MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Controversy over Uruguay’s summer season: supermarket sales were down 15%

Less Argentine tourists arrived in Uruguay and were much more austere in spending

The ongoing controversy in Uruguay as to how ‘modest’ or ‘bad’ was this summer’s season has received some facts to support the discussion: supermarket sales in Punta del Este-Maldonado the main resort area along the Atlantic coast contracted 15%, compared to the previous year, while overall in the whole of the country sales were down 2%.

Nielsen consultants surveyed Uruguay supermarket chains, grocery shops, mini-markets, kiosks, self services and other outlets and the result was that sales in January-February dropped 1%.

However for supermarkets nationally it was 2% and this because in Punta del Este-Maldonado the drop in the two months was 15% compared to Jan-Feb 2012, which also contrasts with the sustained growth tendency since 2008, including 4% last year and 7% in 2011.

In effect according to official data the number of foreign tourists arriving in Uruguay, from December to February was 6% less than a year ago, because of a significant decrease in the number of Argentines visiting Uruguay. This was caused by the many obstacles imposed by the Cristina Fernandez administration mainly limited access to foreign currency, 15% tax on credit and debit cards’ spending overseas plus the fact that Uruguay has become too expensive for many Argentines with Pesos.

Nevertheless in that period 1.029 million tourists arrived in Uruguay allegedly injecting to the economy an estimated 850 million dollars.

In the Punta del Este-Maldonado area supermarkets (catering mostly tourists) the fall in food and beverage sales was 14%, while in cosmetics and other ladies spending it was down 17%.

The Uruguayan government has argued that this last summer season wasn’t as bad as proclaimed since the fall in tourist numbers was only 6%. However hotels, real estate offices, entertainment and gastronomy have complained bitterly that not only less tourists arrived, but they ‘pent much less’ and stayed for shorter periods of time.

Real estate operators claim that with the last taxes on rent contracts, most of the trade has moved underground particularly to internet, meaning not only that the “industry is at a loss but also the Treasury”.