Balance of Argentina's tourism promotion abroad

29-12-22

This was a pivotal year for Argentina's tourism promotion abroad, with a first half of the year that dragged down the effects of the pandemic - borders had not yet been fully opened in different parts of the world - to a second half of the year of great growth in terms of inbound tourism, which closed with the entry of more than 3.5 million foreign tourists.

During the year, the work of the National Institute for Tourism Promotion (Inprotur), together with the Argentine Chamber of Tourism (CAT), marked the country's presence in more than twenty international tourism fairs and destination visits, point by point, accompanying tour operators and Argentine tourism providers to promote the country.

Argentina was present at Fitur, Anato, WTM Latam, BIT, Rethink, Emotions, Top Resa, Imex Frankfurt, ABAV, Festuris, WTM London, FITPAR, TTG, UGART - ABAV-AVIESP, Pesca Companhia Trade Show, ILTM Sao Paulo, Birdfair, Expo Goias, Expo Paraná, FIEXPO Panama, Expoeventos, Lata Expo, and of course the International Tourism Fair of Argentina (FIT).

The different provinces accompanied this promotion process, such as Santa Cruz, with actions aimed at Brazil and Chile, and at European markets such as France, Spain, Germany, England and Italy, which, according to local sources, are looking for nature destinations in the province.

Jujuy aimed to promote tourism at the five main European trade fairs held annually in Madrid, Berlin, Milan, London and Paris. Meanwhile, the Port Administration of Puerto Madryn participated in the international cruise fair Seatrade Global Cruise, in Miami, and Tucumán was present at the World Travel Market Latin America, an international fair in San Pablo, Brazil, among many examples.

On the other hand, Buy Argentina (trade missions) were organised in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara; in Santiago de Chile and Concepción; in San Salvador de Bahía; in Lima, in Medellín; in Montevideo; in Lyon and in Barcelona.

There were also 19 trips for influencers and journalists to different regions and destinations in the country, involving 50 influencers and 20 specialised journalists and journalists from the most important media in the world, as well as travel agents and foreign tour operators to get to know the country.

Between January and May 2022, as some of the access roads were closed, the number of tourists was not superlative, but from June to July - in the comparison of those months with the same months of the pre-pandemic - a recovery of 90 to 100% of outbound tourism began to be observed.

Likewise, there were some markets with a growth above the pre-pandemic numbers, such as Paraguay and Uruguay, which not only recovered 100% of the pre-pandemic numbers, but had a growth of 45% through all access routes.

In the case of the United States, the recovery was 100%; Brazil exceeded 80%; and in the case of Mexico it was 82%.

Inprotur told Télam that as of November 2021 it began with a "very aggressive" plan of action at a face-to-face level -which was already being carried out at a digital level- and which included participation in all the tourism fairs that were held and the creation of numerous roadshows to go city by city to talk to tour operators and travel agencies.

In this way, activation promotion actions were carried out on public roads in neighbouring countries and a large number of collaborations in campaigns with international press media, which made it possible to have a strong presence in 16 countries considered "priority", and that in the run-up to the pandemic, the presence of the city in 16 countries considered "priority", and in the pre-pandemic, the presence of the city in the media, which made it possible to have a strong presence in the media. This made it possible to have a strong presence in 16 "priority" countries, which in the pre-pandemic period accounted for 89% of all foreign tourists entering the country.

In the main tourist issuing market, Brazil, 25 face-to-face actions were carried out for the first time in one year in more than 14 cities, where not only Inprotur participated, but also tour operators who visited Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Brasilia, Curitiba - the most important cities in terms of tourist issuance - and the rest of the country.

Another noteworthy element in 2022 was that the average number of nights stayed by foreign tourists in the pre-pandemic was exceeded, as well as spending in dollars, two central issues to determine the growth of the inbound sector.

There was also strong support for the different tourism segments in their international presentations: LGBTIQ+ tourism, wine tourism, and Meetings and Conventions (MICE) tourism.

Another of the initiatives promoted by the government for the growth of inbound tourism was to attract digital nomads, for whom a special visa was launched, according to the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Matías Lammens.

These are tourists between the ages of 25 and 40 who work remotely from various destinations, of whom there are between 35 and 40 million in the world with an average salary of 5,000 dollars and an average expenditure of 3,000 dollars.

The international organisation Nomad List reported that the city of Buenos Aires entered the Top 10 of the world's favourite destinations for this segment and that it is also the leading destination for these tourists in Latin America, as it is the only city in the region in these top positions.

Air connectivity was another of the axes for the traction of foreign tourists to the country, a complex task due to the fact that after the pandemic all the airlines in the world are going through a delicate situation regarding the recovery of frequencies as a consequence of the lack of supplies; lack of internal logistics of the airlines; and lack of delivery of many planes that the manufacturers had promised to deliver and have not yet done so.

In the case of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the company has 81% of international routes recovered and it is estimated that by March 2023 it will be at 100%.

Despite all these drawbacks, in 2022 the company went out to international markets to find ways to generate the greatest amount of tourist traffic flow through all airlines and in all forms: with stopovers, non-stop, short flights, long flights, among different variables.

As a result of the work carried out by the organisation, during the year the work with different European airlines was intensified, such as ITA, to generate tourist traffic not only from Rome, but also from different cities on the continent, a work that is being replicated with Iberia.

For the first time in history, flights were generated between San Pablo Salta and Tucumán, as well as between Medellín and Buenos Aires with the company Viva, and also the route between Quito (Ecuador) and Buenos Aires was recovered more than 6 years ago, to which more flights between Costa Rica and Argentina have been added.

The executive secretary of Inprotur, Ricardo Sosa, highlighted all these actions to attract foreign tourism, and stressed that "that is why Minister (Matías) Lammens speaks not only of a recovery but also of growth".

For this work, Inprotur has a technical team divided into three areas: Product and Market Management, Tourism Promotion and Administration.

It also has a digital platform: Aconcagua, where data collected from all over the world is compiled and processed internally to observe the situation in each country, with the demand for airline tickets, the offers made by tour operators, and the focus groups carried out with Google in different countries to find out the trends of potential tourists.

"All this information, plus the information obtained from meetings with tour operators at trade fairs and the management with airlines, leads to an economic analysis of the market where we also have an area of economic analysis to find out what situation each country is in, whether it is going to grow, whether it is going to have a recession, the seasonality, because we have to know at what time to accentuate this promotion to generate inspiration in the tourist," Sosa explained.

This is complemented "by actions with the media, so that tourists look at the media and there is talk of Argentina; they open their mobile phones and there is talk of Argentina; they look at a travel agency and there is promotion of Argentina; they look at an airline and there are offers from Argentina, so that is the way to drive that inspiration and then the tourist's decision to travel to our country," he added.