More than three million people are traveling to destinations throughout Argentina during the long weekend of carnival. The main tourist destinations have occupancies of more than 90 and even 100 percent in many destinations. With these data, the Ministry of Tourism positions the summer season 2022 as “the best of the last twenty years”.
In addition to the seaside destinations, in particular on the coast of Buenos Aires, with high occupancy because it is still high season, and other classic destinations such as Córdoba or Patagonia, the highlights for this weekend are the fluvial coastline and Northwest Argentina (NOA) for its wide range of celebrations. Gualeguaychú and Concepción del Uruguay in Entre Ríos have 100 percent occupancy.
“With the long weekend of Carnival, a record summer season is crowned, which was very necessary to repair part of the economic damage caused by COVID-19. I also want to highlight the particular impact it generates in economies such as that of Corrientes, which in the midst of its crisis, it decided to maintain the celebrations and the tourist activity as an important mobilizer of the economy,” said the president of the Argentine Chamber of Tourism (CAT), Gustavo Hanni.
The most chosen destinations
The Coast and the North show 100 percent occupancy in Gualeguaychú and Concepción del Uruguay; 97 percent in Gualeguay; 95 percent in Colón, San José and Victoria; 97 percent in Rosario; 100 percent in Melincué; 90 percent in Puerto Iguazú; 94 percent in El Soberbio; 93 percent in San Ignacio; 100 percent in Purmamarca, Humahuaca and Tilcara; 98 percent in San Salvador de Jujuy; 90 percent in Cafayate and Moldes; 96 percent in Cachi; 95 percent in San Lorenzo; 93 percent in Rosario de la Frontera; 95 percent in Tafi del Valle; 98 percent in San Javier and Yerba Buena; 93 percent in El Cadillal; 91 percent in Amaicha del Valle; 100 percent in Fiambalá; 95 percent in Villa Unión and Olta and 93 percent in Chilecito.
On Buenos Aires Mar del Plata stands out, with 90 percent occupancy in its 36,000 formal places – it has more than 350,000 informal ones; Villa Gessel, Pinamar and Mar Chiquita with 95 percent occupancy; and the Partido de la Costa, Tandil, Tigre and Nechochea with 90 percent of their seats filled. In San Antonio de Areco and Sierra de la Ventana, tourists occupied 100 percent of the hotel beds.
Cordova has the main destinations with hotel occupancy above 95 percent: this is the case of Villa Carlos Paz (95 percent), Villa General Belgrano (97 percent), Santa Rosa de Calamuchita (100 percent), Mina Clavero ( 95 percent), Nono (100 percent), Villa Cura Brochero (97 percent), San Javier and Yacanto (100 percent), and La Cumbrecita (96 percent).
Patagonia maintains the trend of the record summer season, with 90 percent occupancy in San Carlos de Bariloche, 100 percent in Las Grutas, 95 percent in Viedma, 95 percent in San Martin de los Andes, 85 percent in Villa La Angostura, 95 percent in Puerto Madryn, 85 percent in Esquel, 90 percent in El Calafate, 95 percent in El Chalten, and 90 percent in Ushuaia. A similar tourist panorama is observed in the Whosewith 90 percent provincial average occupancy in Mendoza, 93 percent in San Juan and 95 percent in San Luis.
These data reinforce those published by the Indec the previous week, which estimated 3.5 million overnight stays in hotel and para-hotel establishments in December 2021. This implied an increase of 243.9 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, in full crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The total number of travelers hosted was 1.4 million and had a positive variation of 229.5 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.
