He incoming tourism observe carefully what happens in Argentina, where the government of Javier Milei is preparing to make a definition regarding the dollar for this summer that could harm the arrival to Uruguayof citizens from the neighboring country.
At times where the price gap with Argentina is at a five-year low, more and more tourists from the neighboring country are planning their vacations in Uruguay, with Punta del Este as one of the main destinations.
It is that he argentine peso strengthened in recent weeks against the blue dollar, whose gap with the official one is at monthly lows, while the Uruguayan peso, As occurs with other currencies in the region such as the real, fell and touched its highest value in more than 31 months.
What happens in Argentina with the dollar card
Faced with this scenario, the Milei government must make a decision in less than 40 days about the “card dollar”, which today is trading around 1,630 Argentine pesos. This exchange rate represents the retail price, plus a 60% surcharge (30% of COUNTRY tax and 30% withholding on account Earnings).
The definition at hand has to do with the fact that the PAIS Tax expires on December 22, which would significantly lower the price of the dollar that Argentines use abroad, leaving it at today’s values just above 1,300 Argentine pesos. This could lead to an even greater tourist drain than what is evident today and which Uruguayan tourism providers intend to take advantage of.
However, the intention of the Argentine government is not to make the card dollar cheaper to minimize the eventual drain on the reserves of the Central Bank. Sources from the economic area of the Milei government explained to Scope in Argentina that the objective is to prevent this exchange rate from being reduced in nominal terms.
In this way, whether through a new tax or a collection as an advance on another tax, it is expected that the new scheme will start a dollar card price above 1,650 Argentine pesos in just over a month.
Despite this continuity of value, a report from the consulting firm Epyca estimates that during this summer Argentina will verify a consumption diversion for expenses abroad of more than 3,000 million dollars in the summer, many of which will be captured by Uruguayan tourist places.
Uruguay’s expectation regarding the arrival of Argentines
In the country, the outlook for the summer is positive, as a result of a price gap with Argentina that was reduced to 47%, its lowest level in five years. Between April and July, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism, Argentines spent more than 130 million dollars, 30% more than in the same period in 2023, leading the list in that period, with 267,661 income.
Expectations are better for this season, when studies like that of Five They foresee an increase in the arrival of Argentines of close to 22%, boosting tourism growth.
At the same time, coastal businessmen hope that the improvements they see in terms of trade and employment become a positive effect on tourism. “We hope that this end of the year that will be reversed and that tourism can begin to recover everything it lost first during the pandemic and then with the price gap and the exchange difference,” said the president of the Commercial and Industrial Center of Leap, Guillermo Luzardo.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
