Holy Week 2022 in the City: expect the arrival of 90 thousand tourists and a hotel occupancy of 91%

With 129,392 domestic tourists staying in hotels in the City in January -84% of the value reached in the same month of 2019-, the arrival of national visitors begins to show signs of recovery and approaches levels similar to those recorded prior to the pandemic.

Another encouraging piece of information is provided by the long weekends and those with Massive events. For its part, for the carnival holiday, the hotel occupancy rate rose to 67%while during the Lollapalooza festival the figure grew by 85%. In addition, The number of Argentine tourists staying in hotels grew: from 38% in 2019 to 45% in 2021.

In this context, the Buenos Aires Government presented “BA Getaways”a plan for promote the positioning of the City as a destination with a focus on four long weekends, four weekends and winter holidays. The program will promote activities and circuits anchored in both public and private sector eventsAs the Federal Roast Championshipthe book Fair or the triathlon Hombre de Hierro.

The initiative includes a theme for each weekend, with associated activities and circuits. Among others, the axes of promotion will be gastronomy, bars and underground culture, literature and cafes, bike tours, family tourism and Christmas shopping.

For Holy Weekthe offer includes guided tours of the Carlos Gardel House Museumart exhibitions and photographic exhibitions, toured by the Historic helmetand activities in the Konex Cultural Centerthe commercial circuit of Corrientes Street, Zanjón de Granados, blind theaterColon Factory and the murals of schoolboys.

Also, there will be themed tourssuch as the porteño filleting tour with filleting workshop, “Story from a woman’s perspective” in the Museum of the Santa Felicitas Tunnels and the Hidden Temple Pinzón 1480. In turn, the Via Crucis of the City organized by the Archbishopric of Buenos Aireswhich will begin at Avenida de Mayo and end at the Metropolitan Cathedral.

“With BA Getaways we are going to promote and accompany the reactivation of the sector by articulating the public programs of the City Government with the offer of the private sector”indicated Lucas Delfinopresident of the Tourism Entity.

Another axis will be the promotion of the Historic helmet. Among the innovations, the Buenos Aires Museum (BAM), completely renovated and with a terrace with a panoramic view of the historic district. the museum is gratuitous and is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. In addition, the enhancement of the façade of the San Telmo Marketone of the main attractions for national and international visitors.

The national plan also includes a series of conventions and agreements with Mendoza, Cordoba, Rosario, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata, Villa Carlos Paz, Salta, Corrientes, San Salvador de Jujuy, Posadas and Puerto Madryn of cross-promotion, target presentations and reciprocal diffusion.

Signs of recovery of international tourism

After the opening of borders, between September and December 2021, the City received 112,000 international touristsmainly from South America (55%) -with 21% of visitors coming from Brazil-, Europe (29%) and USA (13%). Only in January of this year, they arrived 59,286 visitors through Ezeiza and Aeroparquewhich represents an increase in 710% from October 2021. Added to this is the cruise ship recoverywith 124 landfalls scheduled for 2022-2023, a 5% more than those registered in 2019-2020, and a total of 391,000 passengers.

However, from the Buenos Aires Government they explained that the connectivity It will be key to return to the values ​​of international arrivals prior to the pandemic. While, in January 2019, there were 985 average weekly frequencies, 42 airlines and 50 cities connected, the figures are located in 452 frequencies, 28 companies and 34 cities connected in January this year. Besides, 1 out of every 5 foreign tourists that the City receives visit other national destinations.

“Argentina needs to recover the national and international connectivity policy because, due to the distance involved in traveling to our country, foreign tourists visit more than one destination within Argentina. Without a plan that encourages competition and the opening of new routes it will be difficult to recover the records of 2019”, explained Fernando Straface, Secretary General and International Relations.

The international tourism plan is in charge of VisitBA, the City’s public-private promotion agency. Priority segments include LGBT+, luxury, business tourism, students and digital nomadswhile the target markets are Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Mexico, the East Coast of the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

The City will seek to recover the arrival of more than 90,000 international students per year and 14,500 digital nomads, remote workers with longer stays and a higher than average level of spending. To this end, CABA is working together with the national government to launch a digital nomad visa.

One of the priorities is Business tourism, where Buenos Aires is the leader. In this line, the City will be Mice Week hostess, a meeting with 285 hosted buyers, responsible for organizing events around the world. Highlights of 2022 include the C40 World Mayors Summit, ALTA Leaders Forum, the World Congress of Transplantation and the World Congress of Chemical Engineering.

The plan includes a agreement with Iberia of promotion and marketing to spread the tourist attractions in Spain and increase the volume of passengers to the City. Finally, Visit BA will participate in the main specialized fairs in the world and will generate cross-promotion agreements with Madrid, New York and Montevideo.