Entrepreneurs in the tourism sector referred to the challenges facing the sector, echoing a Ceres monitor who demonstrated that the price gap with the outside grew, and, in a context of rising prices of the country, the president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Tourism (Camtur), Marina Cantera, He showed his optimism about the effect that the incentive measures for foreigners will have and called for diversifying the offer.
celebrating the World Tourism Day, the Camtur held its national meeting, where the minister participated Tabare Viera together with other national authorities and businessmen, a scenario in which Ceres presented data for the first half of 2023 in a study called “Tourism Monitor”, which reflected the situation in the sector.
In this context, in dialogue with Ambit.com, Quarry He referred to the issue of prices and maintained that “historically it has been like this, in fact we were looking at it now comparing it with Argentina and obviously “Uruguay has always been more expensive.” “In terms of prices there are things to do. We have worked a lot, a lot of work is being done and there is still a lot to do on this issue,” she noted.
And he added: “We have a system that in itself is more expensive for companies than in other countries, but that also has a great strength, which is the security that our companies and our workers have.”
“We have a sector that gives all the guarantees to the workers and for some reason it is noticeable in the graphs that the employment “It has fallen much less than activity fell and that is because for the sector, workers are a resource that is really key and it is good that the country has the measures it has to guarantee quality work,” he highlighted.
For the representative of the business sector, diversifying the tourism offer is essential. “Last year we did a very strong job in Brazil and the Brazilians grew. That means that if we are consistent in the different markets, those markets will respond. This year with Ministry of Tourism We went to Colombia, to United States Mexico, we are going to go to Paraguay already Chili. “That is very important because we cannot continue thinking that the only market we have is the Argentine market,” he concluded. Quarry.
The Ceres monitor and the price gap with the outside world
According to the study, tourism in Uruguay recorded a 4.3% increase in foreign visitor arrivals in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, first full year prepandemic. However, spending in current dollars was 7% lower.
Argentines continue to be the largest percentage of tourists entering the country, reaching 60.3%, while Brazilians are 17.3%, with other nationalities from inside and outside the region making up the remaining 23%.
Despite the recovery of pre-pandemic levels in the arrival of foreigners by air and the best travel season cruise ships In nine years, the summer season It still behaved far from the best seasons recorded in 2018 and 2017, with a comparative decrease in total spending by tourists of 41% and 44% respectively.
However, the increase in price seems to be the main difficulty. The Ceres Economist, Martin Alesina, responsible for presenting the report, considered that “if one compares the last 20 years, Uruguay has been consistently more expensive than Argentina, “It was always more expensive.”
“If you do this same exercise with other countries relevant to tourism, countries and regions, you see that Uruguay It is more expensive against everyone. The current level of increase in Uruguay obviously presents a very serious difficulty,” he concluded.
According to the report, Uruguay is 66% more expensive in relation to the historical average than Argentina, 44% more than Brazil, 31% compared to Chili, 27% more than USA and 26% more than Europe.
Cruises and hotels
The numbers stand out positively in what is the cruise season, with a disembarkation of 370 thousand people between the ports of Montevideo and Punta del Este, defining itself as the best season in 8 years.
Despite an improvement in occupancy, which stood at 70% on average in the first two months compared to 66% in 2019, the hotel sector is still below the 2018 season, which recorded an occupancy of 76%. %. 50 and 100 rooms had lower occupancy compared to 2019.
Employment falls less
According to data presented by Ceres, tourism represented 4.2% of the GDP total of Uruguay in 2022 and it is estimated that it will increase to approximately 5.4% at the end of 2023, still below the levels of previous years, where it reached 8.4% in 2017.
However, employment in tourism It fell only 11%, despite the fact that the decrease in tourism GDP was 35% in 2022 versus 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. The study indicates that in 2022, 109,400 jobs will be generated, with tourism being one of the most intensive activities in job creation in Uruguay.
In short, tourism has not recovered pre-pandemic levels and “suffers” especially from situations such as the Argentine crisis and the rise in prices that affects profitability, said the economist. Martin Alesina.
He added as an opportunity “to promote everything related to conference and meeting tourism on a slightly larger scale.” “We have to generate a broader, more precise database that allows us to make the best policy decisions with the aim of promoting a very relevant sector for the country such as tourism,” he said.
Source: Ambito
