Argentina Issues Tourism Forecast for 2006

Argentina´s tourism industry is projected to generate $ 3.5 billion dollars in 2006, the country´s tourism minister said.

“The (2002) devaluation provided a huge boost for the Argentine tourism sector, especially to attract tourists from neighboring countries,” Tourism Undersecretary Daniel Aguilera said as he explained where this 15.6 percent increase over last year´s figure will come from. According to him, last year was the first time that Argentina broke the negative flow, with more tourists arriving than those holidaying abroad.

For 2006, Aguilera told reporters in Buenos Aires the government is forecasting that some 4.1 million tourists will arrive at the country´s main international airport Ezeiza, up from the 3.7 million in 2005 and the 3.3 million in 2004.

“We are on the crest of the wave”, Aguilera stated, adding, “Incoming tourists are classed as an export, which in the case of tourism has no constraints to limit growth”.

Tourism is Argentina´s largest foreign currency earner behind soybeans and by products. The South American nation raked in $3 billion and $2.5 billion in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

The Argentine official added that the government is fully committed to carrying out the Federal Strategic Tourism Plan 2016 and that a national tourism bill is to be sent to Congress in the immediate future.

Changes soon to take place in the domestic aviation sector will “enable tourists to overcome some of the difficulties that arise from market concentration,” he also said.

Some of these changes, according to BAH, include the start-up of new airlines, exempting aviation fuel from the value-added tax and the setting up of a fund to subsidize strategic routes as well as a general fare hike of 20 percent, among others.