MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's tourism industry booming

Argentina's tourism boom boosted by a weak local currency and relatively cheap assets and real estate by international standards has prompted construction of scores of new hotels, including some particularly luxurious properties.

Tourism options are mushrooming with new properties opening almost every week ranging from small, urban boutique hotels to grand resort hotels in ski destinations and Argentina's vast national parks and unexplored regions.

Argentina's Tourism Secretariat figures show 200 hotel projects currently under construction or about to break ground with a total investment of 473 million US dollars three times the 2005 figure of 152 million US dollars.

"This is an opportunity to make the country a top tourism destination distinguished by the quality and variety of its offerings" Tourism Secretary Carlos Enrique Meyer said.

The latest luxury hotel to open is the Park Hyatt, a five-star property located downtown Buenos Aires that takes visitors back to Argentina's opulence of early 20th century.

Costing 74 million US dollars, the hotel also marks the return to Buenos Aires of the Hyatt chain following the meltdown of Argentina's economy in 2001/02.

Guests of the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires can enjoy, among other amenities, a spa inspired by Patagonia's Mapuche Indians and the city's largest heated pool.

The Park Hyatt Buenos Aires's Oak Bar features wood panelling made of Normandy Oak, some of which is more than 300 years old, as well as a wood-burning fireplace and a terrace overlooking the hotel garden.

Another project that broke ground this year is the Axel Hotel Buenos Aires, a five-star Spanish-financed property that will cater to gay tourists. Expected to open in 2007 in the historic San Telmo neighborhood, it will become Axel chain's second establishment; the other is located in Barcelona, Spain.

The building boom which was sparked by the devaluation of the peso and strong recovery of the domestic economy has seen the tourism industry become one of the best-performing sectors of the Argentine economy. Argentina's tourism industry, which currently employs one million people directly and another 500.000 indirectly, is the country's third-largest source of hard currency, trailing agriculture and oil.

More than 4.1 million tourists are expected to visit Argentina this year, generating some 3.5 billion US dollars in hard currency, according to Tourism Secretariat estimates.

Domestic tourism is also booming following a decade of over valued Argentine currency, artificially fixed at one peso-one US dollar exchange rate, which encouraged Argentines to travel overseas.

Iguazu falls next to the Brazilian and Paraguayan border has also attracted top bracket hotel chains such as Hilton and Hyatt which are building five-star complexes.