MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tourism expenditure in Uruguay up 40% during January

Cruise in Punta del Este

Tourists arriving in Uruguay during January spent 40% more than a year ago although the number remained almost similar, 315.000, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Tourism.

Minister Hector Lescano said Monday the results were "most encouraging" given the forecasts of a global slowdown, even from the World Tourism Organization, and anticipated that February could also have "some surprises". Tourism revenue for January was estimated in 270 million US dollars, (compared with 182 million in January 2008) which works out at an average expenditure of 85 US dollars per tourist. Statistics also showed that tourists are tending to spend less time, with the average down to ten days. A decade ago families would spend three to four weeks holidays in Uruguayan beaches. Minister Lescano also pointed out that as usual during January, the international resort of Punta del Este attracted the most visitors, but on this occasion there has been an increase of affluence to other destinations, such as Colonia del Sacramento, Piri?polis and Rocha. "Our monitoring of February is showing a good affluence of tourists both from overseas and locally particularly since the Carnival week in this year's calendar was at the end of February", underlined Lescano. Last year the tourism industry is estimated to have contributed with over a billion US dollars to the Uruguayan economy. Most tourists came from neighbouring Argentina, 1.068 million (up from 926.000 in 2007) followed by Brazil, 300.000 and another 307.000 from outside the region, mainly United States, European Union and Mexico.