Argentina: more than 2.5 million tourists so far this year

18-07-22

According to a report issued by Argentina's National Institute for Tourism Promotion (Inprotur), 1,367,408 tourists represent a recovery of 36% of the total pre-pandemic, marking an important reactivation process. In this context, the Executive Secretary of Inprotur, Ricardo Sosa, pointed out that "international tourism entities, in different areas, mention that this year the countries will not recover more than 50% of the pre-pandemic tourist income.

The top 10 tourist sending countries for the first half of 2022 are, in that order, Brazil (which has already reached 300,000 tourists), Uruguay (over 226,000 tourists), Chile, Paraguay, the United States, Spain, Bolivia, Peru, France and Colombia.

In that sense, the ranking of percentage of recovery of each market compared to the same period of the pre-pandemic (1st semester of 2022 vs. 1st semester of 2019), shows that the first place is occupied by Spain with 61% of recovery, followed by Uruguay with 60%; Mexico with 49%, the United States with 47% and Brazil with 41%.

Sosa specified that from this analysis "we can mention that Brazil had an important recovery that began to be noticed in terms of arrivals by air from April 2022, when frequencies were increased, especially those of Aerolíneas Argentinas, and by land since March, when the entry through border crossings tended to normalise. Precisely, by land, it is noteworthy that in May and June, Brazil exceeded 100% of income that it had in those same months of 2019.  Thus, Brazil shows a recovery of 61% by land, ranking second in the top 5 of income by this route".

As for Uruguay, it should be noted that it is the second market with the highest overall recovery (60% compared to pre-pandemic), by land it ranks first (66%) and there are very interesting data to mention: if we compare May 2022 with May 2019 Uruguay not only recovered fully but grew reaching 163% and the same happened in June, with a 160% recovery and growth.

Uruguay also leads the ranking of percentage recovery by waterway with 60%, showing peaks such as in May 2022, with 105% recovery and growth compared to the pre-pandemic. "In that sense, from the Inprotur we have generated digital campaigns, but also of public roads in cooperation with the nautical companies that transport Uruguayan tourists and with the presence of the Minister, Matías Lammens, we headed a trade mission with Argentine businessmen in Montevideo, where we had a very good impact, since commercial agreements were generated that today are shown in the reservations and arrival of tourists," said Sosa.

In the case of Chile, there has been a significant increase in its recovery rate since April, encouraged by the increase in air frequencies and the normalisation of border crossings. "In this case, in August we plan to carry out a trade mission in Santiago and Concepción. The airlines are also recovering frequencies and we are seeing a great demand for bookings," he explained.

The reaction of the US market is noteworthy (more than 100,000 US tourists have already entered the country): it is 5th in the overall revenue ranking, but 4th in the percentage recovery ranking (47%). "If we take the income by air, the US is second and since January has always maintained a recovery of over 60% and peaks of 77% in June, as a result of the almost total normalisation of air frequencies of the pre-pandemic," said Ricardo Sosa.

In this context, he recalled that "apart from digital activations, we participated in fairs aimed at the final public, such as the Travel and Adventure Show in California and New York. In addition, in November 2021 we were in Florida and New York generating meetings with operators and two months ago we returned to New York to participate in Rethink South America organised by Latam".