There were no big surprises. The first weekend of a new season had an “acceptable” presence of tourists on the Uruguayan east coast and the first Argentine and Brazilian travelers, after a summer marked by sanitary restrictions and the closure of borders. TO That was joined by the Uruguayans who came to their properties in Maldonado and Rocha to spend the Christmas holiday.
On Sunday afternoon, a greater influx of public began to be seen. The arrival of visitors increased its pace and is expected to continue throughout the week. An example is the high number of reservations and inquiries in the hotel sector for the next weekend -December 31 and January 1-, and also for the first half of January. Although every year the Christmas holiday makes activity improve, for this sector the strong season begins in the middle of this week when some establishments will be with full capacity.
There is optimism and good expectations among tour operators regarding the reactivation after 20 months of the pandemic, although on paper this new harvest will be feasibly lower than the last one prior to the pandemic. That will be known only in March when it is time to pass the line.
This Sunday morning they registered the first rows of Argentine vehicles at the border crossing of the General San Martín bridge in Fray Bentos, reported Fm Gente de Maldonado. In addition to Argentines and Uruguayans, it is awaited by Brazilians who will pass the Reveillon period (New Year’s Eve).
The president of the Chamber of the Tourism Hotel Industry of Uruguay (Cithu), Alejandro D´Elía, told The Observer that reservations are being confirmed, which suggests a New Year’s Eve “with very good occupancy” in the main spa.
“The weather is helping and I think the opening of the dry borders has been positive. We also always depend on connectivity and flights that are added day by day. That also gives us the expectation that they may come from other regions. We are very optimistic and a good season can be projected ”, said the businessman.
D’Elía added that in some of the calls received from foreigners to ask about rates and dates It is also being consulted on how to go about receiving the third dose of the vaccine against covid-19.
For his part, the Director of Tourism of the Mayor of Rocha, Federico Zerbino, expressed to The Observer that this weekend “few people were seen” compared to others at the end of December. “Now the spas are entering a lot and we hope that the trend of having a very good occupation in January will be confirmed,” said the leader.
Marcelo Umpierrez
Tourists in Punta del Diablo. (Photo File)
In Rocha the level of reserves currently reaches 80% for the first fortnight of next month. And for the second half there are consultations, but at a “slow” pace, with a large majority of the Uruguayan public and some Brazilian reservations made in Punta del Diablo and La Paloma, Zerbino said.
Within the real estate sector There are already rentals, but as happened last year it is also observed that there are businesses that are being left to close at the last minute.
As an example, the president of the Punta del Este Real Estate Chamber, Javier Sena, told Aspen radio from Punta del Este that “there is some uncertainty” with the new strain of covid-19 “that raises doubts”, even though Uruguay has the pandemic under control. “People are surely going to come at the last minute, because generating a contract, an advance of money to rent and not knowing if they can come, is not easy,” he said.
Previous projections
The director of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Marcela Bensión, expressed weeks ago that compared to the summer of 2019-2020, tourist activity is expected “Get to 70% of that level.”
In a similar vein, the Economic Research Center (Cinve) projects that during the 2021-2022 season, the number of Argentine tourists entering Uruguay would drop by 26%, while the decline in the number of Brazilian visitors would be somewhat lower, standing at 16%, in both cases with respect to the prepandemic period. “The main explanatory factor for the projected falls in incoming tourism flows is that Uruguay is expensive compared to neighboring countries, especially in relation to Argentina,” warned a recent report.
