuaia save for a trickle of Brazilian tourists in puffy jackets and big hoods bobbing down the sleet-slick streets like the penguins they\u2019ve come to visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a little worried this was something similar to what we experienced with COVID,\u201d said Vin\u00edcius Pezzini, 38, an investment banker from S\u00e3o Paulo on his honeymoon. \u201cBut from what it seems, everything is functioning normally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

As the subpolar Patagonian wind blows in off the Beagle Channel, tour operators already are looking toward the high season. Winter is when deep-pocketed passengers plan summer cruises to Antarctica. Several travel agents said that fears about the Andes variant of the hantavirus have already caused some Americans and Europeans to scrap cruise bookings for next season. They declined to say how many.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen a number of passengers canceling trips, but my main concern is not the cancellations but people who were thinking about going to Ushuaia but had two or three destinations to choose from and now may go to Southeast Asia or Africa,\u201d said \u00c1ngel Brisighelli, owner of the Ushuaia-based Rumbo Sur travel agency. \u201cThat damage won\u2019t be visible until much later.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a reminder of just how fragile the tourism economy remains, especially for cruises occupying an outsized place in the public imagination when it comes to infectious disease.<\/p>\n

Some officials in Tierra del Fuego are subscribing to the philosophy that all press is good press.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe suffered a loss of prestige, yes. But this is also a chance to show that Ushuaia is one of the safest places in the world,\u201d said Juan Pavlov, the secretary of foreign affairs at the Tierra del Fuego Tourism Institute.<\/p>\n

Antarctica tourism turned Ushuaia into a boomtown<\/h4>\n

Many residents of Tierra del Fuego, lured by tax breaks to the rugged region in the 1970s, remember when Antarctic travel meant naval patrols and research expeditions. Today, the white continent routinely tops bucket lists of vacationers from around the world.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, just over 38,400 Antarctic cruise passengers set out from Ushuaia, a city of 80,000. In the 2025-2026 season, more than 135,000 did, according to Argentine port authorities, many hoping to experience the world\u2019s largest ice sheets before they melt.<\/p>\n

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Ninety percent of Antarctic cruises depart from Ushuaia, and the city says it relies on tourism for over 25% of its revenue. Any drop in visitors, however small, can have ripple effects throughout the economy, said Patricio Cornejo, head of local travel agency Tierra del Fuego Aventura.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything would exist in a different reality without the dynamism that tourism creates here, especially when other industries fail to generate momentum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under Milei, Tierra del Fuego has weathered a series of economic blows. The government\u2019s scrapping of trade barriers has battered the island\u2019s mainstay electronics production, while its strengthening of the local currency has given Argentines more spending power abroad, discouraging tourism at home that keeps Ushuaia afloat during the low season.<\/p>\n

Questions hang over Argentina\u2019s investigation<\/h4>\n

Argentina\u2019s apparent lack of urgency in hunting for the origin of the outbreak has perplexed experts overseas.<\/p>\n

Officials are still struggling to fill the gaps in the late Dutch couple\u2019s itinerary. Scientists from a government research institute have yet to arrive in Ushuaia more than two weeks after Argentina\u2019s Health Ministry said it would send them to test rodents in the province, which has never registered a case of the hantavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation is going to be key for us to see what we can learn from the outbreak,\u201d said Mark Loafman, a family medicine doctor and public health expert at Cook County Health in Chicago. \u201cWe\u2019d like to see hypotheses based on science, and not on concern over tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pan American Health Organization \u2014 to which Argentina is party despite withdrawing from the World Health Organization last year \u2014 defended Argentina\u2019s response and said it was working with its government to \u201cstrengthen the detection and follow-up of potential cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the ongoing investigation remains important, its broader public health relevance for the Americas is limited, given that the disease is endemic in the region,\u201d the organization said in response to questions on whether the lagging investigation caused concern.<\/p>\n

Here in Ushuaia, authorities argue the most logical source of contagion is the Patagonian region that spans southern Chile and three Argentine provinces, where the same Andes hantavirus identified in the cruise outbreak circulates.<\/p>\n

But health officials say they have no record of the Dutch couple visiting those endemic areas during the incubation period for the virus \u2014 estimated to be between nine and 45 days before the arrival of symptoms on April 6.<\/p>\n

In recent days, they\u2019ve stressed that all is well in Argentina\u2019s treasured tourist destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism operators tell us that many trip reservations have been canceled, so we must make this clarification,\u201d announced Jos\u00e9 Contreras, mayor of the village of Epuy\u00e9n where a 2018 hantavirus outbreak killed 11 people. \u201cEpuy\u00e9n has no hantavirus this season. People should feel at ease and continue to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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