Argentine campaign to promote domestic tourism disqualifying Mercosur options
Argentina launched an aggressive campaign to boost domestic tourism this coming summer season by publishing hotel, food and rent prices of resorts along the Atlantic coast and comparing them with similar options in Mercosur partners such a Uruguay, Brazil and Chile.
The purpose of the campaign is to “reflect government policies that are positioning the Atlantic coast and other vacation options in Argentina as clear competitors to international tourism offers” reads the official communiqué from Argentina’s Ministry of Tourism.
Among the many options from the campaign are the prices for the coming 2013 summer season in Mar del Plata and Villa Gesell in Argentina and compare them with other costs such as renting condos, hotel rooms, gastronomy, shopping and transport in Uruguay’s international resort of Punta del Este and other seaside cities in the south of Brazil and Chile.
Obviously all the prices published in Argentine Pesos by the Ministry of Tourism are cheaper than those from their Mercosur counterparts.
For example a single room in a hotel allegedly would have a cost in the Argentine Atlantic coast ranging between 420 and 450 Argentine Pesos, while similar accommodation in Viña del Mar (Chile) is priced at 475 Pesos; in Florianopolis, Brazil, 620 and in Punta del Este (Uruguay), 1.059 Pesos.
According to the Argentine Tourism ministry, renting a two room apartment for a week has a cost of 3.000 Pesos in Mar del Plata and 3.240 in Villa Gesell, which compares favourably with the 4.900 Pesos in Punta del Este and 4.284 Pesos in Florianopolis.
Likewise a full menu at a restaurant next to the beach in Argentina would have a cost of 50 Argentine Pesos while in Punta del Este, 97 Pesos. Quick food also is cheaper in Argentina, 15 Pesos on average against 30 Pesos in Punta del Este. A 20 blocks taxi service has a cost of 16 Pesos in the Argentine Atlantic coast and 24 Pesos in Uruguay.
The Uruguayan authorities are not surprised by the campaign given the deterioration of relations with Argentina and President Cristina Fernandez administration determination to implement the dollar clamp trying to convince Argentines not to use or save money in dollars, which includes severely limiting travelling overseas.
“We are working on our own campaign and promotional prices, and will be geared not only to Argentines but Brazilians, Chileans and even Uruguayans. We are planning a heavy investment in television and other media”, said Antonio Carambula, Uruguay’s Deputy Tourism minister.
The manger of the Punta del Este Hotels association Rosina Grolero said that the Argentine campaign is full of errors, “not to use another word”, and that there are accessible prices for similar lodgings as those offered in the Uruguayan resort.
“Hotel rates from last season have not been modified, since we had an idea of what was coming and despite the fact domestic costs have increased significantly. We’re talking about this issue with the Ministry and there should be some news in the near future, hopefully before mid October when many Argentines come over in anticipation of the summer vacations”, indicated Ms Grolero.
Every summer season millions of Argentines flock to Uruguayan, Brazilian and Chilean seaside resorts and their absence represents a blow the industry of any of the three countries.
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It must be a slow news day.
Some people will be happy to do so, others will see it as a choice being taken from them.
And. to be honest, Mar del Plata is not a patch on any beach in Chile.
Oh really? Is it now being outlawed in Argentina to travel aboard, dummy?
I go wherever i want with my money.
Not yet - Kitchner will probably start with currency restrictions for argentine travellers.
From what I have seen for the last two summers I just cannot imagine wealthy Argentines taking any notice of what TMBOA wants them to do.
I know my next door neighbour is coming as usual with his family and that his sisters will be here until two weeks after he leaves.
No-one from Argentina who has a holiday property in Uruguay is going to go anywhere else: they are coming to Uruguay.
TMBOA can scweem and scweem and scweem until she has a fatal aneurism (hopefully) and it won't make any difference.
apparently some say, CFK runs the country,
some say her bloggers do,
some say lots of things,
but are they true,
some say they are .lol.
When is the next big bond payment due? Dec? I bet she was counting on IDB/WB U$ to fund it...
Rut ro
Can someone please let us know the places where you can get a Full Menu meal for 50 pesos? Cloud cuckoo land figures.... By quick food, I assume they mean street food, like a choripan, certainly not “McDonalds” prices in Argentina..
As for protecting “Home” tourism, as others say, nothing new, all countries do this. The more worrying issue here is the, effective, 15% surcharge on foreign travel packages, which unbalances even the false figures.
I just checked the rates and they are 3x what I used to pay. Which is surprisingly less of an increase than I thought it would be.
I don't like The MDP beaches it is too windy and wet. It is the only beach where you absolutely have to have a cabana or a tent to keep away from the very strong wind which is full of sand. It is very strange that anyone goes there the water is freezing and brown. The town itself is kind of fun in the summer though I like people from the Provinces they are there to have a week or two of fun and they know how to have a good time.
Add to that a drinkable bottle of wine=ARS 32,00
Add to that a desert= ARS 25,00
Add to that a coffee= ARS 12,00
That gives us a total of ARS 104,00 without an “entrada”, I would hazard a guess that the Ministry of Tourism is telling lies!!!!!!
Possibly colouring my memory of the weekend was getting salmonella poisoning at 'the best fish restaurant in town' where 'you have to book months in advance'. Typical of salmonella it was 48 hours before I had the full flu-like symptoms and a full month before I could eat normally again. But I try not to hold it against MDP as a whole. : )
What I like about MDP is the architecture of the old “English” beach houses, the downtown shopping district is filthy though, why oh why can't Rgs use trash cans? I hate all the litter everywhere!
Yes, the Quaint part of town was sweet but was it worth the five hour drive from BsAs? Or would I chose to holiday there when the beautiful beaches of Chile are a short flight away? No.
I think Argentina is (or has been until recently) an interesting tourist destination. I just cannot think that foreign tourists would choose it for a beach holiday. I could think of a dozen locations I would direct people to spend time in in Argentina but none would include a beach.
Sep 20th, 2012 - 04:17 pm
Probably one of the nicest beaches in Argentina is on the Golfo San José on Peninsula Valdés, Chubut, one of the great attractions being that one can actually swim with the right whales there.
Who signs this article ???
MP: What’s the source to allows them make this statement.
Be serious.
Again… Who sings this article???
Is the Argie Paso sliding against these other currencies the way it is against the dollar?
Or is everything just done in dollars.
en.mercopress.com/2012/06/09/argentina-rapidly-becoming-too-expensive-for-foreign-tourists
www.buenosairesherald.com/article/110841/foreign-tourism-drops-75-in-july
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!
What is this, KFC getting a little worried about money leaving the country now?
Trying to keep the cash IN the country are we?
Is this the last act of a desperate government?
That's the comparison being made here between Argentina's riviera, and Uruguay, which is much further north and fully under an equatorial oceanic current flow, and the Brazil “high pressure” weather zone, let alone Brazil which is full blown tropically latituded.
In contrast argentine beaches are under the influence of mid-latitude summer storms as well as the Brazil high pressure zone, and a colder current from the south which mixes with the northern currents.
@34
Yes, because your word is worth more than that of multiple national and international tourism organizations that actually do surveys and studies.
And murders in Mendoza are down for the 5th year in a row... there's your increasing crime huh??
Let the haters keep on rolling, with their lunacies.
Plus the only reason crime stats are falling is because they are not getting reported properly...a la Indec. Did you see the article today where the 7 y/o was pleading with the robbers not to kill his grandpa but take his toys instead? They killed him with a rock anyway.
BTW how may police chiefs were arrested today for bribery in BA, 10 was it?
You just underlined my point, TTT. You choose Argentina and England for different reasons, not the beaches.
“Plus the only reason crime stats are falling is because they are not getting reported properly...”
As usual, crapping from the mouth without any proof of what is being state. Where is your proof of this? Prove there is underreporting.
What kind of a pathetic racist person you must be, to suggest a murder would not be reported in a place like Mendoza, where there is the full rule of law in place, and where family is a big deal (still), and poverty is lower than other provinces.
I told them that the minimum wage in Arg is half the U.S., and they're like, “But the food & everything else is cheap over there [Argentina], so, yeah..”
“Nooo, it's MORE than HERE.”, I explain.
-- look of disbelief.--
Srs, i'd say their food costs up to twice that of Walmart/Costco after tax. I can't compare health food stores, because I didn't run..into..any there.
The avg U.S. citizen has NO IDEA that things are upside down, down there. Common sense says it's hard to believe. If they knew, they'd be way more compassionate.
What a wasted look of disbelief.
In Argentina, people that earn that mininum wage don't pay 500 dollars a month for health insurance, or 2000 dollars a month for a mortgage or half that for a rent, or hundreds of dollars by burning gasoline in a commute, plus a auto loan, which almost everyone in that country is forced to pay since there is no public transportation whatsoever, and of course the medical system there is the biggest white glove robbery of any country in the world.
So? Who wants to live in an island in the middle of nothing?
And your countrymen in the continent are nowhere as lucky. They may make three times the salary of an argie, but what most of them are still just scraping by, due to the reasons enumerated above. Many in Argentina have their homes and cars paid off, and free healthcare. Those are big savings.
And our WORLD-CLASS metropolis is rated MUCH higher than Buenos Aires (on that scale that was just in Mercopress).
it's over 4,000 square miles here, »» larger than most Argentines have ever traveled««, but anyway, getting to anywhere else in the world is RIDICULOUSLY cheap! :) Ridiculous. Like, northern Brazil just had a $540 r/t special leaving from Hawaii. :)
No, it's not customary to see people working (and smelling) in bathrooms in the U.S., I wish someone would have prepared me for Argentina.
I'm sure Hawaii is nice. People in Argentina really don't know where it is though, never been interested in going there. They are a bit overglorified islands because they are a US tropical oupost, so Americans think its the bomb. Papeete and the Maldives is where its really at.
”No, it's not customary to see people working (and smelling) in bathrooms in the U.S., I wish someone would have prepared me for Argentina.“
”larger than most Argentines have ever traveled”
Repeat in English please. (and only because the forum rule is so. Otherwise repeat to me in Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French if you wish)
By the way, Mr. Trolly, I. LOVE. some people in Argentina. It's just that the Arg events catch my attention, because they're changing soo fast.
And I do AGREE with you on the unsustainable debt often carried by U.S. citizens- completely and totally.
Car loans are not because people can't afford to save for a -small- car. Or that some ppl don't get downpayments from their parents that would equal a small home in LatAm.
It's because they want their ideal (and because they're greedy.)
The U.S. is composed of the world anyway, so it shows the ills as well as the potential greatness of the world.
It seems obvious that transparency and efficiency is not, um, worshipped in Argentina in the same way that the WASPS do that run the U.S.
Argentina's passion ≠ stability. But WASPS NEED passion!
Hawaii has a 1.3 billon dollars deficit like the rest of the USA.
The USA economy won't improve during the next 4 years. This means more borrwing foreign monies to keep the USA goverment AFLOAT!
The cost of spending a vacation in Hawaii is very expensive for the average USA citizen.
Although I have spent many vacations in Honolulu, I prefer Mar del Plata
or Rada Tilly beach in my home town of CR, Chubut, Argentina.
fact........argentina borrowed beyond it's capabilities
fact.........argentina became the largest defaulter in recorded history
fact.........argentina cannot borrow in the international markets
fact.........argentina has a reputation as undependable in financial arena
fact.........argentina is considered unstable by the UN, WTO, IMF....the world trade makets. Because this, trolls like sussie makes unsupported statements
The whores in Mar Del Plata are wonderful, I doubt very much you could have worked there.
“The cost of spending a vacation in Hawaii is very expensive for the average USA citizen.”
“Although I have spent many vacations in Honolulu,”
LOL , he is totally delusional!
- First, a transparent shot at the living standards and spending power of the avg US citizen,
Then, - bragging about being able to do himself, what US citizens cannot afford.
Pathetic nonsense from a BA slum pederast !! LOL LOL LOL
I would expect that most customers of the whores in Mar del Plata, would want the prostitutes to be female.
I'm sure “sussie” can tell us if that is true. I wonder if he can earn 6 pesos a day to feed himself??
LOL LOL LOL LOL !!!
........
Argentines are the world champions in taking dollars out of their country,' Mujica
Uruguayan president José Mujica
Uruguayan president José Mujica assured that “Argentines are simply the best in taking their dollars abroad,” and thus hoped that they will keep on vacationing in the neighbouring country.
“Argentines are the world champions in taking their dollars abroad. There’s no other country, except the US, that has such a strong influence of dollar in its currency. Argentines distrust their currency, save in dollars and somehow manage it make it.”
Mujica also added that he doesn’t believe that Uruguayan seaside resort Punta del Este will receive less Argentine tourists despite the increasing restrictions for the purchase of foreign currency. “I can tell you one thing: Argentines are champions when it comes to taking dollars abroad. World champions! We have proved it in Punta del Este, where theoretically there should be no one from Argentina, but there they are.”
Yes, any country would do well to promote holidays inside their own country to stop money leaving.
According to the article, Argentina is promoting 'Holidays at Home' by making misleading comparisons of prices at home, and abroad.
Not honest, but not likely anyone is fooled.
Foreign travellers are shrewd enough to check prices themselves anyway.
“Vehemently encouraging”
Thanks, Poppy.
I get the implication.
First, currency controls, now government pressure.
I see where this is going with the biometrics “identity cards”.
Very ominous for the Argentinian citizens.
jejeje
Vhere are you papers.....now !!!!
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