Government authorities participated in a working lunch called Uruguay for the 2023 Season. The Minister of Tourism, Tabaré Viera, reflected on the increase in proposals and the economic recovery of the sector. Likewise, he announced that in the next season the benefits to visitors will be increased because “tourism is an important engine of development to which this government is betting,” he added.
Viera was accompanied in the activity, this Tuesday the 8th at the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel, by the Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Álvaro Delgado; the Minister of National Defense, Javier García, and the Undersecretary of Tourism, Remo Monzeglio. The mayors of Maldonado, Enrique Antía; from Colonia, Carlos Moreira, and from Canelones, Yamandú Orsi.
In his presentation, Minister Viera highlighted the challenge that the post-pandemic context of COVID-19 represents for the country, as well as the current regional situation with the exchange difference, which also involves the export sector. He also highlighted the international situation and the inflation triggered by the war between Ukraine and Russia, which led to a rise in prices.
“Tourism is an important engine of development, to which this government is betting,” said the hierarch, who highlighted the execution of strategies and transversal alliances with the departmental administrations and with the private sector to reactivate growth. In this sense, he announced that an upward change is slowly in sight, and specified that in the third quarter of 2022 almost the same numbers of visitors (658,000) and spending per visitor were reached, than in the same quarter of 2019 (660,000 visitors). , which shows a tendency to recovery.
In addition, Viera highlighted the work done to restore air connectivity that currently offers eleven direct destinations and eleven airlines operating in the territory. However, he assured that efforts continue to recover all frequencies. To date, the country has managed to capture 70% of the pre-pandemic frequencies.
The minister stressed that currently all the departments offer tourist attractions with rural and natural, adventure, ecological, and astronomical spaces. As he pointed out, this diversification of options makes it possible to achieve the deseasonalization of tourism, that is, that tourist activity is maintained throughout the year.
In order to promote innovation in the sector, the Ministry of Tourism is developing a tourism observatory, in agreement with the National Institute of Statistics (INE), to study mobility and improve data, he reported.
In another order, Viera announced that on November 18 the campaign aimed at promoting the summer season will be launched, for which some 70 million pesos will be invested in advertising actions, 70% abroad and 30% in domestic tourism. Part of the campaign will be aimed at informing about the expansion of benefits for resident and non-resident tourists.
On the other hand, the minister stated that one of the objectives of the state portfolio is to strengthen the training of citizens, since “we are all tourist agents.” For this, he declared that the ministry works with the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (Inefop) and the University of the Republic (Udelar), promoting cross-cutting gender and accessibility strategies.
During the event, the secretary Álvaro Delgado and the mayors answered questions related to various topics and the community leaders shared their initiatives related to the improvement and increase of tourism proposals, with a view to the beginning of the next summer season and answered questions.
In this regard, Delgado referred to the Jornales Solidarios and its approved extension until December of this year. He recalled that it involves some 10,000 people per fortnight and anticipated that next year there will be a new version of the initiative for which work will be done together with the Congress of Mayors.
