Those who enjoy the tranquility of the seaside resorts tend to prefer February to a busy January to vacation in the east. But the difference does not come only from a more rest-friendly activity levelbut of a less burden on the tourist’s pocketwhich applies both to accommodation and to day-to-day purchases or eating out.
According to different operators in the field, the first month of the season obtained ambiguous results, where in the first days it was heading to be very successful but “it was punctured” towards the second fortnight.
In November and December there was optimism regarding the number of visitors who would come to spend the summer, both in Maldonado and in Rocha. Furthermore, especially in Montevideo, the ephemeral but massive presence of Brazilians on the occasion of the Copa Libertadores final it felt like a breath of oxygen. But nevertheless, although January had an excellent startthe sudden explosion of coronavirus cases in the wake of the irruption of the omicron variant in Uruguay frustrated the plans of many tourists that they canceled their plans at the last minute and at the same time the expected influx of travelers from abroad decreased noticeably.
For Jesús Ramos, a real estate agent in Chuy, Barra del Chuy and Punta del Diablo, “the season had two parts, the first 15 days of January worked very well and from the 12th, 13th it began to go down; from the 15th, 16th We were 40% less; today we are 50% less and well, since the water has come it is worse, because the people who were about to leave have not left”.
“Also we have very few reservations for february“added Ramos. “That has been a characteristic of this season, no one booked in October or November to come in January or December, people as they don’t know how the pandemic is going to be, they tell you like this: ‘I’m leaving my city, I live 400 km from Chuy, we got there at 4 in the afternoon, do you have anything to rent?’ For three, four or five days. As you know there is capacity… In February we think the same thing could happen”, he predicted.
falling prices
The bad news for tour operators is, on the contrary, good for those who want to spend a few days in the east, because they push prices down.
Francisco Rodríguez, president of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Uruguay, provided the fact that in February a reduction in rates of 10% to 15% is expected compared to Januarywhich differs from a usual discount that is usually around 20% every year.
According to different operators, this is explained because the reduction in price was advanced and already began to be verified in January.
“The price difference is already here, prices have already dropped 20% here in Barra del Chuy for accommodation, so we are going to walk in February with this 20% less and suddenly a few more things,” according to Ramos. This “because the demand is low and the offer has to be more tempting, so one of the ways is to lower the rent,” he explained, adding that he believes that “all of Rocha is like this.” For his part, Rodríguez assured that rates in the East compared to January 2020 were already 30% cheaper.
Héctor Araújo, adviser to the Punta del Este Hotel Center, replied to The Observer in the same way. “February is always calculated to be 20% less than January, because January has been so cheap that it doesn’t work for you! Do you want the post, post? You go into Booking (hotel website), you see the prices and you can’t believe there are five-star hotels in Punta del Este at US$ 55 for a double roomnot even in Tacuarembo do you get that!”, he affirmed.
For the advisor, the same is happening in the part of gastronomy. “Yesterday I went to Montevideo, I went to eat and there are the same houses, Magnum, La Panera Rosa, and they charge the same, they leave exactly the same and you have the same offers with the credit card, especially for Uruguayans. If you pay with a card you have a 15%, 25% discount… and here it is the same, I would say that It is a copy of what Montevideo is for the same quality of restaurant“, he assured.
Araújo was very optimistic about the competitiveness of prices in Punta del Este. “We are 20% lower in dollars than what was charged before the pandemic. Before, you used to come to Punta del Este and you came prepared to have your head ripped off. That cuckoo of prices is not today, “he said.”Today in any restaurant you eat for US$20, or $900, $1000 per person; a bottle of wine in an average restaurant costs you $450, $500. If I want to go to something more expensive —when I go to Guappa or Atlántico, which is in front of the port— the bottle of wine costs me $700, but when I add 25% to it, it ends up costing me $500 or $450, like in any restaurant,” he said. “I think today the cards have equaled a lot,” he reflected aloud.
“The proof (that the spa has competitive prices) is there, because the Uruguayan is quite machete. Why is Punta del Este full of Uruguayans? I don’t like to say ‘cheap’, but that’s because it’s cheap!“, he synthesized.
Silvana Fernandez
As far as the hospitality “Not to mention,” said Araújo. “You have a range of hotels that, obviously, is supply and demand, the public is the one that sets the price for you. you with US$ 90, US$ 85 you have the hotel you want: three stars with swimming poolwhich if we compare it to international prices is very cheap” he described.
Finally, he left as a suggestion to look at the offers in the clearance stores. “Do you know where you are going to find the offers? In the clothesas they always have, “he assured. In February they already put you 30%, 50% discount and it is normally a month of shopping, it is when the stores move more because the season is over. So many times you buy in February clothes cheaper than in Montevideoand very good clothes,” he remarked.
Worry and request for benefits
Marina Cantera, president of the Chamber of Tourism, stated that “hopes are pinned on weather helping and carnival“. To improve the numbers, he told The Observer that the body he represents is working on achieve VAT rate 0%, “As a way of saying to Uruguayans ‘go on vacation in February, you’re going to have this benefit'”.
Cantera assured that although Punta del Este and Rocha destinations worked very well the first 10 days of the month, “everything is uncertainty”, with one exception: travel agencies, who are certain that things will go very badly for them. They are in a “really complicated” situation.
The president of the Chamber of Tourism explained that travel agencies “are very clear” that February is going to be very bad. “They always work a long time in advance, they are very clear about how much they are going to sell: not next week, but in the coming months. People reserve with more time, which is different from a hotel, where today with the pandemic a guest comes and reserves you for tomorrow, for the day after, for the weekend,” he described.
“When they began to reactivate very gradually from November 1, the lift did not last even 20 days and it began to go down because of the omicron issue: do not forget that in the world omicron has been coming since the first days of December”, he recalled. “We had been piloting it here barbarian, but in the world tourism began to stop much earlier”. So while the agencies “came up with an interesting recovery, in November they had a 45% turnover compared to 2019, in December it fell to 30% and in January to 20%“, he lamented.
Quarry stated that the Carrasco airport is at 50% of the capacity at the same time in 2020 and the port of Colonia at 30%.
“Different worlds”: the exclusive also exists
Araújo, a connoisseur of the cloth, told what he sees not only in terms of accessible offers but also in what the wealthiest customers spend when they go out to eat in Punta del Este. “Obviously there are some restaurants that are special —such as La Bourgogne or El Floreal— that (their difference) is not so much in the food, but in what they can offer you, especially in wines,” he detailed. “Because a common restaurant doesn’t have a US$1,500 wine. You go to La Bourgogne and there’s a US$1,500 wine… And there are people who drink it. There are people who make a reservation for you, their private chef comes from Brazil and they are the ones who occupy those tables. With fifteen hundred dollars I go fifteen times to eat with my wife! They have a wine! But hey, we live in different worlds, “he said.
