The former Minister of Tourism Broad Front (FA) Liliam Kechichian criticized the data collected by the portfolio of Tabare Viera, where an increase in tourism in coastal areas is explicit, and remarked that the complete information was not published.
In an interview with a program on Azul FM radio, the former official explained that she has “doubts” about the published data by the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) on the activity of the first quarter of the year, which coincides with the high summer season. “I have doubts about how the tourism data was collected, the government should provide complete information,” the former minister tweeted.
However, he clarified that “there is nothing we want more than the return of tourists” and added that “hopefully we are traveling that path for the good of workers, businessmen and the country.”
Faced with this, the current Minister of Tourism, Tabare Viera, He replied that he does not accept Kechichian’s doubts and remarked that the numbers are prepared by career officials from the ministry. On the other hand, she added that the collection and manipulation of data was carried out “with the same rigor and method” as, in the previous administration, when she led the portfolio. “They are officially published, I do not share the political thought that the worse things go for the country, the better for the opposition,” said the minister.
Former Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Benjamin Liberoffjoined the ex-minister’s claim and established that “they do not provide microdata with which they worked, as was done previously, nor the aptitude of the information delivered.”
Data from the Ministry of Tourism
Last week the Ministry of Tourism presented the results of the first quarter of the year for this important sector of the economy of Uruguay, with the good news of having recovered —and exceeded— pre-pandemic levels, compared to the first quarter of 2019, with 1,219,298 visitors entering the country during the first months of the year. However, foreign currency income was lower.
In this period of time they were 1,219,298 people who entered the countrya 11.6% more than those registered during the last great summer before the pandemic, in 2019 —when 1,092,016 visitors were received.
However, and despite this positive difference in the number of tourists, the total income in the sector was less than four years ago: This year, 741 million dollars entered the country for expenses in the tourism sector, while in the first quarter of 2019, 776 million dollars were disbursed by visitors in the national territory. This meant a 4.5% less of income between the periods compared.
Likewise, according to the information shared by tourism, they were 1,141,300 Uruguayans who traveled abroad during this season, which spent 471 million dollars outside the national borders. It should be noted that, although income in the country was lower than expected, the balance between incoming and outbound tourism was still positive, leaving a difference in favor of 270 million dollars.
Other notable data are the 30% increase in internal tourism mobility compared to 2019 —3,996,333 travelers four years ago against 5,190,437 in the first three months of the year—, according to the records of Antel; and the 12.7% increase in the number of cruises during the 22-23 season compared to the 19-20 season.
Source: Ambito
