MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay optimistic about tourism industry prospects

Minister Lescano said number of tourists visiting Uruguay this year has increased 5%

Uruguay’s Tourism minister is optimistic about the evolution of the industry and forecasts 2009 will be a better year in US dollars, than 2008. In spite of the global slowdown and the influenza scare the flow of visitors to Uruguay remains steady and is expected to improve 5% over last year.

“In the first four months of the year, the numbers of tourists visiting Uruguay increased 5% generating an estimated 630 million US dollars, which is above the same period a year ago”, said minister Hector Lescano.

If the tendency continues, the tourism year will be closing above the 1,048 billion US dollars of 2008, which in current circumstances is “an achievement” said Lescano even when he admitted that the impact of the influenza A/H1N1, still has to be assessed.

“Looking at what is happening in Mexico and Spain, we should consider that the industry in Uruguay has been very successful”, said Deputy Minister Lilian Kechichian who added that during the first four months of the year, “income generated by tourism was almost equal to the first six months of last year”.

Ms Kechichian said that in coming days the Ministry would be announcing the launching of a campaign to promote winter holidays opportunities and options, particularly for the domestic market.

“We have the hot springs in the north of the country, which usually attract many tourists from central Argentina, but we also want to promote internal tourism. With the new global sanitary situation we believe some people could be thinking twice before going overseas”, she said.