The tourism director of Punta del Este, Martin Laventureestablished that the city of Esteña is preparing with “optimism” to face a summer season that is marked by the exchange rate difference that exists between Uruguay and Argentina.
Laventure assured the EFE agency that the exchange difference generates “uncertainty” and that he does not forget that an electoral process is being carried out in the neighboring country, although he anticipates that tourists will arrive anyway.
“Are optimistic in terms of having at least an acceptable season,” he said. In addition, he pointed out that they have also worked very well with the public that comes from other countries such as Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and the rest of the region.
In that sense, he added that he hopes that domestic tourism will compensate in some destinations for the lack of the Argentine middle class, which is “the one that has difficulties” vacationing in Uruguay.
A season similar to the previous one
Taking into account that the exchange difference between Uruguay and Argentina already marked last summer, the Tourism director pointed out that the season will be “similar.” According to this, he pointed out that there will be “a good level of people”, although he stressed that we will have to see what happens with the spent, since in 2023 a decrease was noted in that sense.
Regarding the forecasts, Laventure explained that “the numbers are an important piece of information” but it is necessary to wait to be able to make evaluations. For this, we will have to study spending and how long tourists stay in the area. Uruguay. Although he assured that they do not yet have numbers, they estimate that they will “be surpassing last year’s numbers.”
In the first quarter of this year, the arrival of foreign visitors increased 11.6% compared to the same period prepandemic of 2019 with the arrival of 1,219,198 non-resident people. That number of visitors generated 741 million dollars for the country. Of the total number of tourists who arrived in Uruguay Between January and March 2023, 716,548 were Argentine and 145,459 were Brazilian.
“Somewhat similar” season as at the beginning of the year
Nicholas Cichevskypractice manager Economic Analysis by CPA Ferrere, maintained that Argentina’s economic situation continues to be complex and that the corrections that that country has to make to the economy “are recessive” so it will continue to be affected. In accordance with this, he established that Uruguay should expect “something similar” to what happened at the beginning of this year.
“A number of tourists entering perhaps high or perhaps at good levels in historical terms, but a level of spending still below the levels reached in the past,” Cichevski detailed regarding the forecasts for the next season.
On the other hand, he maintained that tourism in Punta del Este has always been oriented towards a visitor with greater purchasing power, “who is obviously less affected by the economic situation in Argentina”. In that sense, he pointed out that in the rest of the country the situation is different. “We already saw it last year: Punta del Este maintained good levels of occupancy, tourist income and even foreign currency income, but in the rest of the country the situation was different,” he described.
In addition, he pointed out that it is “expectable” that domestic tourism will be affected by competition since Argentina and Brazil, where “it is cheaper” to do tourism for Uruguayans. “The 2024 season will probably have similar characteristics to the beginning of this year,” he concluded.
Source: Ambito
