Curbelo: "The post-pandemic tourist seeks nature and Uruguay has a range to dedicate itself all year round"

In this context, Ignacio Curbelo, General Director of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) and general coordinator of the activitysaid to The Observer that these are days ofgreat satisfaction” for the sector but also of “responsibility”.

For Curbelo, this type of activity is “the ideal environment” for “meet the family of tourism” after two years of paralysis. In this line, he valued the participation of more than 500 people during the Wednesday session and maintained that they will address the issue that “interest and concern the sector and that are current”.

The hierarch explained that during the congress the relative to the “new technologies against tourism, new forms of accommodation through digital platforms, investments in the tourism sector and what are the benefits, incentives and facilities that Uruguay grants to those investors who decide to come and invest”.

He also stated that he signed up for the debate regarding the situation of congress tourism which, according to Curbelo, “it was thought that it would be later but that today it is already in full activity”.

Being the venue for this event, what does it mean for Uruguay when thinking of promoting the country as a tourist destination?

To be receiving the UNWTO, more than 20 tourism delegations from the Americas in an event such as the regional meeting —which takes place once a year and is in a rotating system of application and then election— means for Uruguay an enormous privilege but it also means being today in the world of tourism not only in the Americas but worldwide at the epicenter of what tourism is. Due to their relevance, these types of meetings have a global impact. This, in addition to the tourist theme in general, is a congress tourism. Congress tourism is one of the most important sectors of tourism activity.

There is great potential in congress tourism…

For a double aspect. In the first place, because the congress tourist spends several times more than a traditional tourist. The tourist of congresses, be they congresses of lawyers, doctors or any specialization, is generally a tourist with a high purchasing power who stays in hotels of a certain level, who consumes in gastronomy also of a high level, who makes purchases and therefore leaving the country is several times higher than what a traditional tourist leaves. In addition, congress tourism generates a very important workforce in terms of the preparations that must be made to carry out the activity. Everything related to audiovisual, gastronomic, hotel and transportation services. It is an activity that spreads and stimulates the economy of the city or the department in which it is located. In addition, it has the particularity that a high percentage of the tourists who come return after having visited the destination but with another purpose, which is vacation tourism.

Ignacio Curbelo, General Director of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Tourism

Another issue that was on the table in this activity is the International Tourist Protection Code. What is it and what is it looking for?

This Friday a seminar will be held on the International Tourist Protection Code that has been prepared by the UNWTO jointly with the member states. What this code seeks is to grant and unify principles and recommendations for the protection of tourists in emergency situations and in which their consumer rights may be affected. It is a soft law code. This means that it is not binding or mandatory. It is not imposed by the sole fact of being a UNWTO Member State, but each country can take that code for itself and to the extent that it does not affect its internal legislation, it can partially or totally apply the provisions. Also in the private sector, operators can collect and apply the principles and recommendations that are established there and that this transmits a greater guarantee for all.

Tourism worldwide has a lot of challenges and work ahead to reactivate itself. In the case of Uruguay in particular, what do you consider to be the great challenges for tourism and for the coming reactivation?

I would dare to say that the pandemic has changed not only the world but also tourism, today the way of doing tourism is different, today, first of all, what the tourist is observing is the health condition of the destination, the problem or not that you have to travel to it, the requirements you have to enter the country. Secondly, what tourist products does the destination offer and in this I have no doubt that Uruguay has, due to its special characteristics, a very great potential for reactivation. Today’s post-pandemic tourist is a tourist who is looking for nature, who is looking for ecotourism, who is looking for free spaces, who is looking for places where they can carry out tourist activities without crowds and Uruguay has a number of tourist products that are not only sun and beach tourism that It comes to be done in season. Uruguay has a series of tourism products such as nature tourism, wine tourism, everything that is the Wine Route in various departments of the country and that is highly coveted by tourists from the region, especially Brazilians. Uruguay also has sports activities, hiking, fishing, kayaking and the mountains. There is also gastronomic tourism. The country has a range of tourism products that allow it to have enormous potential to establish itself as a year-round tourism destination.

Leonard Correa

And what about the challenges at the level of new technologies and marketing? There is a demand, mainly from the hotel sector, who speak of unfair competition regarding rental modalities through Aribnb or Booking, for example.

The Mintur is working and analyzing what is the eventual regulation of a tourist home. But let it be clear, we are not thinking of regulating someone who has or is the owner of a property and suddenly rents it for a month in the summer to pay expenses or for whatever, but rather those people who have a property and who do We believe that it should be subject to the same conditions and obligations as hotels that are duly registered and other types of accommodation that are required to register. The new digital platforms have put a new hosting modality on stage that often leads to unfair competition that we should avoid.

Another aspect that is hitting tourism is the limited air connectivity…

There is currently an air connectivity problem in the world, not only in Uruguay. It is enough that one begins to look at flights to any part of the world, it is quite difficult to find places, close dates and prices have gone much higher than before the pandemic. This is due to the fact that the crisis has hit the airlines very hard and they have not yet been able to reach the number of frequencies they had before. There are fewer frequencies, there is a very important demand for travel and so that has caused prices to rise. Connectivity is an absolutely essential issue for the Mintur and is essential for tourism. Without connectivity, there can be no tourism. We are permanently working, articulating with our Mintur team and with the airlines that currently come to our country so that they can increase their frequencies and also for those that have not yet come, they can come soon.