Buenos Aires cruise season this year will be far from its peak in 2012/13 when over half a million visitors reached the Argentine capital, in part because of strong competition from South Africa.

“It’s a highly competitive market and in our Southern hemisphere latitude we have formidable and well developed destinations such as Oceania and South Africa,” says Gonzalo Mortola, from the Buenos Aires port authority.

According to Mortola, bad management coupled with this competition has led to the drop in expected cruise visitors.

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This season will only see 81 calls with 323,000 visitors of which 70% foreigners, according to local port authorities. This represents a drop in cruise visitors of almost 30%.

“Cruise companies organize with up to four years anticipation, but here in Buenos Aires they could only schedule with two years at the most. This scares any global corporation,” Mortola added.

Buenos Aires port authorities said the real changes will begin to be seen in the 2018 season, with long term scheduling possible, and improvements in the local terminal, with further facilities and a daily managing capacity of 12,000 visitors.