The Vice Minister of Tourism, Remo Monzeglio, expressed his satisfaction with the summer season in Punta del Este, which he described as one of the best in decades, a perspective shared by tour operators from the east who are quite happy with the arrival of enough tourists to exceed expectations.
Especially, they are pleased with the arrival of tourists with high purchasing power who spend more per day. The government understands that zero VAT is also attractive in hotels of up to 3 stars in the area, or incentive packages for non-resident tourists that have been in force since September, despite the negative exchange difference with Argentina that means that for nationals of the neighboring country is quite expensive to spend the summer in Uruguay.
Thus, between December 22, 2022 and January 1, 2023, 105,157 Argentines entered, which is 38.03% of all travelers who arrived, followed by 103,182 Uruguayans (37.32%) and 35,520 Brazilians (12.85%). Other nationalities that arrived were Americans (2.40%), Paraguayans (1.69%), Colombians (0.78%), Chileans (0.73%), Spanish (0.67%) and Italians (0.49%). %), and 5.06% from other countries.
The hotels in Punta del Este reported full occupancy for the beginning of the year, while the port of the popular resort of Este, which has space to moor 850 ships, even has a waiting list.
Monzeglio highlighted the number of private flights that arrived at the Punta del Este airport, which indicates that people “with very high purchasing power” arrived. The arrival of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad, stands out, who came for the summer with two luxury yachts and a whole gang of personal servants.
It would not reach pre-pandemic levels
Despite the fact that everything is apparently fine, experts say that the good levels of international tourism that arrived before the COVID-19 pandemic would not be exceeded. For example, the Center for Economic Research revealed that there was a 171% increase in the income of Argentines compared to the 2021-2022 season, the number is still 1% below the last pre-pandemic season.
For its part, the Center for the Study of Economic and Social Reality (CERES) calculates that the season will close with about 1,030,000 vacationing tourists, considerably less than in 2019, the year in which not only the government of Tabaré Vázquez ended, but also Around December, the global health crisis broke out.
