Easter Island soon reopened to tourists after a year and a half of closure

Moai on Easter Island will welcome tourists again on February 3, 2022. AP - Karen Schwartz

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Lost in the middle of the Pacific, Easter Island has been closed to tourists since the start of the pandemic.

Which deprives her of most of her usual income.

This week, residents finally voted to resume commercial flights from Chile and return tourists.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Santiago de Chile,

Before the pandemic, Easter Island, known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui, received up to 150,000 tourists each year.

For more than a year and a half, permanent residents have been the only ones able to observe the famous moai, these faces carved in huge blocks of dark stone, installed on the edge of the Pacific.

Because the only hospital on the island does not have an intensive care unit, and there is only one ventilator on site.

In October, members of the indigenous Rapa Nui people, who make up about half of the population, voted overwhelmingly against reopening to tourism.

An island dependent on tourism

But most of the island's population depends on income from this sector, especially people from the mainland.

And with the advance of vaccination, the town hall and then the permanent residents have finally accepted the resumption of commercial flights.

In a referendum organized by the town this week, nearly 70% of voters said "Yes" to the return of tourists.

The first visitors could thus land on February 3, for the most important traditional festival of the year, the Tapati.

►Also listen: International report - The statues of Easter Island in danger

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Chile

• Tourism

• Coronavirus