MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hotel construction boom in Argentina

Ninety projects for the construction of new or refurbished hotels to be inaugurated in the next two years and involving over 250 million US dollars have been registered in the Argentine Tourist Office.

The Tourist Office also reported that the equivalent of 18 million US dollars were invested last year in new hotels, motels and lodges, all of which represents an encouraging leap forward compared to the whole 1991-2001 period when investments totalled 770 million US dollars.

The boom in the tourist trade and relatively low costs in US dollars have attracted international conglomerates representing 55% of the new projects.

US based Hyatt is investing 65 million US dollars in refurbishing an early XX century palace in downtown Buenos Aires; the French group Accor is investing 15 million US dollars in Puerto Madero, the recovered dock and jetty area that has become one of the most chic areas of the Argentine capital.

Another area that has attracted foreign investors in Patagonia, particularly El Calafate, next to some of the world's most impressive glaciers which has an international airport and the needed infrastructure to keep growing.

"Many American and European investors are interested in El Calafate, actually we've approved 18 projects for the area which should be completed by 2006", revealed Elena Blassi, Tourist Investments Director.

Since the melting of the economy in 2001/2002 and the strong devaluation of its currency, Argentina has more than doubled the number of visitors to the country.