MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

July holidays boom in Argentina.

An estimated 7,5 million Argentines are taking advantage of the mid term school holidays to travel to different parts of the country with their families.

According to the Argentine Tourist Office seven and a half million people have chosen some of the most beautiful spots of Argentina to spend with the family their children's holiday.

Among those spots Patagonia, Iguazu falls and the north of the country, with a 30% increase over 2003. But more traditional places such as Mar del Plata and Necochea, summer resorts, have also attracted many tourists and occupancy is between 80 and 90% in spite of the very extreme weather conditions of July.

In the north of the country Córdoba and Medonza are the places most demanded.

Argentine Tourist Office estimates that three thousand buses left Buenos Aires over the last week end.

Meantime in Brazil, tourist industry analysts estimate that Mercosur visitors will increase between 15 and 20% this year.

"Short distance tourism is one of the most dynamic sectors of the industry", according to Leonel Rossi, head of the Brazilian travel agents association, and "for Brazil this means Mercosur countries".

Mr. Rossi mentioned the Mexican case where 12 of the 16 million tourists are neighboring Americans.

With this in mind the Brazilian association of travel agencies and its Argentine counterpart, have created a Mercosur Tourist Commission with the purpose of proposing their governments' incentives to regional tourism.